This is a hundred times worse than Watergate. The media will drown the story but Obama is just as bad, if not worse, than the right had painted him to be. It's part of the reason that I am no longer a leftist. I think a lot of people feel the same way. The Left has let us down.

Posted by: Mischi | May 20 2018 15:59 utc | 1

What will happen to this story? Will it disappear by the end of the day Monday? Will the American people just sit there and not do a thing? They won't and nothing will come of this. The Repubs and Dems will let this just wash itself away. "[Political Parties]...cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." George Washington from his Farewell Address.

Posted by: Jose Garcia | May 20 2018 16:22 utc | 2

@1 Mischi,

Both parties uphold the fake-left trope because they can dismiss anything to the economic left of "center-right" bourgeois neoliberalism as "extreme" and refuse to acknowledge its existence or viability outside of canned talking points about the failures of "communism" they pretend was natural but in fact had to spend untold billions of dollars and millions of lives to make happen.

tl;dr: There is no left in US politics, and you only make yourself and US citizens appear ignorant by pretending there is.

Posted by: Jonathan | May 20 2018 16:30 utc | 3

May 20, 2018 11:59:31 AM | 1
Mischi, what are you talking about? Which left let you down? What on earth has the establishment dems to do with leftism? Sort it out.

Posted by: Pnyx | May 20 2018 16:32 utc | 4

Repost...

Jimmy Dore CA voters recommendation
Lt. Governor - Gayle McLaughlin
US Senator - Alison Hartson Against Dianne Feinstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpN_0wgj1TA

Posted by: OJS | May 20 2018 16:32 utc | 5

Thank you b for your good works. I'm grateful when thoughtful people like you or Glenn Greenwald put your work in the public sphere.
I have hoped for years that someone like Stefan Halper be unearthed. Here is continuity from Nixon to the present day of the dirty activity of the now-called "deep state". A handmaiden to Cheney, Rumsfeld and all republican presidents since Kennedy, he needs to be safe-guarded for hostile debriefing before he is silenced. "October Surprise", Iran Contra, and now this FBI/CIA spying activity... We need more honest investigative efforts. He and his cohorts are likely linked to other illegal activities.

(This is my 1st post to this community. B is my name too [Bernhard] and my favorite character is from the 1967 series "The Prisoner")

Posted by: B_the_Prisoner | May 20 2018 17:01 utc | 6

A note concerning U.S. history. Once upon a time U.S. Senators were appointed by state legislatures but progress happened and now they are elected directly by a state's electorate for what for most is a lifetime position. Once, for wealthy interests to 'buy their man', they would have to 'buy' a state legislature. Now those same wealthy interests only have to buy a man; such is progress. Isn't democracy wonderful?

And the job for most is for life, unless they get caught, their fingers in some till or diddling some child, or forbid, having a 'commune' with someone else's spouse.

May doG help us all, the last election hasn't been settled and another is upon us. It's enough to drive one spare. YMMD

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | May 20 2018 17:10 utc | 7

b - thanks for the awesome coverage and reporting.. i really appreciate it...

i have been out of town the past 3 days..

@1 mischi - i think these terms left and right have become very meaningless today, especially in usa politics.. the usa political system has to be replaced with something else as the corruption is so thorough and deep, using terms like left or right - are only continuing the madness as i see it.. i don't know the way forward... hopefully the system caves in on itself and is replaced by something with more integrity.. that depends on us or more specifically people like b or greenwald ( from time to time) or us - speaking out when we see bullshit, lies, false flags, cover ups and etc. etc..

Posted by: james | May 20 2018 17:34 utc | 8

So the mole, Halper is "a long-time CIA operative with extensive links to the Bush family" with deep CIA and MI6 connections.

It's worth noting that the dossier by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele was allegedly commissioned originally by someone connected to the Bush family, possibly Jeb Bush. The extending of the dossier's financing by the DNC in the summer of 2016 seemed strangely seamless.

Also, of course, the then CIA director John Brennan used allegations in the Steele dossier as a justification for the Trump-Russian investigations.

It looks like a lot people and organisations were working for the same goal, even though they were supposed to be independent of each other, and even political rivals in the case of the Bushes and the DNC.

Posted by: Brendan | May 20 2018 17:34 utc | 9

The Dems fooled a lot of people for a long time. They still do. Trump's success was a brilliant move by the 'deep state', pushed a lot of Dems back into the arms of the party (least worsting).

Putin fooled a lot of people. One of the most monumental fake jobs in human history.

We are all The Prisoner.

Posted by: paul | May 20 2018 17:37 utc | 10

@4

There's no real Left in the UK anymore, either. The Blairites are still a force with the Labour party and that party is known as The Red Tories - especially in Scotland - for the obvious reason!

Even the old Left newspapers - The Guardian, The Observer - are no longer such, as has been evidenced of late. I no longer read the UK press - Private Eye is my 'paper' reading - and would not trust one word broadcast by the BBC and, I am sorry to say, Channel 4.

Posted by: Bevin Kacon | May 20 2018 17:50 utc | 11

"Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital after being poisoned by ‘deadly’ agent"
_____________________________________

The link is to RT, in case anyone missed this report.

It's been a busy "news" week, between significant geopolitical events, the usual US school massacres, and the bread-and-circuses distraction of a UK Royal Wedding. Perhaps this is why the above-cited "news" didn't seem to get much attention.

I'll stop enclosing "news" in ironic quotation marks-- the " key on my laptop is buckling under the strain of overuse. But I used them because every fresh installment of alleged news about the Skripals simply extends, or exacerbates, the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma that is l'affaire Skripal.

One reason for the lack of reaction to this latest "development" (those quotes needed again) is that it is shown through a glass darkly-- the glass being the government controlled and managed information bubble. Like the earlier "developments", it's eerily self-contained.

Like many barflies, I have my idiosyncratic axes to grind, soapboxes to climb, bees in my bonnet, etc. After the mysterious events of 9/11/2001, I coined the term "pernicious factoids" to describe the bits of manufactured falsehoods and disinformation used to construct and perpetuate bogus Official Narratives.

For example, not long ago a minor New York Times article about Lee Harvey Oswald's gravesite began with something like, "When Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza...". This is a pernicious factoid; they remain embedded like toxic prions in the collective consciousness, and are regarded as reasonably true, correct, and meaningful.

Likewise, the other day the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, gave a routine press conference. As usual, some wretched would-be UK journalist took issue with Yakovenko's reiterating that the Russians are required by law to interview the Skripals personally and directly to confirm their status and wishes.

The questioner hectored the ambassador with the point that Yulia Skripal had released statements through the police indicating that she, at least, did not wish to meet personally with Russian officials because she was afraid to do so.

Ambassador Yakovenko, also as usual, patiently-- and a bit too diffidently-- explained that a third-party statement is not the same as first-hand communication. I get it-- he's a "real" diplomat, not like the whacked-out modern Western berserker-diplomats. So he's not about to tear this bumptious idiot's head off.

But I wanted to scream. This is the way pernicious factoids work. Everybody in that room was at least willing to pretend that yeah, OK, Yulia actually did give the police that statement. Or a statement. Probably. But hmmm, if one really stops and thinks about it, everything the public has been told about the circumstances of the, er, events comes from official sources and/or highly-compromised and untrustworthy mass-media organizations.

So, the ostensibly remarkable development of Sergei Skripal's recovery from a "military-grade nerve agent" just circles around the disinformation/memory hole. And, since these virtual "developments" are largely fact-free, the stories usually pad out the minimal "news" by revisiting and reiterating the same festering gutpile of pernicious factoids we've been sorting through for months: the supposed doorknob-smearing, the peculiar aspects of the "poisoning", etc.

