Now that the media has been exposed for wrongly siding with the intelligence agencies, how will it handle Devin Nunes’s criminal referrals in Deep State-gate?, asks Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News
Readers of The Washington Post on Monday were treated to more of the same from editorial page chief Fred Hiatt. Hiatt, who won his spurs by promoting misleading “intelligence” about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and suffered no consequences, is at it again.
This time he is trying to adjust to the fading prospect of a Deus ex Mueller to lessen Hiatt’s disgrace for being among the most shameless in promoting the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
He is not giving up. When you are confident you will not lose your job so long as you adhere to the agenda of the growing Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex (MICIMATT if you will), you need not worry about being a vanguard for the corporate media. It is almost as though Hiatt is a tenured professor in an endowed chair honoring Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who perhaps did most to bring us Iraqi WMD.
In his Monday column Hiatt warned: “Trump was elected with the assistance of Russian spies and trolls, which he openly sought and celebrated. But he did not (or so we are told) secretly conspire with them.” In effect, Hiatt is saying, soto voce: “Fie on former (now-de-canonized) Saint Robert of Mueller; we at the Post and our colleagues at The New York Times, CNN et al. know better, just because we’ve been saying so for more than two years.”
Hiatt: Never held to account. (Wikipedia)
Times executive editor Dean Baquet said, about the backlash to the Times‘ “collusion” coverage: “I have no regrets. It’s not our job to determine whether or not there was illegality.” CNN President Jeff Zucker said: “We are not investigators. We are journalists.” (One wonders what investigative journalist Bob Parry, who uncovered much of Iran-Contra and founded this site, would have thought of that last one.)
Going in Circles
Hiatt’s circular reasoning is all too familiar. It is the kind a former director of national intelligence excels at when he’s not lying, sometimes under oath. For instance, James Clapper was hawking his memoir at the Carnegie Endowment last year when he was confronted by unexpectedly direct questions from the audience.
Asked about the misleadingly labeled, rump “Intelligence Community Assessment” (ICA) of Jan. 6, 2017, which he orchestrated, and which blamed Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, Clapper gave an ipse dixit response: The ICA simply had to be correct because that’s what he had told President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump.
In fact, that “Intelligence Community Assessment” stands out as the most irresponsible, evidence-free and at the same time consequential crock of intelligence analysis since the National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 2002 claimed there was WMD in Iraq. Recall that that one was shaped by out-and-out fraudulent intelligence to “justify” an attack on Iraq six months later.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the main thrust of the committee’s five-year bipartisan report, stating, “In making the case for war, the [Bush] Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent.”
Hiatt was one of the media’s major offenders, feeding on what the Cheney/Bush folks told him. When no “weapons of mass destruction” were found in Iraq, Hiatt conceded during an interview with The Columbia Journalism Review that, “If you look at the editorials we write running up [to the war], we state as flat fact that he [Saddam Hussein] has weapons of mass destruction … If that’s not true, it would have been better not to say it.” [CJR, March/April 2004] As Parry wryly observed at the time in a piece calling for Hiatt’s dismissal, “Yes, that is a common principle of journalism, that if something isn’t real, we’re not supposed to confidently declare that it is.”
The Morning After
Clapper: After WMD failure, promoted by Obama. (White House Photo/ Pete Souza)
The media set the prevailing tone the day after the ICA was published. The banner headline atop page one of the Times read: “Putin Led Scheme to Aid Trump, Report Says.” That put in motion more than two years of Dick Cheney-like chicanery in the media.
Buried inside the Times that same day was a cautionary paragraph written by staff reporter Scott Shane who noted, “What is missing from the public report is what many Americans most eagerly anticipated: hard evidence to back up the [three] agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack. That is a significant omission.” Indeed it was; and remains so.
(Sadly, Shane was then given his marching orders and fell in line with many other formerly reputable journalists in what has been the most miserable performance by the mainstream media since they helped pave the way for war on Iraq.)
Clapper and Hiatt are kindred souls when it comes to the “profound effect” of Russian election interference. In his column, Hiatt asserted as flat fact that: “Trump was elected with the assistance of Russian spies and trolls …” At the Carnegie event in November, Clapper opined:
“As a private citizen, understanding the magnitude of what the Russians did and the number of citizens in our country they reached and the different mechanisms that, by which they reached them, to me it stretches credulity to think they didn’t have a profound impact on election on the outcome of the election.”
Hiatt: Captain of Cheerleaders
Hiatt emulated peppy, preppy cheerleader George W. Bush in leading Americans to believe that war on Iraq was necessary. Appointed Washington Post editorial page editor in 2000, he still runs the page — having not been held accountable for gross misfeasance, if not malfeasance, on Iraq. Shades of Clapper, whom President Obama allowed to stay on as director of national intelligence for three and a half years after Clapper lied under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee about NSA surveillance of U.S. persons.
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That Obama appointed Clapper to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election speaks volumes. Clapper claims to have expertise on Russia and has made no effort to disguise his views on “the Russians.” Two years ago, he told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press:
“… in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election, and just the historical practices of the Russians, who are typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique … we were concerned.”
It beggars belief that Obama could have been unaware of Clapper’s bizarre views on “the Russians.” Clearly, Obama was bowing yet again to pressure from powerful Deep State actors arguing that Clapper was the ideal man for the job.
And there is now documentary evidence that, from the Deep State point of view, indeed he was. In the text exchanges between discredited FBI sleuth Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, Lisa Page, a lawyer working for the FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, it seems clear that Obama wanted to be kept apprised of the FBI’s behind-the-scenes machinations. In a Sept. 2, 2016 text to Strzok, Page writes that she was preparing talking points because the president “wants to know everything we’re doing.”
A Sweaty Pate?
Clapper is aware now that he is going to have to sweat it out. He may believe he can ignore White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who has said that he and other former intelligence officials should be investigated after special counsel Mueller did not establish collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Strzok: Will he be on Nunes’s list? (Wikipedia)
But recent statements by members of the House and Senate intelligence committees cannot be dismissed so easily. In his media appearances, the supremely confident, hero-of-many-liberals Clapper has been replaced by a squirming (but-Obama-made-me-do-it) massager of facts. He may find it harder this time to avoid being held accountable.
Devin Nunes (R-CA), the House Intelligence Committee ranking member, has gone on the offensive, writing Friday that committee Republicans “will soon be submitting criminal referrals on numerous individuals involved … in the abuse of intelligence for political purposes. These people must be held to account to prevent similar abuses from occurring in the future.”
