By Ray McGovern, March 15, 2020
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/15/ray-mcgovern-to-joe-biden-time-for-confession/
From 12 years ago, but highly relevant still, with the Biden-Sanders debate this evening. Will Sanders have the guts to confront his old pal Joe on the major role he played to bring disaster in the Middle East? If Bernie flinches again, he will be complicit in allowing the Democratic Establishment tip the scales against him for second time in a row.
By Ray McGovern
Here’s a link to a reflection on a parable applicable to these times (from Luke 16; hat tip to “Jesse”).
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-lenten-meditation-lazarus-and-rich-man.html
“There was a certain rich man** who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen, and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his sores.”
** Tradition has named the rich man “Dives”, but the word is simply Latin for the rich — today’s “one percent”.
As many will recall, the parable has the rich man coming to what the Chinese call “a no-good end”.
From “Jesse’s” commentary:
So too, nations that have been blessed can blind themselves to their excesses and offenses, while taking credit for the blessings that have been given to them. And so they misuse their power and wealth and great fortunes, granted to them by God, to oppress and subjugate others, satisfy their own vain purposes and passions. … And in their hardened hearts they hold their selfishness aloft, profanely, as the greatest good, the exceptional*** even as they oppress and plunder and murder.
*** Ray’s next commentary will be on what Russian President Vladimir Putin has said about the repeated claim that the U.S. is exceptional.
By Ray McGovern
In a recent speech by Scott Horton of antiwar.com ( See:
https://original.antiwar.com/scott/2020/03/02/the-new-cold-war-with-russia-is-all-americas-fault/ ), Horton reviewed some recent history, presenting evidence that many others are reluctant even to mention, much less to put together.
Many of the relevant “dots” so to speak, are completely unknown to readers of the NY Times and other Establishment media, but are not hard to find elsewhere. Scott connects those dots. In doing so, he joins the company of highly respected historians, like Professor Stephen Cohen, in a way that will surprise — and perhaps even educate those readers able to see through the Russia, Russia, Russia propaganda churned out by the fawning corporate media over recent years.
FAIR WARNING: Although Horton’s narrative is based on fact, it may come as too much of shock to those like Rep. Jason Crow (D, Colorado), who claims “Vladimir Putin wakes up every morning and goes to bed every night trying to figure out how to destroy American democracy.” Nor do Horton’s findings mesh well with the dictum that “All roads lead to Putin,” that was part of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, taking on the role of the president’s daily briefer, told President Trump on October 16, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pelosi-recalls-clash-with-trump-says-she-was-probably-telling-him-that-all-roads-lead-to-putin/2019/10/17/fdbde8d2-f0f2-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html
Ray McGovern wishes to acknowledge and apologize for a significant mistake he made during his Feb. 10, 2020 interview with Heather Gray The interview was posted here on Feb. 14. That post was taken down yesterday as soon as we became aware of the error.
The Feb. 10 interview was pegged to the news that the FBI had recently acknowledged having correspondence relating to Seth Rich, whereas earlier the Bureau had denied having such correspondence. In this context, Ray referred to the recorded conversation between Seymour Hersh and Edward Butkowsky and said, erroneously, that not only Seth Rich but also his brother Aaron Rich had been in correspondence with WikiLeaks. In fact, Aaron Rich’s name was not mentioned in the Hersh-Butowsky conversation.
Ray was relying on hazy memories going back to 2016 and conflating unconfirmed information from media reporting around that time. He erred in attributing to Hersh things that Hersh did not say during that conversation with Edward Butowsky. As this readers of this site know, Ray is seldom so sloppy as to make such a significant mistake. All the more is his embarrassment and regret at having misquoted Hersh by including the name of Seth Rich’s brother Aaron.
For the past three years Justice people in Raleigh, NC, have been gathering every Tuesday – that’s 156 weeks in a row — at the Federal Bldg. in Raleigh to call Sen. Thom Tillis to account for his knee-jerk support for “forever war” and the cruel injustices that go with it.
Yesterday (February 11th) two members of Veterans For Peace Triangle, Dale Herman and Ray McGovern, gave very short talks which were video-ed. They merit wider circulation.
By Ray McGovern, Feb. 12, 2020
His coming political demise, as in New Hampshire yesterday, was easy to see. Joe Lauria and I saw it coming and posted this piece five months ago:
If the Facts Come Out, it Could Spell the End for Joe Biden
September 21, 2019
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/09/21/if-the-facts-come-out-it-could-spell-the-end-for-joe-biden/
Two months later, it was an even easier call:
Bye-bye Biden
By Ray McGovern, November 20
https://raymcgovern.com/?s=Bye-Bye+Biden
If a former general in India could see how Pelosi and her aged advisers were shooting themselves, and their favorite Joe Biden, in the foot, why was the entrenched Democratic leadership not able to see it?
Is it perhaps because, like Biden himself, they had long since reached the age of “statutory senility”?
Good riddance re Biden; what was he thinking? His erstwhile supporters, though, owe him an apology for political misfeasance. Was Nancy afraid to wake up Steny Hoyer and ask him to quiz the Bidens about their caper in Ukraine?
An Award Ceremony Like No Other: Jeffrey Sterling honored for Integrity
By Ray McGovern
Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) annual award is always a poignant occasion to congratulate the winner and to catch up with others, including earlier winners, struggling for Justice against tougher and tougher odds. Coleen Rowley (laureate in 2002) and her team saw to it that this year’s ceremony at Moffat House in Washington on Jan. 15, 2020 was an occasion of exceptional warmth, solidarity, and humor . (More about SAAII can be found on its website: samadamsaward.ch. For more about Jeffrey and this year’s award see:
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/12/whistleblower-jeffrey-sterling-who-went-through-kafkaesque-trial-wins-2020-sam-adams-award/ )
Below is the link to the video recording of the affair, filmed by Paul Williams of Shoot First Pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghZdm2LK0E&feature=youtu.be (52 minutes)
With this year’s award, Jeffrey Sterling brings to five the number of award recipients imprisoned for exposing government abuse (not counting 2013 Sam Adams laureate, Ed Snowden, who was made stateless and has been marooned in Russia for more than six years). Worst still, Julian Assange (2010) and Chelsea Manning (2014) remain in prison, where UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer has reported they are both being tortured.
By Richard H. Curtiss, June 1994
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
https://www.wrmea.org/1994-june/a-personal-reminiscence-richard-nixon-twice-had-mideast-peace-in-his-grasp.html
The late Richard Curtiss was a highly decorated US Foreign Service Officer, who witnessed up-and-close much of what he reports. His insights are of particular interest today, looking back on the tragedy of missed opportunities for justice and peace in the Middle East and how they were sabotaged — as prelude to Trump’s attempted give-away of Palestinian rights in the deal he announced last week.