End of rant, but only because my " key is overheating and seizing up. ;)
_____________________________________

Bonus Fun Fact: I was curious about the context of Churchill's "riddle" quote, so I looked it up. According to the "Phrase Finder" website, it was uttered during an October, 1939 radio broadcast: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Posted by: Ort | May 20 2018 18:54 utc | 12

While Greenwald promulgates something of value (like this) occasionally, he is at best a limited hangout. The Snowden crap (in the long run) has effectively made people comfortable with full spectrum domestic surveillance and data mining & storage generally.

The American Left is a joke. Doesn't exist. Points made above. The D Party stopped supporting working people when they stabbed the Unions in the back. A more recent betrayal is indicated in its support of Charter Schools. The Party is also a Warmonger Party.

However, for a common man to align himself or identify himself with the Republican Party is a different kind of joke.

Posted by: fast freddy | May 20 2018 18:59 utc | 13

I am not referring to the Dems when I talk about "the Left". As I live in Canada, and am French and German, I am referring to my experience with those countries. In Canada, the NDP, when it governs has found it most expedient to sacrifice their ideology to pragmatism, and the Liberals are really the neo-Liberals. Pierre Trudeau who was good friends with Fidel Castro must be spinning in his grave to see what his son is up to - arms for Ukraine, Canadian frigates in the Black Sea, pre-arranged approval for gas pipelines, and admnoshing the Palestinians for being trouble makers while being shot by the Israeli snipers. The Left in France was a total disaster, and in Germany, the Left is too busy opening their legs for the rapefugees to care about the pensioners digging through garbage in order to eat.

Posted by: Mischi | May 20 2018 19:02 utc | 14

The Guardian and The Observer have never been socialist papers. They were liberal, just like the democrats in the United States were liberal. And liberals, who are the advance guard of capitalism, can hardly be called 'of the left'.
The only opponents of capitalism and imperialism are socialists or nationalists, of a kind rarely seen outside the third world periphery of the system since 1917.
Anyone who sees the fascists and crooks surrounding Trump as being opponents of anything except the human race is almost as daft as someone who sees the Democrats as part of the left.
But the real prize for idiocy goes to those sad souls who see the FBI, CIA, MI6 and their clones as anything but- deepest apologies here to the Mafia and their ilk- criminal gangs, of the worst kind.

Posted by: bevin | May 20 2018 19:04 utc | 15

Mischi 15
That last point ! Surely don't you meen it was the refugees that had there country raped by the west ?
Victim blaming maybe ?

Posted by: Mark2 | May 20 2018 19:20 utc | 16

13 - On the Skripals, no reporter I have read on the release of either Skripal has bothered to wonder why there are no photos of them at all, especially of the normal press availability on the hospital steps thanking their doctors, no information on their whereabouts, health or future plans.

Posted by: Bart Hansen | May 20 2018 19:21 utc | 17

it took five years for the 'experts' from.....the
'five lies' to tell us.....
mh370 aint no accident !

surprise surprise,
that was my first thought the moment I heard it from the radio !

but but...its a suicide/murder by the pilot !
say the 'five lies' experts/

Case closed.

hehehhehe

Posted by: denk | May 20 2018 19:31 utc | 18

The Greenwald story near the beginning, as usual, is 90% gossip and smarmy carping about the journalism of others, (one can justly criticize without the theatrics) unlike the perfection at his Neoliberal rag, he could have made that report in three paragraphs.

Herbert Marcuse has written extensively about how the dominate institutionalized power reaches out and incorporates seemingly dissident voices which sound hip but are actually delivering the imperial message, the Intercept, Vox and Vice all fit that bill.

Posted by: Babyl-on | May 20 2018 19:52 utc | 19

@15 mischi.. completely agree with you! canada has moved so far to the right, there's no left left... ndp - another joke... all of the parties in canada are conformists beholden to big money, although none of them would readily admit it.. canada has a different type of sickness compared to the usa and yes peirre would be rolling in his grave.. his son is so far removed from the position and ideology cultivated by his dad, but then his dad had a brain and justin - only good looks, and even that is questionable as i see it..

Posted by: james | May 20 2018 19:59 utc | 20

I feel like there is some kabuki going on with the revelation of Halper.

Papadopoulos seems likely to have been an operator too. For example, his email announcing loudly in the subject line that there was some Russian-sourced info to be had.

Posted by: Joanne Leon | May 20 2018 20:18 utc | 21

I agree with Christopher Hedges in his proposition that US liberals have lost their power to get reforms enabled. Reforms that made US capitalism not so bad that the pitch forks came out. Even something as innocuous as GMO labeling of food was defeated. I can't imagine legislation like the Clean Air Act or the Clean water bill being enacted today by the best Congress money can buy. The all volunteer military (with the grunts being made up of the more viable people from America's throwaway zones) has made it clear that it was the draft and dead bodies coming home to many parents that made the Vietnam era anti-war coalition viable. The CIA then flooded the country with LSD to keep it from becoming a viable continuing political force. This created its own problems for them - an empire can lose a war but it can't afford to lose a generation. Charles Manson, Altamont, Jonestown, etc Herpes wasn't scary enough to stop the sexual revolution so HIV+>AIDS>death was invented. Putting chemicals made by gangsters (one can be sure quality control was fiercely enforced) directly into ones veins with dirty needles or getting f***ked up the ass by 100s of strangers along with STDs and parasites will surely have a bad effect on ones health and immune system. Also using AZT which was too toxic to be used by cancer patients will do the same. Don't tell me the promised heterosexual plague of HIV was stopped by (thoughtful teens - an almost oxymoron) using rubbers. but I digress - yuppies and gentrification followed - Of course the assassination of JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm did its work. Hollywood and the media did its part. Back then MK-ultra had only advanced far enough to create patsies. Now mass murderers and suicide bombers can be created at will. The strategy of tension. In the US it's not safe to go church, or the mall or a music concert or ride the subway or go to college or school but thankfully Sandy Hook was a manufactured false event. The gloves have come off. Now that the Soviet system is gone, the US middle class is fair game to be looted by the usual suspects. Do you honestly believe that the Powers That Be who employ people like Henry Kissinger or Madeline Albright ( Correspondent Leslie Stahl said to Albright, “We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And — and, you know, is the price worth it?”)
The answer was affirmative that these effects of of the Iraq sanctions were worth it. So why is it hard to believe that 3000 Americans wouldn't be sacrificed for the greater cause of creating the war on terrorism?

Posted by: gepay | May 20 2018 21:06 utc | 22

I forgot to mention the millions of college students (ongoing and former) in debt slavery.

Posted by: gepay | May 20 2018 21:10 utc | 23

liberals, who are the advance guard of capitalism, can hardly be called 'of the left'.
Posted by: bevin | May 20, 2018 3:04:03 PM | 16

On one hand, I guess liberals are not "the advance guard". Most of the time that stand "true to liberal principles", meaning, not standing for anything too much. That said, the "triangulated" positions of American liberals make some difference in lives of average people, for example, Affordable Care Act does provide affordable health insurance to millions that had no access to it. "Principled conservatives" are outright scary by comparison. From their point of view, Canada is an Arctic Stalinist Gulag, inflicting "socialized medicine" on brainwashed subjects. In any case, liberal ambition is not to be in the van, nor in the lead but in "the middle ground". On foreign policy, it translates into "believe or not, it could be even worse".

