With Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of Mueller’s findings published, Scott Horton asked Ray to review the record and speculate on what may be in store, now that the “mainstream media” have been discredited. https://scotthorton.org/interviews/3-26-19-ray-mcgovern-was-right-about-russiagate/ Ray looks beyond the reassuring fact that VIPS’ reporting has been vindicated, and expresses concern that President Trump, feeling his oats and surrounded by “crazies” like Bolton and Pompeo, might decide to take advantage of the new situation to do something reckless (and perhaps even Rapturous). Might Trump-Bolton-Pompeo “collude” with Netanyahu to provoke Iran and then “retaliate” militarily — in the process helping Netanyahu win the upcoming election in Israel. Scott and Ray pretty much cover the waterfront for 55 min. (You may wish to skip the one-minute introduction; and also the commercials between minutes 35:00 and 36:20.)
On March 21, 2019 in Derry, Amb. Craig Murray & Ray were given 20 min. air time on BBC Radio Foyle (the Mark Patterson Show) to discuss the state of the media. Their segment begins at minute 57:30. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0003l8t?fbclid=IwAR1tkHMpUwHDX5EdAX8_CboffimlwWz16gAp8gSyx6DZ2MVW7J_gLF0DRcY Mark Patterson showed some daring in having them on; and one should be grateful for small favors. In Belfast and elsewhere, they were shunned by the media (surprise, surprise).
The sound system did not start functioning for Ray’s talk until minute 35:08, but Ray’s two preceding minutes were content-free. Ray used them in an attempt to follow Cicero’s dictum that one needs to be mindful of the need to render the audience “benevolent, attentive, and docile.”
So he started by quoting the wisdom of an old Irish American friend. Years ago, addressing the 4,000-plus men at the annual dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York, Ray’s friend began with this:
“Looking out at you, well, you are the embodiment, the flesh-and-blood proof that, except for the ugly ones, the Irish are the most handsome race on the face of the earth.”
Ray then added the old saw about why the sun never sets on the British Empire. Sorry, if you don’t already know the answer to that, well, you’ll have to watch at least the first audible part of Ray’s talk starting at minute 35:08. (You won’t have to watch the following 24 minutes of Ray’s remarks, unless you want to.) At the end of his talk Ray makes an effort to lighten up the appropriately “dour” tone of the discussion of Imperialism, by reciting Yeats’s “Fiddler of Dooney.”
Robert Mueller has come up empty handed, exposing two years of relentless Russiagate propaganda and the media that sold it. By Peter Van Buren, March 25, 2019
Just back from Ireland, Ray has a few comments on the remarkable editorial by the NY Times Editorial Board on the Mueller report. See below.
Stay tuned for more dancing around and about by the scoundrels in charge of the Times, as well as by those still unable to make their peace with the reality that Hillary Clinton needed no Russian help to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in 2016.
Now if Nancy Pelosi and Jerrold Nadler would do their Constitutional duty and begin impeachment proceedings regarding Trump’s real “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and prescind from what was a “red herring” (no pun intended) from the start, it might be possible — as the Founders intended — to get rid, or at least restrain — Trump in an orderly, constitutional way. It is important that this be done before it is too late and the nativists become restless — and reckless.
Andrew Johnson, who became president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, was impeached and, ipso facto, restrained from committing further crimes. In other words, impeachment worked in that case; it can work again. Most folks focus on the fact that the Senate failed by one vote to convict Andrew Johnson and evict him from office. But that was of demonstrably secondary importance.
If today’s Senate failed to convict Trump — as seems almost certain — so what? The impeachment of Trump might well hinder him from committing still more crimes — like attacking Iran or risking a military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, as he is being urged to do by “the crazies” he adopted, Bolton and Pompeo. The oft-heard “Pence would be still worse,” is the wrong way to look at it, in my view. We are not likely to end up with Pence in any case. And, even in the unlikely case we did, he might well be restrained by what happened to his predecessor, even if, like Mike Pompeo, he actually believes in the Rapture.
In 2007, Pelosi prevented then-Judiciary Chair John Conyers from starting impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush, an unrepentant war criminal, because she did not want the Democrats to seem divisive and thereby risk loosing votes in the 2008 election. I had a ring-side seat watching Conyers obey orders. See:
Pelosi is doing the same thing now — the Constitution that she also swore to support and protect — be damned. And not a bleat from timid politicians in the Democratic “leadership” who know what’s going on. O Tempora, O Mores!
“So far it’s a vindication of the rule of law. Now the public needs to read it.
“By The Editorial Board
“The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
“March 22, 2019
“Give President Trump this much: In the face of the biggest existential threat to his presidency, the special counsel’s Russia investigation, he checked himself where it mattered most.
“Yes, his near-daily campaign to mock and discredit Robert Mueller’s ‘witch hunt’ has now lasted longer than his campaign for the White House. His shameful, conspiratorial attacks on the ‘deep state,’ *** and on the integrity of those who have devoted their lives to upholding the rule of law, have damaged the institutions of federal law enforcement and may have gotten him in even deeper trouble.
[*** all the more “shameful” since we of the media have become an essential part of the “deep state”]
“… Mr. Trump even joined a remarkably bipartisan House of Representatives, along with a vast majority of the American public, in calling for the release of Mr. Mueller’s report. ‘Let people see it,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. There was no nothing.’
“On the first point, we can all agree. William Barr, the attorney general, needs to release as much of Mr. Mueller’s work as he possibly can, and soon.