On Sunday, Nunes told Fox News he’s preparing to send eight criminal referrals to the Department of Justice this week concerning alleged misconduct during the Trump-Russia investigation. This will include leaks of “highly classified material” and conspiracies to lie to Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. It’s no-holds-barred for Nunes, who has begun to talk publicly about prison for those whom DOJ might indict and bring to trial.
Nunes’s full-speed-ahead offensive is being widely ignored in “mainstream” media (with the exception of Fox), giving the media the quality of “The Dog That Did Not Bark in the Night.” The media has put its ducks in a row, such as they are, to try to rip Attorney General William Barr apart this coming week when he releases the redacted text of the Mueller report that so disappointed the Democratic Party/media coalition.
But how will they cover criminal referrals of the “heroes” who have leaked so much to them, providing grist for their Russia-gate mill? They will likely find a way, eventually, but the media silence about Nunes is depriving oxygen to the story.
On Sunday, Nunes said,
“They [the Democrats] have lied multiple times to the American people. All you have to do is look at their phony memos. They have had the full support of the media, 90 percent of the media in this country. They all have egg on their face. And so the fact of the matter remains, is there going to be — is justice going to be served or is justice going to be denied? And that’s why we’re sending over these criminal referrals.”
Nunes is, of course, trying to project an image of confidence, but he knows he is fighting uphill. There is no more formidable foe than the MICIMATT, with the media playing the crucial role in these circumstances. How will the American people be able to see egg on anyone’s face if the “mainstream media” find ways to wipe it off and turn the tables on Nunes, as they have successfully done in the past?
Though the Democrats now control the House, they have lost some key inside-the-Deep-State allies.
By all appearances, House Democrats still seem to be banking on help from the usual suspects still on duty in the FBI, CIA, and the Justice Department. Lacking that they seem ready to go down with the Schiff—Rep. Adam Schiff of California, perhaps the most virulent Russia-gater that there’s been.
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Clapper is no long in position to help from the inside, and there’s no knowing how his sleepy replacement, Dan Coates, will react, if and when he wakes up long enough to learn chapter and verse about the machinations and dramatic personae of 2016.
Of course, there is a new sheriff in town running the Department of Justice. Attorney General William Barr, for better or ill, is a far cry from Jeff Sessions, who let himself be diddled into recusing himself. He’s not Rod Rosenstein either, whose involvement in this affair may have already earned him a prominent place on Nunes’s list of referrals.
What Did Obama Know, and When Did He Know It?
BREAKING: A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report… Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 27, 2019
On top of this, Sen. Rand Paul (R, KY) has called for an investigation into the origins of Mueller’s probe, including on the dicey question of how witting President Obama was of the Deep State chicanery during the last months of his administration. Page did tell Strzok in that Sept. 2, 2016 text that the president “wants to know everything we’re doing.”
Sen. Paul has also tweeted information from “a high-level source” that it was former CIA Director John Brennan who “insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report… Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP.”
Vying for Media Attention
If, as expected, Nunes discloses the names of those being criminally referred to DOJ, and Barr releases a redacted text of the Mueller report, the “mainstream” media will have a fresh challenge on their hands. The odds would seem to favor the media covering the Democrats’ predictable criticism of Barr — and perhaps even of Mueller, now that he has been defrocked.
The Post’s Hiatt should be counted on, as always, to play a leading role.
At the same time, there are signs the America people are tired of this. It would be difficult though for the media to avoid reporting on criminal referrals of very senior law enforcement and intelligence officials. Given the media’s obvious preference for siding with the intelligence agencies and reporting on Russia-gate rather than Deep-State-gate, it would be even harder for the media to explain why these officials would be in trouble.
Things appear to be unraveling but, as always, much will depend on whether the media opts to remain the “dog that didn’t bark,” and succeeds again in hoodwinking too many people.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
We got Russia-gate right. Help us to keep on going.
By the way I made a mistake, another one. Clinton called off a hit on some else. Maybe maybe Osama bin Lauden.
By the way, to those to whom it concerns. You might want to get a copy of Robert Baer’s 2003, Sleeping With the Devil , Crown Publishing Group a division of Random House.
Baer’s story is simple, a CIA operative who got fed up and quit. Baer had a chance to hit Saddam and Clinton called it off. Why?
The book is very revealing about the Saudi / U.S. relationship. In fact I feel it might explain VINY’s love for the Saudi’s in spite of his kissing Natinyahoos rear end.
Put up or shut up maybe. Read the book and you get another chance to pick a side in this fight.
What, are you guys for real? Seems someone is feeling frustrated.
It’s called free speech. Spoken or written.
Tears will dry, blood will clot and bones will heal, suck it up butter cups.
Why do so many want Assange executed in the US? Because they won’t tolerate anyone who makes them look bad so they lose their money and power.
Why on Earth don’t Blues simply admit that “Basket /deplorables” altered “presidential” in2 less than that… How foolish2 Insult those being convinced… imo Ruskie Gate no more convincing & plays in2 Rightwing hands! As4 Nunes: “methinks the lady doth protesteth too much!”
Tnx CN/ Ray
What??
Could you please speak/write English?
are you for real? try speaking coherently, idiot
How about this?
The ruse is to drive us apart by this Russia gate BS. A giant distraction. Why are they doing this, the Deep State, because they are caught. If DOJ was independent of influence from the Deep State it might be useful but they have become worthless because they are complicit. See William Barr and his pardons.
The problem for them is the Panama and Paradise Papers. Take a look International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Look at their story “Panama Papers recover more than 1.2 billion around the world. Directly beneath their black background world map is a lost of countries who have recovered money. Missing the U.S. and Russia. How could this be?
Now go to https://thehill/opinion/finance/427180-the-legal-scandal-that-none-is-talking-about You will find the Panama / Paradise papers referenced , In this story about the indictment of Greg Craig who worked for Clinton, Obama and Manafort. The Manafort connection got him indicted. You will find the most powerful law firm on Wall Street Skadden, mentioned there also.
The Deep Sate is finally caught. The Banking Secrecy Act of 1970 is mentioned, the loop hole left there is mentioned. The CIA was caught laundering money in 1968 and the story went away – Jane Mayer’s “DARK MONEY”.
The BSA of 1970 languished with little notice until the 1980’s and Iran Contra and BCCI
Then talks about lawyer client privilege with respect to “trusts” and a large loop hole left there in 1970 at the behest no doubt of CIA.
I don’t figure just how wiki leaks figures in but apparently it does. Bill Browder is involved in the banking thing some maybe I dunno.