Obama was less obnoxious than Bush the Lesser (a wee bit), Trump ... is too confusing to rank at this stage.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 20 2018 21:18 utc | 24

Neo-conservatives in the US hope for a regime change in Iran due to protests in the city of Kazerun

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/18/protests-continue-for-third-day-in-southern-iran-city-as-pompeo-tweets-support-for-demonstrators.html

Posted by: Haiduk | May 20 2018 21:24 utc | 25

bevin @ 16 said:"Anyone who sees the fascists and crooks surrounding Trump as being opponents of anything except the human race is almost as daft as someone who sees the Democrats as part of the left.
But the real prize for idiocy goes to those sad souls who see the FBI, CIA, MI6 and their clones as anything but- deepest apologies here to the Mafia and their ilk- criminal gangs, of the worst kind."

Well stated, and true. Big organised corporate money rules most of the known world now, and also the criminal gangs, plus the US military, enforce their hegemony.

At least here in the U$A, the "left" is nonexistent..

Posted by: ben | May 20 2018 21:38 utc | 26

The Affordable Care Act also forced many who couldn't afford insurance to either purchase crappy insurance that was little better than nothing or pay a penalty on their income taxes.

The ACA was funded largely by the cohort that could least afford it.

There was virtually no increased public expenditure for health care.

In other words it was an exercise in cost-shifting, which in this case hurt one group (a big group) and kinda sorta maybe helped another group.

Insurance companies were rewarded with more marks to con.

Change we can believe in.

Posted by: paulmeli | May 20 2018 21:42 utc | 27

Personally I consider the left to be those that prioritize the welfare of the working class over others, and that the public purse is the determinant of the General Welfare, not markets.

The left lost any power it once had when it conceded finance to others because they felt is was beneath them and not worth their time or effort. The left failed to understand that money drives everything in a Capitalist system.

Another unforced error.

Posted by: paulmeli | May 20 2018 21:53 utc | 28

@Bart Hanson #18
Thank you and spot on comment. All these months have passed and no identikit image or video of the perpetrator. This is the most video surveilled village in the englander isles and NO picture of video of a likely suspect.

The entire Skripal sham is BS. Where did that nice police officer go after he escaped the hospital? I'll bet he is never suckered into doing a spray job ever again.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 20 2018 22:03 utc | 29

While Obama was overtly less obnoxious than Dubya, he was covertly more obnoxious. While Poppy, Cheney and Kissinger and others puppeteered the dim-witted Dubya (and, importantly aided in the orchestration of 911), Obama was surely guided by the same "masterminds" whom insured that the middle class would continue to be knocked down a few more pegs. Obama continued the MENA wars, in spite of rhetoric indicative of stopping them.

Team Obama was worse than Team Dubya in many ways. He brought drone killing to a whole new level and smiling-face hypocrisy to another.

Posted by: fast freddy | May 20 2018 22:04 utc | 30

@ paulmeli 28
The ACA was funded largely by the cohort that could least afford it. . .There was virtually no increased public expenditure for health care.
Yes, the ACA was an intrusion upon the public especially the young, forcing them to buy insurance they didn't want nor need.
There was also $400 billion-plus in tax hikes (over the next ten years, plus the penalty) listed in the 2,00 page Obamacare bill, some on the wealthy. here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 20 2018 22:08 utc | 31

Paul @11-- You sure got that right. Deep State knows we disbelieve the media, so it was a snap to get him elected just by having the media so obviously diss him.

Putin? US moved the Patriots out of the Turkish border to allow Russian military to come in. Object seems to be to keep the war going as long s possible. Whenever Syria might win, Putin withdraws his forces to allow the US-backed guerillas to reinforce & resupply.

I don't know how far the Putin-US cooperation goes, but the plane crash in Donbass that permitted the sanctions was not a real crash. Look at the pics-- there's no impact crater in that soft farmland. Not enough wreckage, and every bit of of the heavy stuff was on or adjacent to the road.

The friend of an oligarch anywhere is another oligarch who shares his vision of a global oligarchy. It's certainly not his own people who want to redistribute the wealth.

Posted by: Penelope | May 20 2018 22:14 utc | 32

From TRNN: Lengthy discussion, but worth a listen..

https://therealnews.com/stories/actvism-exclusive-glenn-greenwald-jill-stein-abby-martin

Posted by: ben | May 20 2018 22:19 utc | 33

The sniping between people biased toward their preferred health care model achieves little. Both the Canadian and American systems have deep problems. I've lived with both.

The Canadian model has become a cash cow for the embedded health care interests and treats patients like an unavoidable nuisance. It is deeply hostile toward any type of input from the people who receive care and services are rationed by faceless unaccountable bureaucrats.

The American model suffers from it's direct "for-profit" structure where patients are in most cases only an income source to be bled as much as possible. Obama's affordable care act (what a sick joke of a name) is bankrupting the middle class who pay for an over-priced system with the government now acting an enforcer of private health care taxation on the middle class.

But I finally switched to an HMO last year (which provides both insurance and care) which is both relatively affordable and provides the best health care that I have ever received in either Canada or the USA. For the first time in my life I have health care providers that actually care about my health and don't treat me as a cash cow or nuisance. It's a good model.

Posted by: Sad Canuck | May 20 2018 22:44 utc | 34

perhaps there is one person that might make things happen...this from twitter
I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!

Posted by: ross | May 20 2018 22:54 utc | 35

sad canuck - sorry for the ignorance sad canuck, but what is a hmo??? some of these abbreviations go over folks heads? if it's a corp, give me a name for one of them.. thanks..

Posted by: james | May 20 2018 22:56 utc | 36

Jonathan 4
As Lenin says ' Socialism cannot be achieved through bourgeois parliamentary democracy '

Posted by: ashley albanese | May 20 2018 23:02 utc | 37

james @ 37

HMO = Health Management Organization. An idea from the '90's (Hillary?) that was supposed to lower health care costs "because markets". That obviously failed miserably.

HMO's are avoided like the plague now by those searching the "markets" for health insurance.

Markets will never deliver better outcomes. Markets turn professions into businesses.

Posted by: paulmeli | May 20 2018 23:06 utc | 38

@ 12

Sadly the UK's Private Eye was completely destroyed by one Ian Hislop. In its heyday, under the direction of the aristocratic anarchist Richard Ingrams and the funding of comedy genius and subversive Peter Cook, it was a force to be reckoned with. The Eye was in court for libel every other week and each time donations more than covered legal expenses. When leveraged buyouts or what is now known as private equity made an appearance in the 1970s the Eye single-handedly drove Jimmy Goldsmith out of the country and to the U.S. where the disgusting creature managed to shock good old capitalists like Lee Iacocca, one-time CEO of Chrysler

Now all we have is the sneaky sly TV personality and Tory Hislop.

Posted by: Lochearn | May 20 2018 23:12 utc | 39

Sa d Canuck @ 35

The movement towards the "cash cow" priority in health care and everywhere else is a result of creeping neoliberalism, where we become "consumers" instead of citizens in the quest for market solutions for our problems rather than public investment.

If someone can't make a profit for a service (or profession) then it won't be provided.

The General Welfare has gotten progressively worse since around 1980 and there is no change of trajectory in sight. Unless the system is overthrown politically or otherwise the 99% faces a future of scraping garbage can lids to survive.

The future looks a lot more like Elysium than Star Trek.

Posted by: paulmeli | May 20 2018 23:15 utc | 40

Anyone who believes the deep state does not have CIA/FBI penetration in each presidential parties campaign should rethink it. Outing him is to perpetuate the Deep State vs Trump Divide Myth and influence the upcoming congressional elections. As I have said from the beginning Trump is a Deep State Asset. He could not be elected otherwise. There was so much dirt on him that could have been used by the Deep State Media that never was used even after the election. They played the Dems and Independent Voters by predicting a landlslide , so many did not bother to vote while Republican voters were energized by Hillary and being called Deplorables. Social Media and analytics allow real time analysis of what propoganda is working.