“We’ll reserve judgment on the second. It may prove that Mr. Trump has kept repeating his mantra of ‘no collusion’ because it’s true. *** [Emphasis added]
“But even if Mr. Mueller has found in the end that Mr. Trump did not knowingly conspire with Russia — and it is profoundly to be hoped that the report settles that question, one way or the other — that doesn’t mean this inquiry has been a witch hunt.
[*** and, if it’s true, that would mean we, the Establishment media, were trumpeting (no pun intended) evidence-less untruths yet again. Sixteen years ago we reported WMD in Iraq as flat fact, but we were not held accountable for that, which played a key role in rallying support for the war of aggression on Iraq. Simili modo, we portrayed “Russian hacking into the Democratic National Committee” as flat fact, drinking from the same “intelligence sources” who encouraged us to slurp lies about Iraq.
Why do that again? Because we have full deep-state status now. The MIC has morphed into the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) complex, and there are billions to make from profiteering on war. It is, of course, an old story. Thomas Paine summed put it this way: “That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true…” ]
…
“Whether or not a sitting president can be indicted is a long-running debate among lawyers, but either way, Mr. Trump is sure to be under investigation for the rest of his term in office, and probably in court for the rest of his life.” ***
[*** And we can ensure that, because we are the Establishment media. The vestigial Fourth Estate is now dead We can act as stenographers for what “the intelligence community” tells us to publish, and a large segment of the alternative media will parrot the pap we put out, as well. So who will dare to, who will be able to, hold us to account?
We’ve got Chelsea Manning in solitary confinement again; we hope to nab Julian Assange soon for publishing the unadulterated truth. And, of no less importance, if we can continue to prevent Trump from creating a more decent relationship with Russia, we will make it far easier for those of us who profiteer from war. In sum, we might label it: “Mission Half-Accomplished”.]
Former Maj. Ken Mayers, USMC, and former Army paratrooper Tarak Kauf, part of a 7-person VFP Delegation to Ireland, were arrested and jailed Sunday for an imaginative protest against “neutral” Ireland’s timidity in allowing the U.S. to ship armed troops off to war through Shannon Airport. Others on the delegation are Enya Anderson, Ellen Davidson, Mike Ferner, Mike Hanes, and Ray. Ed Horgan of Ireland Veterans for Peace coordinated the visit.
Those with interest in the delegation’s experience (for some of us a continuing one) can be briefed in some detail at the following links:
1— Shannon: On St. Patrick’s Day Ray, together with other Veterans For Peace, will expose the snakes that St. Patrick’s clean-up of Ireland missed — the ones who are willing to slobber over U.S. presidents and let them send arms and troops with weapons through Shannon Airport, violating Ireland’s neutrality. The lingering unctuous lizards are the Irish leaders — recent and current — who turn a blind eye and deny this. The exposers include two U.S. Marine Sergeants on the current Veterans For Peace to Ireland delegation, who came through Shannon years ago, fully armed, headed off to make war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What can we expect in coming years from the until-now hegemon country and its vassal states? Raise your hand if you think coercive diplomacy, sanctions, war, and threats of war are likely to sustain the Empire for very much longer. And a pox on proxy war! The focus in Belfast will be on the role of various state agencies in sustaining a unipolar world.
Ray will discuss MICIMATT, a new acronym for the incestuous amoral reality whose maiden name was the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC); i. e., the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex. He’ll also include remarks on “regime change” — as in Iran, Chile, Ukraine, Venezuela(?), Washington (?) The speakers for Tuesday will be: Danny Morrison, Former Sinn Fein Director of Publicity Craig Murray, Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan Peter Ford, Former UK Ambassador to Syria and Bahrain Ray McGovern, Former CIA Analyst Michael Pike, Former British Soldier, Veterans For Peace (VFP) Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire
The event in Belfast is part of a series produced by Gregory Sharkey called “Imperialism on Trial in the North of Ireland.” This Tuesday event, and the one on March 21 in Derry (see below) will be live-streamed on RT UK Facebook page.
3 — Derry: Thursday, March 21, 7:15 PM, Ray will join Amb. Craig Murray, Patrick Henningsen of “21st Century Wire,” and other journalists to discuss the Establishment media and demonization and censoring of alternative outlets and voices, fake news, and the war on journalism. The Fourth Estate is dead; can we find ways to use alternative media to spread some truth around? The event is called: “Fake News – Establishment Media & War On Journalism;” it will take place at the Guildhall, Derry, on Thursday. (See here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-on-trial-fake-news-establishment-media-war-on-journalism-tickets-56245143739
Topics include: ‘Russiagate’- can we really blame Trump’s election on the Russians? False narrative on the war on Syria; The Magnitsky Act; Iran, Saudi Arabia, and what’s not been reported on Yemen; Venezuela, and the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes); Media & false consciousness; and, last but not least, Julian Assange.
Thirty complementary tickets have been set aside for the families of those murdered and wounded on “Blood Sunday,” and a spokesman for the families has been asked to give remarks. Derry’s City Councillors have also been invited to be our guests.
Thursday’s speakers are: Craig Murray, Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan Ray McGovern, Former CIA Analyst Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire Catherine Shakdam, Writer & Commentator John Wight, Journalist
For both Belfast and Derry events:
Tickets are £5 online with EVENTBRITE, Imperialism on Trial; or £5 at the door.