But these DS guys are caught and if the that story comes out political power in the U.S. may see a complete re-alignment. Because the U.S. use of offshore banking to run it’s secret arm of government will be exposed.
Now for those of you not worried about Viny village idiot new york , the lying potus go to fifth column news and see Beau’s talk about getting rid of judges. and president Miller. It lasts a little over 4 minutes. He explains the unexplainable, that VINY wants to stop due process for immigrants and why.
I have the distinct feeling I’m pretty close when it comes to the BIG PICTURE!
Time to wake up and smell the “FEAR” kids.
Thanks again Bob .
Those of us who enjoy hearing Ray McGovern speak won’t want to miss this recent Imperialism on Trial segment:
https://youtu.be/Tw5nkj2493I
I get a free email from New York Times daily (I do not pay- subscribe to any cable/sat TV crap or offal like the NY Times – if you send them money, you’re supporting them).
Here’s the top story headline: ” 1. The long, strange self-imposed exile of Julian Assange has come to an end. ”
He confined himself there…. on a whim? Why, it’s almost as though he’s been rescued from self harm.
God, what an example of what crap merchants these people are.
google “press hypocracy”
World press freedom in the eyes and ears of the beholder
By Trish Schuh May 30, 2007 Mehr News Tehran Times
UNITED NATIONS – On the 14th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, which was celebrated in May, UNESCO hosted an event for journalists called “Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity” at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Under Article 1 of its Constitution, UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of speech and press freedom.
United Nations Correspondent Association President Tuyet J. Nguyen spoke about the life-threatening danger faced by journalists covering such war zones as Rwanda and Iraq where the media is controlled by special interests or armed political parties.
Georges Malbrunot of France’s neocon Le Figaro spoke of newsgathering under various “vicious surveillance” states. In contrast, Malbrunot’s embedding with American forces in Iraq was “not a bad solution”, but opened embeddees to paranoid Arab charges of being “a spy… It’s one of the major blames addressed to the foreign press today… Of course, this blame is 99.9% wrong, but in the minds of these people who suffer from ‘conspiracy theory’, this accusation is serious and can cost a journalist his life. “There is a lot of work to do to convince these groups that the journalist is not a spy.”
Malbrunot added that it is the work of Muslim imams, scholars, leaders, etc., to persuade their Muslim flock of this fact “Only then will the fate of the global war against terror be dramatically changed.”
This writer asked the panel if journalists themselves could ever be partly responsible for such suspicions. Citing CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who admitted spending his earlier summers working for the CIA: “Doesn’t this kind of moonlighting put other journalists at risk?”
No response from the panel.
Representing half a million media professionals around the world on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists was Judith Matloff, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a member of the International News Safety Institute. Professor Matloff implored the international community to uphold UN Security Council Resolution 1738, which prohibits the killing and targeting of media personnel and protects free speech and freedom of the press globally.
In a follow-up conversation by telephone on May 25, I asked Prof. Matloff for her opinion on how UN Security Council Resolution 1738 applies to Lebanon’s Al Manar TV and the LMG communications network — Lebanese media outlets bombed by Israel during the 2006 war, and officially censored as a “terrorist organization” by the U.S. Congress?
Regarding this unprecedented, landmark free speech/censorship law, Ivy League academic Matloff said she was “unfamiliar with these situations” and refused to comment on Middle East issues. “I am an Africa specialist.”
But wasn’t free speech protected equally around the world under Resolution 1738? In the Middle East, as well as in Africa?
Being a media expert, could she comment on what a law equating the media with “terrorism” could mean for freedom of the press? Concurrent with Bush’s admitted deliberate bombing of Al Jazeera in Afghanistan and Iraq?
“I never heard of that,” Matloff said. With her credentials, shouldn’t such Katrina-scale censorship have caught her eye?
Then perhaps she could assess how the mainstream media’s advocacy of falsehoods promoted an illegal war in Iraq? “The New York Times has apologized,” she said, referring to a full page ‘mea culpa ad’. “But isn’t the NYT repeating the same misleading tactics to promote the next war with Iran?” I asked.
With this and similar questions, Matloff responded like a true press “pro”: avoiding ethical implications, defending her product — the status quo, and referring most answers to other supervisors or experts. Her refrain of “I don’t know, don’t remember”, “can’t comment” captured the essence of a White House press briefing. As a trainer of America’s next generation of government “privatized propaganda contractors”, (tomorrow’s ‘mercenary press’) Matloff diverted the subject, passed the buck, and expertly earned her tenure.
On Press Freedom Day, I also spoke briefly to the New York Times UN bureau chief Warren Hogue about the media, Iraq, and World Press Freedom Day.
Q: It’s World Press Freedom Day and I just wanted to ask if you have any comments about The New York Times and their reporting in the runup to the Iraq War, and if you feel any kind of responsibility?
A: I can’t talk about that -– we’ve already said everything about that to be said in the paper, and I really don’t want to add to it. I mean, The New York Times — more than most newspapers — has absolutely admitted what we thought was faulty and what was not. There’s just nothing I can add to that at all. And I certainly don’t want to talk about that on
Press Freedom Day when our thoughts are with Alan Johnston and other journalists that are being killed.
Q: Well my thoughts are also with the Iraqis. There are half a million dead — thanks in part to your newspaper-
A: Oh come on.
Q: Your newspaper was one of the primary advocates for the war.
A: Oh come on, I can’t talk to you.
Q: Your newspaper was primary — yes it was — Judith Miller got personal security clearance directly from Donald Rumsfeld, sir.
A: The New York Times is not responsible for any dead Iraqis. I won’t listen to that.
Q: None of the other American journalists but Judith Miller from your paper got a security clearance from the U.S. defense secretary himself. How is this different from working for the government?
A: You are defiling Press Freedom Day — Shut up! This is about press freedom, this is not about defiling the press. We’ve just come back from a demonstration for Alan Johnston for journalists being killed and that’s what this day is about — press freedom.
Perhaps BBC World News Editor Jon Williams best summarized the outcome of shutting up journalists: “We must not stand by and allow the intimidation of journalists — wherever it happens. If we do, we will pay a heavy price… There will be no eyes or ears telling us what’s going on. We won’t have the insight from those able to make sense of it.”
But then, that may be just how some Powers That Be really want it.
UPDATE: In April 2008, New York Times correspondent Warren Hoge was named Vice President of (IPI) International Peace Institute and Director of External Relations. Queries to the Institute regarding Mr. Hoge’s propaganda role in promoting the Iraq War were not answered.