This Russia -Trump Hoax was a deliberate ploy to get everyone on a anti-Russian /Cold War footing as ISIS as a threat was petering out. Trump-Israel and the Russian Oligarch influenced Mafia, many of whom are Dual citizens (US or Israel) was the real story.

It occurs to me that the purpose of guys like Trump and Bush and the neocons , along with Israel is to discredit Democracy worldwide and condition people to be receptive to non-Democratic/Benevolent Authoritarian government in the NWO, and indirectly an attack on Christianity and Judaism by showing how Satanic a supposedly Christian or Jewish Nation can be. Islamism does the same for Islam

The powers that be hate all traditional monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They may themselves be bonded by some mix of an occult theocracy and Straussian ideals. The Chosen people are the elite class who will be Platos philosopher kings . Man seeks to become God. The Darwinists among them consider themselves to be the product of an evolutionary jump leaving homosapiens behind and New Man to go forward. Old Man will go the way of the Neanderthal once AI and robots can replace their labor. Some may be kept for entertainment and labor. Culling the herd is a neo-malthusian dream to save Gaias resources. New Man for a New Order.

Plausible?

Studies have been done estimating the time for the remnants of our civilization to disappear once most of us are gone. One interesting book is The World Without Us. With a global population reduced to 600 million many cities/towns will be depopulated and much infrastructure will be left to decay. In the US the process of decay for much of the infrastructure began 40 years ago

Posted by: Pft | May 20 2018 23:18 utc | 41

So Trump & Rich Buddies hires Israeli spy Company Black Cube to spy on a SITTING President Obama. And Trump is the victim? Really?

Posted by: cold340t | May 20 2018 23:42 utc | 42

I'm always surprised in this day and age that there is ever any discussion of "left" and "right". These seem such useless terms to describe anything happening - or not happening - today.

Group identifications come as go as the world turns and the tides of history wash away at their various shores. They are useful only for so long as the group actions match the label.

Adam Garrie has two interesting pieces, one is a reprise of Mao's "3 Worlds" concept, and in it he links to an earlier piece describing Erdogan's endorsement of Maduro as a perfect illustration of how the old Left-Right terms simply don't apply anymore in a multi polar world.

As for Mao, Garrie states that Mao considered the terms "left and right", as well as the terms "capitalist and socialist", false divisions to divide developing peoples who should be united in a common struggle. Garrie also shows how Duterte's describing his own struggle as a rejection of "imperialist" concepts works far better today in Duterte's time and place than any other labels. - Mao’s Three Worlds Theory is Vindicated by The Age of Multipolarity

On a side note, I knew nothing of Mao until reading Ramin Mazaheri's 8-part series on China, perhaps the most pertinent of which is this one: Mao’s legacy defended, and famous swim decoded, for clueless academics

~~

Personally, I find the only enduring labels that work to describe the world we have always lived in and most certainly still do, are those of the rich stealing from the poor, and the struggle of the poor to throw off the yoke of this institutionalized theft - the greed-driven plunder of the equal bounty offered by a generous planet. I find that all struggles, under all labels, fit well into this overarching theme.

Posted by: Grieved | May 21 2018 0:04 utc | 43

@39 paulmeli.. thanks... do they have these hmo's in canada too? i know the neoliberal conservative gov't and the neo liberal liberal gov't are all for privatization of just about everything, while maintaining whatever facade they need to jerk the public with, but i think these hmo's or something like them are in canada too, no?

@41 pm - looks like dantes inferno too, especially if the hmo's, big pharma, etc. etc. have their way...

Posted by: james | May 21 2018 0:27 utc | 44

@ 44

I am dubious about anything related to Marxism. The left was always struggling against an seemingly inherent aspect of the human condition that rendered those who create companies the supreme overlords. The left, in its pure Grapes of Wrath sentiment, was just about striving for relative equality. They wanted one day off a week and a summer holiday. They wanted a pay rise but they did not want to deprive the boss of his big house. Marxism wanted to do that.
And Marxism injected a lot of energy and a powerful worldview with an enormous pull on the young, just as Jihadism has sort of done now. So it had the effect of both energizing the left movement and destroying it at the same time.

Posted by: Lochearn | May 21 2018 0:46 utc | 45

james@45

I don't know much about the Canadian healthcare system but if it's universal why would you need insurance?

HMO's are a particular type of insurance package.

Posted by: paulmeli | May 21 2018 0:52 utc | 46

paulmeli | May 20, 2018 8:52:57 PM | 47

Dental services, prescription drugs, eye exams and prescription glasses are not covered by the health care. Employees have extended health plan through their companies so a portion of these services are then payed by the health insurance and the rest by the patient.

Posted by: hopehely | May 21 2018 1:10 utc | 47

@47 paul.. the idea here in canada was referred to by some as moving towards a 2 tiered system where you could jump the cue... you pay some money and you can get what you want quicker.. of course you can always go to the usa and do the same too, but i think it was the convenience for the who more money to be able to not leave toronto, montreal or vancouver - i guess..

Posted by: james | May 21 2018 1:12 utc | 48

This is a good and somewhat fuller account of the IC operatives so far linked to Trump campaign during 2016:
https://niqnaq.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/spies/

Posted by: WJ | May 21 2018 1:19 utc | 49

As regards the 1980 campaign, Glenn doesn’t mention that some of these same people negotiated with the Ayatollah Khomeini to help him hijack the Iranian Revolution in trade for his influencing those occupying the US Embassy in Tehran to hold the hostages until after the election. That was to prevent the “October Surprise” of Carter freeing the “hostages and squeaking by to win the election.

But I wish to also add that just a few months after Reagan became President, a member of a family with long and close ties to GHW Bush shot Reagan. Then VP Bush’s son, Neil actually had a dinner appointment with the brother of attempted assassin , John W. Hinckley Jr.

Any expectation that Ronald Reagan may have had of actually being the “leader of the free world” probably faded as he recovered in that hospital room. That's part of why I actually believe Reagan when he said he didn't know anything about the Iran/Contra crime spree, or any "arms for hostages" deal.

Perhaps, as Glenn writes, “Though there was nothing illegal about ex-CIA officials uniting to put a former CIA Director in the Oval Office,” but that would depend on the tactics CIA employed, wouldn’t it?

Coincidentally, John Hinckley was released from custody just three months before The Donald Trump won the Presidential election.

Investigative journalist Russ Baker may be the leading authority on the Bush Family.

This is a fascinating short article.

Posted by: Daniel | May 21 2018 1:25 utc | 50

Canada Bans Venezuelans Voting

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Canada-Accused-of-Violating-Rights-Prohibition-Venezuelan-Vote-20180516-0029.html

"Canada is prohibiting its Venezuelan immigrants from voting in the coming May 20 presidential elections, Bolivarian FM Jorge Arreaza said during a press conference Wednesday. Canadian authorities said they will not allow Venezuelan embassies or consulates in the cities of Toronto, Ottawa or Vancouver to install polling stations. 'They denounce dictatorship in Venezuela, but who is denying the right to vote? Only dictatorships do not allow citizens to exercise their right to vote."

Posted by: John Gilberts | May 21 2018 1:36 utc | 51

Grieved @ 44 said:

"Personally, I find the only enduring labels that work to describe the world we have always lived in and most certainly still do, are those of the rich stealing from the poor, and the struggle of the poor to throw off the yoke of this institutionalized theft - the greed-driven plunder of the equal bounty offered by a generous planet. I find that all struggles, under all labels, fit well into this overarching theme."

Yep, Absolutely!! The bottom line on humanities major struggle.

