Two Good Signs from Tuesday: Porton Down's Novichok Statement and French Strikes

There were some positive developments yesterday.

Porton Down acknowledged that it cannot identify the country of origin of the nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. Craig Murray has the write-up in "Johnson and May Hide as their Lies Dissolve." The New York Times in "British Lab Has Not Identified ‘Precise Source’ of Poison in Spy Case" kept the news well off its home page. RT notes that "UK Foreign Office denies claiming nerve agent from Russia, despite tweet and Boris Johnson interview."

The usual pattern of a walk-back is for the organs of the mainstream media to bury it and then go on referring to the big lie as if it had never been debunked. An example: Saddam Hussein ordered the UN weapons inspectors out of the country prior to U.S. shock and awe in 2003. Another example: Bashar al-Assad used Sarin to murder his people in eastern Ghouta August of 2013. Both are untrue, but both have been regularly referred to as truth in the corporate press long past their "sell-by" date.

Another positive development yesterday -- "Strikes by railway workers and aircrews paralyze France." It's too early to tell, but if Macron is broken by a popular uprising it will be a huge defeat for the disintegrating neoliberal world order. Macron's enormous electoral victory last year was a big win for the listing status quo, a spectacular old-fashioned propaganda achievement. If the Macron idol crumbles, it is not clear electorally where the neoliberals can turn.