Great Comment. Thanks.
About how the media are going to cover for their own part in an attempted lawfare coup against an elected president, Pelosi has already given the signal: they’re going to accuse Barr of the crimes of which they and Mueller are guilty. They’re going to keep pretending that Russiagate is real and that this president not only conspired with a hostile foreign power to co-opt the election, but that he’s now successfully corrupted the previously pristine corridors of federal Justice, as well.
Quite how democrat true believers square the circle on this crass bumbling ignorant moronic criminal mastermind, I will leave to those psychologists and psychotherapists with a taste for the freakishly bizarre outliers of our species.
But I admit it does puzzle me on occasion.
There’s more than a hint of a categorical error in the phrase about how the media “mistakenly” sided with the Deep State. It assumes that the media and the deep state are separate independent entities – they are not. They are both owned and ruled by the exact same set of monied interests. The media did not decide to do the job for which it was created, funded, and trained – it had no other options – and it therefore it made no mistake in doing so.
If there’s a mistake in the finger-tamed media whoring their voices for their masters, it’s in the presumption by the media that they are immune to the public revulsion at their mutually treasonous back-scratching. They are not that, either, although no small proportion of the public still buys their exculpatory fantasy narrative of objective journalism that just isn’t quite yet immune to error.
If you’re going to be a skeptic then you owe it to yourself to first focus that skepticism on the things you believe to be true. Things you’re so certain of you’re not even aware that you believe them, until sentences like that one about the media’s “mistaken decisions” reveal them. Read yourself with the same critical eye you read John Brennan.
Fred Hiatt is a long-time member of the Rockefeller CFR. The WashPost was purchased in 1933 by former Fed chairman Eugene Meyer, also a CFR member. His successors, Katherine Meyer and Donald Graham, were also CFR members. They cooperated in the CIA “Operation Mockingbird” propaganda run by CIA godfather Allen Dulles — who was a CFR director for 40 years. Same stuff, different decade.
If you don’t believe that Russia influenced the election, you don’t belong in the Democratic Party. That’s how it is.
Beats me why anyone would take what the main-stream-media presents at face value. There’s a long, long history of misinformation.
To quote Mark Twain, “If you read the papers you’re misinformed, if you don’t read them you’re uninformed”.
I see campaigns such as Russia-gate as being red-herrings to lead everyone on a merry dance down a cul-de-sac and then turn the lights out, meanwhile TPTB are free to pull their strings in another arena no-one’s looking at.
Students of CIA techniques in overthrowing Central American governments would recognize what all this is about. Only instead of bananas, it’s oil. (viz chevez coup, Iran)
The oil motive pre-dates the CIA and goes all the way back to before WW1, and was one of the prime reasons for WW1 which saw the creation of the oil states in the Middle East in it’s aftermath. The CIA was put in service by the oil syndicates after WW2.
“Jimmy
April 11, 2019 at 02:05”
“Students of CIA techniques in overthrowing Central American governments would recognize what all this is about. Only instead of bananas, it’s oil. (viz chevez coup, Iran)”
“OlyaPola
April 10, 2019 at 09:18”
“Although not particularly innovative given that some practitioners sought/seek to obfuscate opportunities of transcendence of social relationships through resort to limited framing, the petri-dish which is/was “Russiagate” had and continues to have utility which could be enhanced by lessening resort to limited framing including but not restricted to:
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/04/09/ray-mcgovern-unaccountable-media-faced-with-dilemma-in-next-phase-of-deep-state-gate/” “
Limited framing facilitates misrepresentation and misrepresentation limits/precludes opportunities to transcend the opponents.
The opponents are not particularly innovative but even they do not pursue their wishes for a single reason whether oil or bananas.
The opponents also seek to pursue their wishes in what they deem to be “co-ordinated” fashion – sometimes assigned the label of “strategic” – including but not restricted to :
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/04/11/breaking-moreno-withdraws-asylum-as-assange-is-arrested/
an outcome in which Mr. Assange was/is complicit through previous naivety – sole agency never existing in any interactive system but often asserted to deflect “blame”.
However Mr. Assange’s subjection to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune may be represented as a derivative of “martyrdom”, like that of Mr. Guevara who failed to make relevant research before making pilgrimage to Bolivia, affording the opponents opportunities of iteration of spectacles and possibly an increase in poster and t-shirt sales.
Gulf of Tonkin; Kuwaiti incubator babies; narco-terrorists (any anti-dictator rebels in Latin America); WMD’s; Gadaffi’s viagra fueled rape camps; Assad can’t sleep at night unless he’s gassed some children that day; Saddam is a dictator so we must slowly murder a million of his people in order to protect them from him/ Yemen and it’s people are “invisible” – they simply doesn’t exist; Maduro/Chavez/Castro/Ortega/Zelaya/and countless others are all “communists” who must be overthrown because they provide for the welfare of their own people rather than simply for U.S. corporations and profits.
The list of outright lies and omissions is endless, amoral, pathological, psychopathic, bi-partisan, expected, and constitutes the absolute “normality” of the U.S. empire and it’s functioning during my lifetime. The MSM and talking heads are as guilty of our war crimes and atrocities as the policy planners in Washington who plan them. To my knowledge no one at the PR firm Hill & Knowlton was ever charged or prosecuted for the fake “Kuwaiti incubator babies” stunt used to justify the Gulf War leading to over a million deaths, yet in contrast on the scales of justice we have Kamala Harris jailing poor parents in California when their kids are truant. You can’t make this stuff up.
“You can’t make this stuff up.”
But some do, creating data-streams highlighting various aspects including but not restricted to their notions of “plausible beliefs of the target audience” and perceptions of “valid” framing/register.
Re: “It beggars belief that Obama could have been unaware of Clapper’s bizarre views on “the Russians.”
I’d suggest “Clapper’s bizarre views on ‘the Russians’ ” were very likely “inspired” by Obumma’s arrogant comments in his 2015 SOTU address that, in a sane world, would have been interpreted as a confession to war-crimes: “Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our allies, some suggested that Mr. Putin’s aggression was a masterful display of strategy and strength. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.”
Barr’s now talking about Obama bugging Trump’s 2016 campaign. But he NEVER says I have definitive proof. But with the way “Russiagate” progresses, he doesn’t have to. All he has to do is say “classified sources”, and the scoring of political points goes on.
Schiff and Nunes continue to hate each others guts as they battle it out on cable news to be the “Go To Guy for All Things Russiagate”. Does anyone really think that they’ll just roll over and quit?