Posted by: ben | May 21 2018 2:21 utc | 52

Pft @42:
“ Outing him is to perpetuate the Deep State vs Trump Divide Myth and influence the upcoming congressional elections. As I have said from the beginning Trump is a Deep State Asset. He could not be elected otherwise. “

That is absolutely my view. We are endlessly “entertained” by a constant stream of “shocking scandals” as we watch the First Fully Reality TV Show Presidency. One scandal casts shade on the Democrats; then the next casts shadows on the Republicans.

Most USAmericans are kept in our partisan cages, bickering amongst one another and totally distracted from the truly horrible things being done by our government.

Posted by: Daniel | May 21 2018 2:22 utc | 53

Mischi @ 1: The so-called "The Left" is now an upper middle-class layer composed of people who have assigned themselves crusader-type roles in defending defined "minority groups" on the basis of perceived ethnic, religious or lifestyle-related identities, and their particular concerns, irrespective of whether these concerns reflect the actual needs of the groups on whose behalf The Left claims to champion.

As observed by other MoA commenters, all original left-wing parties have sacrificed their ideologies and original grassroots supporters to "realpolitik" and those parties that originally championed anti-war and environmental issues (so-called Green parties) have now joined them in reshaping their views to fit the prevailing neoliberal paradigm.

The same phenomenon has occurred in Australia where the Australian Labor Party and the Green Party now parrot the same dogma as the traditional conservative parties which themselves are no longer "conservative" in the sense they used to be. The National Party which represents the interests of small farmers and rural business is trying hard (and failing) to stay true to its constituency - but it seems to be the only party doing so. Who do Australian voters turn to, then? They turn to extremist politicians and parties that claim to have the answers, which is why Pauline Hanson and One Nation are enjoying a resurrection of sorts. Doubtless the same trend is present in other Western nations.

Posted by: Jen | May 21 2018 2:25 utc | 54

Here is a link to a win-win report that shows how parts of the world are getting on with regional development instead of war.

China, Croatia to enhance ties through B&R Initiative

The take away quote:
"
Croatian officials also expressed their intention to enhance ties with China and to find common interests in the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative and the "Three Seas Initiative", a joint idea proposed by Croatian and Polish presidents in order to strengthen ties among countries between the Black, Baltic and Adriatic Seas. It brings together 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Balkans, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Austria.
"

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 21 2018 3:05 utc | 55

ph 56
And Croatia is just a short boat-ride from Italy, which I've enjoyed, going from one beautiful country to another.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 21 2018 4:07 utc | 56

@41 paulmeli

Hate to turn this into a health care thread so I'll be brief. My HMO is Kaiser and it's both affordable (my employer pays for most of it) and the best care I have received in either the USA or Canada. My previous American coverage was with a more typical plan where providers (good as they were) were utterly profit-oriented and could care less about preventative medicine. I have had more concern and incentives for preventive action with my current HMO (who provides both insurance and care) than any other experience on either side of the border. The physicians (who are employees and not businessmen - so less profit motive) take their time and provide a level of care that I have not experienced before. Canadian health care is rationed and the lack of individual concern for people as patients is shocking to me now that I have seen a different approach. I have aged parents still in the Canadian system so I am dealing with some basis of knowledge.

As for Canada banning Venezuelans from voting - color me (un)shocked. The current government is entirely neo-liberal with a foreign policy even more controlled by Washington than the previous Harper regime (no mean feat). Canadians are living in the past thinking they are the global "good guys" and pointing out the multiple obvious examples that disprove this creates a very large dose of cognitive dissonance in most Canadians. Awareness is building but still far behind even the United States.

Posted by: Sad Canuck | May 21 2018 4:11 utc | 57

OK I'm outta town in a large metropolis for the 1st time in 2018 & finding it PFD (Pretty F**king Disastrous), much worse than the last time which was only 6 months ago, despite Aotearoans kicking the conservative govt to the kerb and electing a green 'left' coalition in the interim.
The streets are full of beggars who live in every shop doorway that hasn't employed thugs to chase em away.
Thus far the shopkeepers appear to be more caring and sharing than the neolib govt as most shops have a resident homeless person. This was unheard of in Aotearoa and there is no need for it other than greed.

Maybe I'll explore some of the issues more fully when I'm on my 'real machine' as laptops give me the irrits.

About 2000, once it was obvious that every former slightly leftish political movement had become neo-lib. I tossed out the left-right paradigm and decided what really mattered was how a movement triaged issues of concern to all humans.

For me, Humanism means we must correctly deal with situations where the interests of humans are rated lower than the needs of some obscure piece of fauna or flora which is wrong imo.
It saddens me deeply if any species of life the is made/becomes extinct, but the interests of all of us people must come first.
By classifying humanist political movements as those which rate the worth of an idea on how well it advances the interests of human beings I can get a handle on what these mobs really will do.
Attitudes towards humans - all humans, is what we need to concentrate the focus on, and unfortunately left/right doesn't do that at all - not when state capitalism is the only method which power hungry leftist political movements trumpet.

Posted by: Debsisdead | May 21 2018 4:35 utc | 58

@56 psychohistorian

Change is coming from all angles and on multiple time lines. Eurasian integration is unstoppable barring Armageddon as it possesses a geopolitical inevitability that the Atlanticists can only delay (not stop). On any particular day the struggle against the hegemon seems overwhelming, but the trajectory is inescapable. Soft landing the American war machine / economy as the petro-dollar fails is the biggest risk.

Posted by: Sad Canuck | May 21 2018 4:54 utc | 59

Big government has become the gateway for corporate theft. Ask yourself if we all wouldn't be better off with limited government, limited interventionism, and whose primary purpose was the upkeep of infrastructure and regulation of monopolies to prevent the LACK OF CHOICE we are living now. Do we need more institutionalized, neoliberal beauracrats to dictate a centralized policy that can't help but err by overreaching and TRYING TO DO SOMETHING, like putting a square peg in a round hole.

I can't find it right now...but John Berger in an essay once referenced a man who found the world so intolerable that he calmly blew himself up outside a municipality building. I think he took some with him. It was an act without malice and merely a statement on what many of us here would agree on to be an unrelenting and insufferable burden.

It is no wonder then that the towering minds of the 20th century, Heidegger and Derrida, have been and were debased. Their philosophy began with destruction and taking back terminology that the neoloberal world order and post-Christian humanists have utilized to colonize very soft and feeble minds.

Left or right? You tell me. I just think that's how it is, but please try to sell me on your big idea while I load and chamber my rounds.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | May 21 2018 5:42 utc | 60

Notable this week, while the world moved on from Stormy Daniels to the royal nuptuals, Russia completed work on the mother of all bridges.

Posted by: Stumpy | May 21 2018 6:29 utc | 61

Stumpy @ 62: Hate to tell you, since news on the Crimea Bridge has often been hard to come by (wonder why, eh?), but it's already open to vehicular traffic. The railway section is still under construction and should be open in 2019.

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the bridge by leading a fleet of Kamaz trucks over it and visiting the traffic management centre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvDGPXJOtRk

The bridge was completed six months ahead of schedule (even with the deliberate act of sabotage by a Turkish cargo ship early during its construction) and came in under budget.

The bitching over the bridge in Ukraine and the West has already begun: Tom Rogan of The Washington Examiner actually wrote a post urging the Ukrainians to bomb the bridge.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ukraine-should-blow-up-putins-crimea-bridge

Posted by: Jen | May 21 2018 7:57 utc | 62

Fars News is running a story hat MBS is kaput, he is no more, he copped a death ray in last months 'attempted' coup. MBS has not been seen in any public event of significance since the coup attempt on April 28. What a bummer and here was I thinking he would get his xmas bonus in the form of a large passenger airline landing in his palace as is the Saudi weapon of choice. http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970230000675

Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 21 2018 10:00 utc | 63

Hahah... Someone is in deep shitski... Corruption you can believe in...