The good news coming from this last 2.5 years is that the mask is off this “Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank” complex (MICIMATT), as the author put it.
The bad news is, there doesn’t seem to be much of a social-political reaction wanting to dismantle it, or do much of anything about it.
If a system can’t repair itself incrementally, that means it needs a real calamity to make serious change.
Real news has been shuttled onto a sidetrack by what is truly important, especially by the NYT: the latest Kardashian activities, the hottest, new MeToo accusation, promoting the LGBT lifestyle, etc. Fret not. There will be real calamities and the first will be the result of the Democrats’ clown car and the re-election of the new Netanyahu style Trump as dictator for life.
Albeit, Mike Gravel’s entry in support of Tulsi Gabbard is an interesting event!
My preferred acronym is MIMIC–the Military-Industrial-Media-Intelligence-Complex. I tune it out.
That’s good, as in the “toxic mimic” of Truth. I’m going to use it, thanks.
“…since the National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 2001 claimed there was WMD in Iraq. Recall that that one was shaped by out-and-out fraudulent intelligence to “justify” an attack on Iraq six months later….”
I believe Mr. McGovern meant to write 2002 rather than 2001.
Thanks, Drew. A typo that has been corrected. ray
You’re very welcome Mr. McGovern. Keep up the lifetime of tremendous work!
The slam dunks just keep on coming year after year and war after war!
Can you explain something to me? I am the same age as Ray, know how to ‘cut and paste’, watch RT, nyt, twitter, wikileaks, whistleblowers, know the difference between something that’s carried at internet speed and the speed of a flash drive—how come I alone among my friends knew that #RussiaGate was ridiculous?
All the other people are younger, and are expected to know more about computers, trolls, bots, what’s happening.
I am barely a ‘moderate level’ computer-user.
How could all these people be fooled?
jean-
I’m not sure about your particular case, since I don’t know your friends, but I think there is a separate skill involved when it comes to logical analysis. Many highly educated people are still easily fooled by propaganda. I have many friends who seem to be reasonably intelligent who were completely taken in by Rachel Maddow, and are still clinging to their fantasies, likely due to their hatred for Trump.
I’ve lent a couple friends “JFK and the Unspeakable”, and “The Devil’s Chessboard”, and those two books have convinced them that the CIA was responsible for JFK’s assassination; but when I try to imply that those same dark forces, in the persons of people like John Brennan and James Clapper, are responsible for the RussiaGate fantasy they remain unconvinced.
I had a course in Logic in college, and I think it was one of the best classes I took. After forty years, I’ve forgotten a lot of the axioms and proofs, but it gave me a great nose for BS that has lasted all these years. In the end, I think logical thinking just comes more naturally to some more than others.
Mr. McGovern, as always it is a pleasure to read what you’ve written. Thank you.
Skip, I thought if people read “The Devil’s Chessboard” or a good history of the CIA that all current happenings would become much clearer to them. Thought my only problem was getting them to read something longer than a meme in the first place. Thanks for the heads up that there may be another issue.
Like many here, I know plenty of smarter people then myself for who the penny is not dropping. Is there something besides reading Consortium News that we all seem to have in common? Are we maybe not a trusting bunch as a general rule?
I think you nailed it People have a very difficult time accepting that a source or person they may have previously trusted and admired is now a source of disinformation and secretly represents everything that is contrary to the good of the people. Take Hillary Clinton and John McCain as shining examples of that. I can’t tell you how many arguments I had with people prior to the 2016 election that Hillary was the same person with good intentions she was when her husband took office and the Wall Street grovelling and war mongering we’re just an act to be abandoned once in office. Glad I didn’t take their advice.
I had a conversation with a work-mate in the UK a few years back about the veracity of the “news” in the UK. I am very sceptical, he very believing. When I probed him further, he admitted that deep down he knew a lot of the information was probably not true, but he chose to believe it, as to not believe it – or question it – would have been discomforting to him and a form of “disloyalty”.
I suspect many people just let the “news” etc wash over them, take it at face value and really couldn’t care less one way or the other – which is another response I had from a friend in the UK – he couldn’t care less (about the Blair era Iraq war), but loved the soap-operas and sport on the TV and radio… and White Lightning.
Can you explain something to me? I am the same age as Ray, know how to ‘cut and paste’, watch RT, nyt, twitter, wikileaks, whistleblowers, know the difference between something that’s carried at internet speed and the speed of a flash drive—how come I alone among my friends knew that #RussiaGate was ridiculous?
All the other people are younger, and are expected to know more about computers, trolls, bots, what’s happening.
I am barely a ‘moderate level’ computer-user.
How could all these people be fooled?
My friends all listen to Rachel Maddow, too!
I see that only The Devil’s Chessboard is available in audiobook from nls (LC).
Thanks, it sounds great. Have you read The Brothers by Stephen Kinzer?
That’s one of my favorite books.
I haven’t read Kinzer’s book yet. I’ll check it out. Thanks. Time to take to the streets for Julian!
Jean and Skip,
I totally hear you! And yes, I read the Devil’s Chessboard and The Shock Doctrine, which outline the deep state scary actions from the 30’s onward, (in addition to hundreds of others like those), and trying to communicate with anyone brainwashed into the Washington Consensus is more than challenging. Even JFK’s daughter Carolyn doesn’t seem to get it. It may be a brain stuck at a certain development level is not changeable.
I read https://archive.org/details/FallacyTheCounterfeitOfArgumentByWWardFearnsideAndWilliamBHolther/page/n1 when I was 12 or 13, which I picked up as a paperback in the corner stationary store for I think 35 cents. They used to sell cheap decent books that were widely available. I’ve been a ‘natural’ logical thinker since then. It’s early education that is most useful.
But don’t discount listening to RT, or other good sources of information giving an alternative, and verifiable narrative, beyond the lies and spin of the corporate media. Include Consortium News in these, of course.
Unfortunately, Skip Scott, such courses are no longer available.
Even a rudimentary awareness of rhetorical deceits is lacking in those deemed “educated”, today.
For example, many may recall George W. Bush saying, “You are either with us or against us.”
Yet few know that that specific phrase is the description of what the Romans who, along with the Greeks, clearly described and abhorred such fallacies of discourse, this particular one, known as Argumentum ad Baculum in Latin, “argument backed by a stick”, is a deliberate threat and its intent is to end debate and silence those who dare question.
Since so very many USians have no awareness of any such fallacious argument, beyond the ubiquitous Argumentum ad hominem, they are easy marks for a range of other equally egregious “arguments” and fallacies and false analogies.
Argument ad ignorantiam – Asserting a proposition is true because it has not been proven false, or false because it has not been proven true, might be of comfort to those who assert that Russia and Julian Assange are responsible for Trump, but the effects of that assertion, a new Cold War, a new McCarthy era of accusation and censorship have already visited harm in society and may well have very destructive outcomes in future, especially in terms of war between nations with vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Not to mention the anti-intellectual cost of simplistic thinking and undermining critical thinking skills in future.
Argumentum ad populum – the appeal to the people’s predjudices or inculcated fears, is great for starting wars, as is appealing to “humanitarian” sensibilities by creating a dishonest narrative about another nation or society to justify military “intervention”.
Argumentum ad verecundiam – the “shameful argument”. Appealing to an authority in one field regarding something in another field of specialization about which that authority has no expertise at all.
This is a favorite of those who deny that human behavior may have profoundly negative effects on the environment.
There are other rhetorical deceits much employed, very successfully, by the powers that be, yet most people are blithely unaware how easily “consent” and consciousness may be manipulated.
Philosophy 101, was what the course was called when I attended university, eons ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and we walked to school, through snow twenty feet deep, uphill, both ways.
Frankly, corporate academia has quite as much to answer for, I consider, as do the corporate media.
It amazes me how very few of my fellow Boomers seem to have stumbled over, or across, some still relevant, “ancient” wisdom, that still has a profound utility in the detection of Bull Shit, grand or petite.
DW-
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that colleges no longer offer a course in logic. It doesn’t serve power to have a critically thinking electorate. Thanks for the list of logical fallacies. I’ve still got my “Introduction to Logic” textbook from my college days, and I think I will go through it again soon to give myself a refresher.
How could all these people be fooled:
1) MIMICATT
2) society dominated by the mind-suppressing trifecta of the military, religion and corporations
[Note: considerable overlap between #1) and #2) must be assumed.]
Because they either want to be fooled which means they are able to shirk any responsibility or they don’t give enough of a damn to care if/when/whether they’re being fooled, which also means they don’t have to take any responsibility for how they conduct their lives.
Can you explain something to me? I am the same age as Ray, know how to ‘cut and paste’, watch RT, nyt, twitter, wikileaks, whistleblowers, know the difference between something that’s carried at internet speed and the speed of a flash drive—how come I alone among my friends knew that #RussiaGate was ridiculous?
All the other people are younger, and are expected to know more about computers, trolls, bots, what’s happening.
I am barely a ‘moderate level’ computer-user.
How could all these people be fooled!
March 19, 2017 The CIA’s 60-Year History of Fake News How the Deep State Corrupted Many American Writers
Whitney’s new book, “Finks: How the C.I.A. Tricked the World’s Best Writers,” explores how the CIA influenced acclaimed writers and publications during the Cold War to produce subtly anti-communist material.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46688.htm
Robert Swan Mueller the III was appointed as the FBI Director from Sept 4, 2001, (one week before the 9/11 attacks). He served as the acting Director until Sept 4, 2013. … And, just how many Indictments and Convictions concerning the Financial Collapse did Mr. Robert Swan Mueller the III, assist the American People with?
The full report for the Financial Inquiry Commission is available at:
https://fcic.law.stanford.edu/
The Commission members included: Phil Angelides, Hon. Bill Thomas, Brooksley Born, Byron S. Georgiou, Bob Graham, Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Heather H. Murren, John W. Thompson, Peter J. Wallison
I only present here some of the Commissions conclusions:
…..
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created to “examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” The Commission was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (Public Law 111-21) passed by Congress and signed by the President in May 2009. The Commission’s statutory instructions set out 22 specific topics for inquiry and called for the examination of the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government.
On January 27, 2011 the Commission delivered its report to the President, Congress and the American people. The operations of the Commission will conclude on February 13, 2011.
As this report goes to print, there are more than 26 million Americans who are out of work, cannot find full-time work, or have given up looking for work. About four million families have lost their homes to foreclosure and another four and a half million have slipped into the foreclosure process or are seriously behind on their mortgage payments. Nearly $11 trillion in household wealth has vanished, with retirement accounts and life savings swept away. Businesses, large and small, have felt the sting of a deep recession. There is much anger about what has transpired, and justifiably so. Many people who abided by all the rules now find themselves out of work and uncertain about their future prospects. The collateral damage of this crisis has been real people and real communities. The impacts of this crisis are likely to be felt for a generation. And the nation faces no easy path to renewed economic strength.
The financial system we examined bears little resemblance to that of our parents’ generation. The changes in the past three decades alone have been remarkable. From 1978 to 2007, the amount of debt held by the financial sector soared from $3 trillion to $36 trillion, more than doubling as a share of gross domestic product. The very nature of many Wall Street firms changed—from relatively staid private partnerships to publicly traded corporations taking greater and more diverse kinds of risks. By 2005, the 10 largest U.S. commercial banks held 55% of the industry’s assets, more than double the level held in 1990. On the eve of the crisis in 2006, financial sector profits constituted 27% of all corporate profits in the United States, up from 15% in 1980. Understanding this transformation has been critical to the Commission’s analysis.
• We conclude this financial crisis was avoidable.
• We conclude widespread failures in financial regulation and supervision proved devastating to the stability of the nation’s financial markets.
• We conclude dramatic failures of corporate governance and risk management at many systemically important financial institutions were a key cause of this crisis.
• We conclude a combination of excessive borrowing, risky investments, and lack of transparency put the financial system on a collision course with crisis.
• We conclude the government was ill prepared for the crisis, and its inconsistent response added to the uncertainty and panic in the financial markets.
• We conclude there was a systemic breakdown in accountability and ethics.
• We conclude collapsing mortgage-lending standards and the mortgage securitization pipeline lit and spread the flame of contagion and crisis.
• We conclude over-the-counter derivatives contributed significantly to this crisis.
• We conclude the failures of credit rating agencies were essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction.
WHEN THIS COMMISSION began its work 18 months ago, some imagined that the events of 2008 and their consequences would be well behind us by the time we issued this report. Yet more than two years after the federal government intervened in an unprecedented manner in our financial markets, our country finds itself still grappling with the after effects of the calamity. Our financial system is, in many respects, still unchanged from what existed on the eve of the crisis. Indeed, in the wake of the crisis, the U.S. financial sector is now more concentrated than ever in the hands of a few large, systemically significant institutions.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, in its final report, used variants of the word “fraud” 157 times in describing what led to the crisis of 2008, concluding that there was a “systemic breakdown,” not just in accountability, but also in ethical behavior.