John O. Brennan
@JohnBrennan
Senator McConnell & Speaker Ryan: If Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy. You do a great disservice to our Nation & the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump’s self-serving actions.

Posted by: MadMax2 | May 21 2018 10:07 utc | 64

Lochearn@46

As ever the Bard had it; from Richard III:

"Let distribution undo excess that each man hath enough".

Posted by: Ross | May 21 2018 10:40 utc | 65

There's no real Left in the UK anymore, either. @12, Bevin Kacon

No, the UK real left is stronger than it's been in 30-40 years. Jeremy Corbyn? C'mon, the mainstream/corporate/neoliberal dying media doesn't control the debate or 'zeitgeist' anymore, whatever it tells you, except in their own or naive minds. With the next election we'll apparently have to be surprised again?

Posted by: fairleft | May 21 2018 11:04 utc | 66

Iran's meddling in Iraq

I was rather amused when FOX had a segment on Sadr's victory with the usual meme about his 'Iranian controlled militia' and how he is a puppet of Iran. The host even suggested that we should have assassinated him when we had the chance.

Do we even listen to ourselves?

So we are not meddling when we invade a country, install a new govt, and overtly support our own candidate, Abadi. We have the right to declare that someone who was actually born in Iraq is not a true Iraqi along with thousands of other native born Iraqis.

Wow. I just cannot get over our arrogance. Even the British at the height of their empire were more honest with themselves. At least they understood they were suppressing the natives.

Stars and Stripes: truck driver

I was struck by how our military did not even bother offering an explanation as to why they exonerated the soldier. Even if they did not want to identify him, they could have at least tried to give a narrative like, 'we identified the soldier, it was a non-lethal shot, or an accident, or part of a larger incident' but they didn't even bother to do that. Unbelievable.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | May 21 2018 11:07 utc | 67

Ort @13

Indeed worth keeping an eye on the Scripal affair. Typically well played release of Sergei from hospital under the fanfare of the royal wedding. Now for the chaff... The classic AngloZionist tactic of 'attack-is-the-best-form-of-defence', and consolidating the 'RussiaBad' narrative. If only the BBC, Channel 4, Sky etc were subjected to the same scrutiny.

UK Media Watchdog Ofcom Launched 3 New Probes Into RT
12:38 21.05.2018(updated 13:59 21.05.2018)
Theresa May said in March that the future of the RT channel's broadcasting in the UK should be determined by "independent Ofcom" rather than by the UK government amid calls for RT's license to be revoked in the country in the wake of the Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal's poisoning in Salisbury.

UK media watchdog Ofcom said it had launched three new investigations into the RT broadcaster for breaches of content standards between April 30 and May 13.

According to the organization’s bulletin, the investigations were launched over RT’s Crosstalk and News programs, aired on April 20, April 26 and May 4.

Ofcom notes that the very fact of the beginning of the investigation does not mean that the broadcaster has committed any violation and not all investigations identify the fact of such violations.

"Our airtime is an endless source for Ofcom's investigations. They can never find what to complain about, but do not lose hope — [they] have opened three new investigations," RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan commented on the newly-opened inquiries in a tweet.

Posted by: MadMax2 | May 21 2018 11:23 utc | 68

To add to @69's 'Trust me... I'm with OfCom' post.

My favourite announcement of the week was Relic Of The Brit Left George Galloway's £1000 ransom for the identity of one Mr Phillip Cross.

Caitlin Johnstone extends on the blogwork of Craig Murray. The Phillip Cross Affair has legs, and the MofA commentariat who publicly decry WikiPedia will enjoy this piece.

Wikipedia is an establishment psyop
http://www.mcscnetwork.com/2018/05/20/wikipedia-is-an-establishment-psyop/

Posted by: MadMax2 | May 21 2018 11:51 utc | 69

Posted by: Christian Chuba | May 21, 2018 7:07:32 AM | 68

You failed to mention the obvious ironic point that Sadr is actually anti-Iranian. A nativist, an anti-foreigner, what we would call in Britain a Kipper (after UKIP).

Posted by: Laguerre | May 21 2018 12:01 utc | 70

In following one of b's links to the "American Thinker" site (and several other good articles there on the Halper story by the way) I chanced on the following article:

How Guilty Were Ordinary Citizens in Germany?

The article itself is remarkably hypocritical, shallow, disingenuous and self-contradictory, but what makes it really fascinating is the parallels between ordinary people in the USA today and ordinary Germans in Germany under the Nazi regime. The author, Michael Curtis, is completely oblivious to these parallels.

In Curtis's own words (with the appropriate substitutions), "The controversial issues remain: what did [Americans] know of the terror, the discrimination, and the [genocide in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and in the future perhaps Iran and Korea ... and if we go back a little further Indonesia, North and South Korea, and so many many other countries] by [Neocon/Neoliberal USA]? Did they approve, oppose, or remain silent?"

Despite the article's massive deficiencies I can recommend reading it for the issues it raises (blindly and unknowingly!) about personal and collectively responsibility in the modern day USA. (Recommended for those thinking more deeply than the shallow words of the text itself!)

For the last 70 years people have debated about the personal responsibilities of ordinary Germany during the Nazi period for what took place there (no mention in the article by the way of the genocide of Russians in Nazi concentration camps, nor of the genocide of Jews by the Ukrainian Nazis, nor of the genocide of the ethnic Polish minority and others in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Nazis - how convenient!).

For the next 70 years people around the world will be debating in the same way (both rationally and irrationally, biased and unbiased, fairly and unfairly, based on evidence and based on distortion - but perhaps also one overriding bias either one way or the other just as the last 70 years' analysis was biased) about the personal responsibility of ordinary Americans for the crimes committed by the "one exceptional nation" during the last 70 years against defenseless civilians in hundreds of countries around the world, and indeed against the blacks, the poor, and other defenseless minorities (and majority, even?) in the USA itself.

Curiously the examples Curtis cites of the "personal responsibility" of "ordinary Germans" such as the transport of holocaust victims by Deutsche Bahn or the murder of 38,000 Jews in Poland by Reserve Police Battalion 101 are hardly fair examples of "ordinary Germans". When he does cite memoirs of a 1920's born cohort of (presumably) "ordinary Germans" despite blithely mentioning memoirs dominated by "struggling to lead normal lives in a setting of forces threatening death and destruction" ... "Germans overwhelmingly experienced broken lives, a mixture of suffering and happiness, in the 20th century. In their narratives, the central vortex is the Nazi dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust. All disclaim any personal responsibility. They tell of terror at home and at the military front, life in bomb shelters, mass rape, flight and expulsion due to German aggression."

I haven't read the book in question (on the memoirs of the 1920's cohort), but the way Curtis then seems to imply that the average German Hausfrau struggling to survive the ordeals of war in Dresden or the average young German man whatever particular lot befell him are personally responsible for the murders by the Reserve Police Battalion 101 or for the transport of German Jews by Deutsche Bahn is mind boggling - and rather reminiscent of the current Russiagate accusations actually.

Curtis fails to raise the more real questions of personal and collective responsibility - in the US case how most ordinary Americans by accepting the dogma of the "exceptional nation", the praise for the US military and police, and in believing the often absurd and contradictory lies of the regime and of the mass media, are supporting the capacity of the regime to continue its malevolent ways.

And so too for the vassal states of the US - for example when a Dutchman expresses confidence in the blatantly compromised Dutch investigation into MH17 to what extent is he indirectly enabling and assisting the lack of accountability for that mass murder and for the corrupt coverup?

For those who look beyond the shallow words of Michael Curtis and who concentrate on what is missing from the article rather than what is there, the issues thereby raised are as immense and profound as the ocean.