The commission found, their were signs of fraud everywhere to be seen. The number of reports of suspected mortgage fraud had risen twenty-fold between 1996 and 2005 and then doubled again in the next four years. As early as 2004, FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker was publicly warning of the “pervasive problem” of mortgage fraud, driven by the voracious demand for mortgage-backed securities.
Thank you, Ray, but I gotta say that the United States is toast. The deep state is a cancer on our government and it will kill it before too long.
The media is deep state so it will only work to assist their fellow criminals. Unfortunately, I believe that US political parties have become cults. There are no longer party members, rather, adherents are cult members. Facts will not change a cult member’s mind. In fact, we now understand that cult leaders who make one wrong pronouncement after another cause cult members to have a higher regard for and belief in the cult leadership.
I believe the move from political party, to religion and now to cult has been deliberately orchestrated by the deep state in order to control the people of the US. The use of deep state media has been instrumental in changing what were formerly political associations where people could have real differences of opinion but still be friends with members of other political parties, into the “us v. them” which we see now. The creation of political cults dehumanizes the “other”, stops thought, isolates cult members from other ideas and stops all real questioning. Each of these attributes keeps the powerful in place and it will not end because it is thoroughly useful to the powerful to keep this paradigm in place.
For me, the more important question is how we break down the cults the powerful have created. Part of the answer is to engage with our fellow citizens, face to face. It begins with having integrity, honor and caring towards others. It’s much more difficult to manipulate people with these values.
When we talk with others it is imperative that we stick w/honest argument. At this point, honesty is itself startling enough that it may have the power to break through cult mind control. Most of the media is not honest. It’s the wrong place to look for honesty as media does not serve people who wish for honesty. They serve those who wish for control. Breaking down all the lies is going to be the job of citizens who will inform themselves and speak with integrity to others.
i don’t know if i have an ill informed understanding or not, since my deplorable knuckles are so scraped, but deprogramming a cult member takes a highly trained psychologist.
unless of course there was a mass casualty event to make it plain where the cult dead ended to.
the reason i make the comment, to what i would otherwise agree to, is my PhD next door neighbors are quite the true believers. and i am viewed as unworthy. ( good thing my low iq keeps me from realizing how bad i should feel about my situation in life )
o.g.
I think just having integrity and speaking honestly and being willing to make a case for one’s thoughts without using personal attacks does not require any degree of education at all!
I sympathize with you. It is so frustrating when people won’t even consider that you made a decision and came to a conclusion based on information they won’t even examine in an honest, fair manner. I’m sorry you have to experience this. It isn’t right.
one day, very long ago, i was capable of doing partial differential equations. i think my arms started getting longer after i went to work building airplanes. but thank you Jill, for your well wishes. it is the kindest reply i have received at consortium news.
an essay i read last week referenced a study that concluded people are likely to doubledown on their beliefs until their own personal safety is threatened.
i realize though, i am susceptible to confirmation bias.
Jill, you have described perfectly what it was like in 1963 trying to talk to ANYONE in America about Viet Nam, Civil Rights or women’s rights. It was the same kind of isolation, mocking or propagandizing from the media, bullying from the (now) cherished labor unions, and slandering by Democrats that we see today. Everyone thinks the ’60’s was such a great time–well, in fact it was, because I was 20 and on the right side of history–but don’t think it was easy. We fought and fought and fought and fought for what was right, ethical and truly moral. For at least 15-20 years, until AMERIKA chose Nixon (and Cheney). Well, now we’re in a new cycle and the same thing will happen: a handful of butt kickers will stand and deliver (about 10%) of the population and everyone else will wonder what to do, and pearl clutch all the way thru this cycle but then claim “I was there” when the real Sheros and Heros of this cycle achieve the good. Get in the streets.
The thing about being dumb like you (and me, and Socrates) is that you can get away with asking many dumb questions of the smart PhDs who can educate you, like asking why of Putin wants Trump, does Trump do so may things that are bad for Putin and Russia? And why did Putin get messages to help Trump posted to Facebook when over half of them went up after the election, and so many were not about politics, or went against Trump? And why did the US engineer the coup in Ukraine if was to help Putin carry out plans?
There are so many mysterious things that he could help you with. (Otherwise, if that isn’t worth the time and toruble, you might want to listen to Sputnik’s FaultLines with Nixon & Stranahan podcasts, and if your neighbor would listen some maybe he could explain some of the things on the show to you.)
the best one i read on that topic was,
the russians made facebook make me make my wife vote for trump.
i’ll have a listen. thanks for the recommendation. have you seen any of the Yuri Bezmenov’s clips on youtube ? i thought they were a good piece of history.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMZGGQ0ERk
I haven’t, but I’ll check them out. Thanks.
Watched the video — US right wing capitalist propaganda film, with ‘red scare’. ‘Marxist-Leninist’ indeed (and I never quite understood how those two fit together anyway).
What is passing strange is that so many people still think Russia is the communist USSR, which they don’t understand in any case. There is a humorous and pithy saying about Russia propaganda: everything it said about the USSR was false, but everything said about the US was true. [grin]
That is Russian propaganda, from USSR.
It takes more than a ‘trained’ psychologist. It takes a human being willing to look at his abuser(s) in a different light. Your comment made me laugh. Thank you.
The indoctrination is far too orchestrated not to assume that fractionalizing the country is the primary objective. This is straight out of the CIA’s regime change playbook.
cia … is that the new abbreviation for disciples of the frankfurt school.
i ran my eyes over most of the pages of “ one dimensional man “ by marcuse last summer.
i was hoping it would lead me out of my platonic cave. alas, a how to manual it was not.
i guess it was confirmed, i am too dim to live in the light.
how about those venzuelans though. looks like they got the cia in charge of power generation at last.
“They [the Democrats and Republicans] have lied multiple times to the American people. All you have to do is look at their phony memos. They have had the full support of the media, 90 percent of the media in this country. They all have egg on their face. And so the fact of the matter remains, is there going to be — is justice going to be served or is justice going to be denied? And that’s why we’re sending over these criminal referrals.”
Russia-Gate is nothing compared to what they are capable of! If you are banking on justice prevailing with this circus act read the executive summary below about another event and make up your own mind on what they should ALL be indited for!
https://www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/grand-jury-petition-executive-summary/
This is what I have continued to say. And Old Gee, hang in there. You are all right.