Maybe in 70 years' time Michael Curtis's counterpart in some other country will write a similarly disingenuous article about the "ordinary Americans" - did they bear collective responsibility for the genocide of retreating Iraqi soldiers on the Highway of Death in 1991, or the torturing of prisoners in Guantanamo and in CIA black sites around the world, or the mass genocide committed against North Korea in the 1950's, or the genocide against children through sanctions against Iraq or other countries?

In the next 70 years there will surely be a disingenuous bias in the reckoning, for that is unfortunately a habitual feature of human societies. Which way the bias will go depends largely on which group manages to monopolise control of the history.

Posted by: BM | May 21 2018 12:38 utc | 71

BM @ 73
(Sorry that that was a bit long!)

Posted by: BM | May 21 2018 12:39 utc | 72

Las Vegas Shootings. Many mysteries to unravel. I will share some facts that seemingly ‘escape’ notice. Snippet no. 1.

The LPVD intermed. report (= FIT) informs us that S. Paddock requested a Vista Suite (large living room, separate bedroom, always at the end point of a ‘wing’ in the Mandalay Bay, w. a wide angle view) ending in 235 on any floor. (2 = the southeast wing, room 35 is the Vista. The number in front of this part specifies the floor.) ‘Any floor’ signals that he cared not about being low-down, medium, or high up. Had his request been fulfilled, he would have had a view on the airport, NO view / access to the concert venue. SP hated loud music.

He was eventually assigned a 35-suite on floor 32, wing 1 (= 32-135) by the MB, and allegedly complained at the desk about that but didn’t demand a change.

SP did not request a wing 1 room, did not plan to be in position to shoot at the concert goers. He was shunted to 135 by the program that managed the reservations, sums paid (.. comped, etc.), dates reserved, priorities, etc. The two relevant passages:

----On or around September 9th Paddock made his room reservation for a Vista Suite ending in 235 but not a specific floor. On September 20th Paddock was internally4 assigned to room 33-235. On September 21st Paddock was internally changed to room 32-235. On September 24th Paddock was assigned to room 32-135.

----On Monday, September 25, 2017, Paddock checked into room 32-135 of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino with a scheduled check-out date of October 2, 2017. On Friday September 29, 2017, Paddock checked into room 32-134 which connected with room 32-135 via connecting doors.

1st passage was included in the FIT, imho, because the info. is locked into the MB computers, was very quickly looked up, preserved, copied by many, was known to the clerks, etc. - public knowledge so to speak, similar to the log times of SP’s car movements at the MB parking facilities, none of which data can be changed. The MB will be sued for millions, this piece of evidence would be useful to them. I’m guessing the far-off outcome will be that MB will pay out but what conglomerate behind them supports / is responsible / handles behind the scenes we will never know.

The Palestinians killed in the Gaza 'protests' are a world-wide scandal, great, though one wonders how long that outrage will last, hmmm, no doubt back to pro-Zionist-BAU pronto. By contrast, those killed in LV have been buried literally and metaphorically, for around the same no. of dead. Yemeni children and many others are of course not worthy of any mention at all.

PDF.

https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Documents/1_October_FIT_Report_01-18-2018_Footnoted.pdf

Posted by: Noirette | May 21 2018 12:43 utc | 73

13 - On the Skripals, no reporter I have read on the release of either Skripal has bothered to wonder why there are no photos of them at all, especially of the normal press availability on the hospital steps thanking their doctors, no information on their whereabouts, health or future plans.

Posted by: Bart Hansen | May 20, 2018 3:21:06 PM | 18

But that is surely because the Skripals are both dead? Isn't that the most obvious conclusion under the circumstances?

Posted by: BM | May 21 2018 12:53 utc | 74

It's worth noting that the dossier by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele was allegedly commissioned originally by someone connected to the Bush family, possibly Jeb Bush. The extending of the dossier's financing by the DNC in the summer of 2016 seemed strangely seamless.
...
It looks like a lot people and organisations were working for the same goal, even though they were supposed to be independent of each other, and even political rivals in the case of the Bushes and the DNC.

Posted by: Brendan | May 20, 2018 1:34:49 PM | 10

Directly related to that, I recall that Bush explicitly endorsed Clinton before the election!

Posted by: BM | May 21 2018 13:19 utc | 75

...
But that is surely because the Skripals are both dead? Isn't that the most obvious conclusion under the circumstances?
Posted by: BM | May 21, 2018 8:53:38 AM | 76

I decided to presume them dead when a rumor about the UK 'disappearing' them with new IDs surfaced. A 'proof of life' acceptable to me will have to come from Russia; and only Russia.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 21 2018 13:31 utc | 76

at BM 73, following on from my post 75.

US citizens seem callous, uninterested, and/or powerless to even react mildly to their own people, young and beautiful innocent music-lovers (say! White and Middle class! Top ..) being massacred by a ‘terrorist’ or /other/ (not specified for now) attack such as the 2017 LV shooting.

The issue of personal and/or collective responsibility as treated by BM rests on a definition of an in-group who despises and wishes to decimate some out-group (Nazis: targetted internal enemies, ex. Jews, gypsies, homosexuals .. outwards anything, lebensraum..etc.) BM mentions ‘in the USA itself’ so no blast against, but that is the one aspect that requires more consideration, understanding, discussion..

Posted by: Noirette | May 21 2018 13:36 utc | 77

Perfectly okay to be long, BM@73, but am I correct in supposing the nut of your post can be found in the following extract?

"...the more real questions of personal and collective responsibility - in the US case how most ordinary Americans by accepting the dogma of "the exceptional nation", the praise for the US military and police, and in believing the often absurd and contradictory lies of the regime and of the mass media, are supporting the capacity of the regime to continue its malevolent ways..."

If so, may I politely disagree with your 'factual' statement here. Most ordinary Americans either voted or did not vote in the previous election, and I will include the ones who did not vote with the ones who voted for Trump, in that the 'ordinary Americans' who voted for Hillary DO fall into categories you enumerate in the quote above, but the majority of Americans do not.

Posted by: juliania | May 21 2018 14:29 utc | 78

re: Skripals
Notable people alive or dead can't just disappear from government confinement. Communications can be monitored, informants can be bought and movement can be observed. Russia is waiting for the best time to report whatever happened IMO.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 21 2018 14:40 utc | 79

To elaborate on my post above, I myself and many who thought as I did, voted for Jill Stein; others abstained completely from voting at all, considering the electoral process to be completely compromised. They may have been correct. To fix that problem is something apparently impossible under the regime we have.

It was, I believe, Frederick Schiller who counseled that revolution is a many-edged sword by which means very few idealistic solutions to a corrupt government remain intact in the chaos that ensues. I can only think of Cuba as having been completely successful, and theirs is still an ongoing struggle - other South American countries as well. And we have seen how nefarious regimes such as ours has been take advantage of the chaos that ensues when a government, any government, is toppled.

Something has to be built within the revolutionary process so that structure remains when the old guard topples. It's a slow process and we in the US have barely begun it. I think though, it is starting to happen, and Trump's election paradoxically may be hastening the process - either when he does what we hoped he would do, or when he doesn't. The pendulum swings both ways.

Posted by: juliania | May 21 2018 14:43 utc | 80

Sure, Americans believe that they live in an exceptional nation. So do Mexicans, Chinese and Turks. So what.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 21 2018 14:43 utc | 81

Sorry - "has taken advantage"

Posted by: juliania | May 21 2018 14:44 utc | 82

@ BM | 76

But that is surely because the Skripals are both dead? Isn't that the most obvious conclusion under the circumstances?

I wrote the same thing a month ago. For UK it doesnt make any sense to keep them alive regardless if they were on it with false flag or not. Inside witnesses have to go and all leads buried, UK simple cant allow them talking.

Posted by: Harry | May 21 2018 14:49 utc | 83

The US election system is a perverted showcase of unqualified people, and since national elections are run by the corrupt state governments the situation is deep and pervasive. Ralph Nader described it in "Crashing the Party," how his candidacy was legally challenged in every state by Kerry and the "Democrats." So along with forty percent of the electorate I avoid the process, which is the only way to send a message, unfortunately.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 21 2018 14:50 utc | 84

@ Harry 85
Inside witnesses have to go and all leads buried
So all witnesses to the Skipals' disappearance have also been disappeared?

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 21 2018 14:54 utc | 85

Presumably there is still a D Notice active on British media to forbid all discussion of the Skripals. I would guess they are limited to publishing the official releases.

This is not to dispute whether the Skripals are dead or not, but to explain the original point, which was the lack of any human-interest speculation in the media.

As to dead, it seems governments don't count the cost of keeping people under wraps for decades, especially if the US is picking up the tab. Unless they died accidentally, it would seem to make more sense to keep them locked up alive somewhere, in case their stage-managed presence might yet be needed in the future. That's all surmise of course, but I find it hard to believe the UK is completely certain that it's out of the woods just yet in this matter.

Posted by: Grieved | May 21 2018 15:27 utc | 86

The responsibility for obscenities like the Nazis or U.S. foreign atrocities of the last 25 years lies primarily and massively with their ruling classes, including with special emphasis the mass media owners. Ordinary citizens are heavily and expertly propagandized to think unquestioning patriotism is normal, to feel helpless against the massive power of the state, and to feel paranoid about defying it publicly. (Some rise above the shut down of critical thought mostly because discovering the truth is our nerdy hobby, not because we're morally special.)

Deflecting blame for ruling class crimes onto ordinary citizens is a way of taking their eyes off the root problems, first becoming aware of the actual existence of ruling classes (most 'ordinary folks' have now figured that out), and then understanding that their interests clash in murderously ugly ways with the interests of the bottom 75% of the population. I agree with juliana @82 that the Trump presidency, obviously along with austerity and quickly increasing economic inequality, is advancing awareness of the root problems. More electoral fireworks ahead.

Posted by: fairleft | May 21 2018 16:04 utc | 87

IMO, the notion that team Obama acted against the Trump campaign is just another distraction.

Recall that the initial 'back story' was that Hillary and the Democrats needed to push 'Russian influence' to make up for their embarrassing loss.

It seems to me that the 'Deep State' colluded to elect both Obama and Trump. I wouldn't be surprised if "Billary" (Bill & Hillary Clinton) thought up the 'faux populist' model. There's a reason why the establishment loves Hillary.

Blaming "Russian influence" is just another umbrage operation (note: 'Umbrage' was a program described in the Wikileads Vault7 release that is designed to attribute 'hacking' to a third-party/adversary).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 21 2018 16:45 utc | 88

Skripals

I was thinking that the Skripals are dead also, but ...

The composition of the sample tested by the Swiss lab suggests that the Skripals are alive. The sample had some 'novichok' in pure state, some that was degraded (metabolized?) plus BZ/ BZ precursors. BZ acts against the effects of 'novichok' so an injection of the combination could be fairly safe (or, at least non-lethal).

It would be very interesting to know when Yulia planned her travel to UK. Was it planned for months in advance or just days/weeks? Last minute arrangements would suggest that the Skripals were willing participants as it was important (IMO) that Yulia was involved in this escapade. The notion that Putin would attacking an innocent Russian citizen as part of the 'op' is much more horrifying than attacking an old spy that betrayed his country.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 21 2018 16:57 utc | 89

craig murray is writing an interesting series of articles on the ''philip cross wikipedia operation'' for anyone interested..

we all knew wikipedia was some kind of soft propaganda site anyway... nice to see craig at work examining one of the main editing people involved at wikipedia..

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

Posted by: james | May 21 2018 16:58 utc | 90

uncle tungsten | May 21, 2018 6:00:34 AM | 64

If MBS is dead then it has to be one of the greatest feats of news suppression I've ever seen. Virtually no market or oil reaction, silence from governments...

Posted by: Bakerpete | May 21 2018 17:05 utc | 91

@ Babyl-on 20

Yes I agree Mr Greenwald used a lot of words to not say much at all. I skipped most of the article, which seems intent on burying the lead. The real story of course is that the FBI is Uncle Sam's political police who still maintain files on every politician, just as they did under J Edgar Hoover. (remember that gangster?)

Please don't misunderstand me. Trump is a billionaire bully parasite. Whatever awful things happen to him are well-earned. But his presence in the White House is ripping away Uncle Sam's facade of "freedom and democracy" and exposing the corrupt institutions behind the curtain, at least a little.

That can only be a good thing.

Posted by: Trailer Trash | May 21 2018 17:08 utc | 92

Posted by: Bakerpete | May 21, 2018 1:05:47 PM | 93

The Saudis are very good at keeping quiet about what goes on their country. You never hear about internal political developments.

I would have thought it more likely that he's injured than dead. We would have heard if he'd been buried - it would have been in pomp. But injuries would have been kept quiet.

https://sputniknews.com/world/201805171064543844-saudi-prince-health-concerns/

Posted by: Laguerre | May 21 2018 17:14 utc | 93

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/opinion/malaysia-election-mahathir-mohamad.html

http://www.sarawakreport.org/2018/05/return-to-the-rule-of-law/

And what a week it has been! The new Prime Minister is the old Prime Minister and he's...92!!
This must make Hillary's nasty heart beat faster with greedy new hope! Be afraid, Clinton-bashers. Be very afraid.

Posted by: LitteWhiteCabbage | May 21 2018 17:37 utc | 94

Yes corruption and pervasive corrupt behavior are becoming exposed as decisions are made and actions are taken against the commons in favor of corrupt pols, corps, nations.

Eisenhower warned us of the MIC even as he had been a part of it and he profited by it. He killed a lot of people, too.

Trump invokes the Swamp as he introduces even more filthy swamp creatures into the ooze. Before he drains it! Ha, Ha. Sure.

Like Obama, Trump "moves forward". That old witch Hillary ain't worth messin' with now.

Posted by: fastfreddy | May 21 2018 17:38 utc | 95

@ Don Bacon, #83 --

The Americans, unlike the Mexicans and the other countries you cite, believe that their 'exceptionalism' is exceptional to the extent that international law and the UN Charter do not apply to them

Posted by: chet380 | May 21 2018 18:04 utc | 96

French energy firm Total just handed their entire play in Iran to China:

http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/16/french-oil-total-suspends-iran-project/

Posted by: Thirdeye | May 21 2018 18:42 utc | 97

fairleft@89 & Jackrabbit @ 90: Kudos for both posts, short, concise & true...

Posted by: ben | May 21 2018 18:42 utc | 98

OOPS!! make those 2 posts 88&89....

Posted by: ben | May 21 2018 18:44 utc | 99

Not sure if this has been brought up here,

But have you guys seen this?!

A person or group on Wikipedia that make MASSIVE (thousands after thousands) edits on Wikipedia daily with the intent to
smear leftists, anti-war and similar people DAILY.

This person is defended by Wikipedia founder (see link 1), have a Twitter following of alot of suspcious people, from
mainstream journalists to White helmets founder.

Part 1
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/the-philip-cross-affair/

Part 2
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/emma-barnett-a-classic-philip-cross-wikipedia-operation/

Part 3
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/the-philip-cross-msm-promotion-operation-part-3/

British psychological intelligence operation?

Posted by: Zanon | May 21 2018 19:23 utc | 100