“Devin Nunes (R-CA), the House Intelligence Committee ranking member, has gone on the offensive, writing Friday that committee Republicans “will soon be submitting criminal referrals on numerous individuals involved … in the abuse of intelligence for political purposes.”
Where were the Democrat calls for criminal referrals on the people who gave us the Iraq war? This is the difference between Dems and Repugs. Dems lay back while Repugs go for the jugular.
obzz. In your dreams.
My hope is that everyone has been so mean to to Trump he will forgo the customary practice of dropping a veil over the crimes of the previous administration and return the favour. If I was to settle for one person in jail I would go for Brennan any more and they would have to be rounded up by a posse on unicorns.
> Where were the Democrat calls for criminal referrals on the people who gave us
> the Iraq war? This is the difference between Dems and Repugs.
Nope! The difference is that in the former case, lots of Democrats would be in the dock, too.
I wonder if the mainstream media are still all that important. It’s rather like saying Pravda and Izvestiya ran the Soviet Union back in the days of Stalin. What we see currently are evidences of various factional struggles within the Deep State, but mostly not the struggles themselves or the players. Among the folk, however, I think the MSM have been pretty solidly discredited, for good reasons.
Anarcissie. Sorry to disappoint but from where I stand the MSM is doing fine amongst the burghers of middle class life (Uk)
A constant refrain of “WMD , well that was a mistake anyone could make and anyway it was years ago, 19th Century?”
Also ” I feel terribly sorry for Terassa May, she has such a difficult job, bless her”
Humans, gotta love em.
Ray, I cannot tell you how much I admire you. I also understand your anger ( because I share it; funny, how that goes) about the utterly absurd “Trump is Putin’s bitch, Russia ‘massively interfered with our sacred election, Putin ‘ has something on Trump’, Trump ‘committed treason’, Putin, Russia, Putin, Russia,”so-called ‘narrative’ spun out by the Dems and the non-Fox non- far right MSM. However, William Barr is not spending all of this time on “redactions” because Trump was “ exonerated” by Mueller’s report. It is past time that we confront the level of “redactions” that occur before ordinary citizens get to see anything really important- which, by the time we get to see it, is invariably a “nothing burger.” Let’s see it; let’s see the stuff from Ukraine on Biden and his son; and, by all means, at least stop allowing James Clapper and John Brennan to yammer on as if they aren’t making it up as they go along. Trump is a detestable, very dangerous man in a position where he can literally end life on earth. And the Democrats and MSM chiding and ridiculing the only sane things he has ever said, re: talking to Russia, getting out of the Middle East militarily, talking to North Korea, taking all of their cues from the military/inteiigence/national security state, is insane. I still want to see the full report. Unredacted, with all the appendices. US, not just a congressional ‘oversight’ committee. And all of the other reports withheld for the last 55 years from public view because of “ national security” concerns. This will be a good place to start.
We have gotten to the point where the MSM is more of a threat to freedom than the deep state. Put simply, democracy is impossible without access to “honest information” about “what is really happening” in “matters of importance.” The MSM fails in all three categories.
There has to be a dialogue on establishing a new media. A new media would be free of the type of corruption we see in the MSM. It is not going to be easy since it requires support, integrity and access.
Nonetheless, it has to be done. We will not be free until the MSM is swept into irrelevance by honest reporting.
Testifying under oath in front of Congress…another ‘credible’ show? The entire law and order system in the US has become the world’s laughing stock.
I’m with you there, Vera. Congressional investigations are worthless dog and pony shows. The DOJ doesn’t need any criminal referrals from Congress to investigate crimes committed by officials. When evidence of a crime being committed is in the public record, as in the case of fraudulently presented “facts” in applications for a FISA warrant, the AG can empanel a Grand Jury, direct an investigation, and seek indictments without any input from Congress.
Media outlets prefer the dog and pony show which allows them to report whatever they like. Grand Jury proceedings are secret and media outlets are restricted to reporting that an indictment has been issued. Spinning the report that someone has been indicted is much harder than spinning the chin-waggings of Congressional committee members.
Leaks to a reporter are very common during Congressional hearings, while leaks from a Grand Jury proceeding expose the leaker to an indictment of his own. It’s reasonable to conclude that a Congressional investigation can easily become an obstruction of justice. If we are to believe that it’s necessary for a Congressional committee to determine whether a crime has been committed by some “public servant” or other, the DOJ can be kept from conducting an investigation until members of the committee make a criminal referral.
Ray McGovern and his crew are on the case. And, while the Deep State might be exposed in this instance, partisanship might dampen the real message and the Democrats will take the blame. People must see that the Deep State used, uses and will use both parties to maintain its dominance. And, perhaps once again the Deep State will slink into the shadows to contrive and prosecute more nefarious deeds in the future while here in the land of the people, war between the parties, races and classes might destroy what is left of civil society. Left, right and center, Democrats and Republicans, whites and people of color MUST WORK TOGETHER to prevent the carnage that is in the making.
Does anyone really expect the liars to stop lying? Or to stop pulling the wool over the public’s eyes? No way. This is their MO, and they will stick to it come what may. Trump is a shining example of a truly dedicated liar, who will never, ever admit to being wrong about anything. And if the MSM is still around years from now, they will continue to assiduously falsify history to claim they were always right about everything. Their idea of their exceptionalism perfectly reflects the great American Delusion – the conviction that whatever I say is right, and that’s that!
I heard Trump speak candidly on Sean Hannity, just after the release. It was clear that his guard was down because he felt he was in friendly waters and he had just been vindicated.
I found him to be is completely beholden to the MIC with distorted thinking and frequent double-speak on War, Inc. However, in terms of the Russiagate, and the need for criminal prosecutions to protect the country, he seemed very lucid. He stated repeatedly, that the country cant run like this and no president should have to endure this in the future, this was treasonous; I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. In fact, his statements about Mueller, Clinton, media, pretty accurately reflect what has been reported in Consortiumnews over the past 3 years.
The notion that he is a liar in all areas all the time, is overly simplistic and inaccurate. On this particularly issue, the truth happens to be on his side so he appears to be speaking truthfully on the matter, that is not to suggest that he wont lie later when it is to his advantage.
Actually, he lies constantly about stuff that doesn’t matter, except to his ego. He lied constantly about his dealings with Russia, except with “ no collusion”, which isn’t the right word, but we’ll give him that. He is so ignorant of law and ethics that he lies in response to everything said that sounds like an accusation. It should have been obvious from the start that the “collusion” stuff was bogus. The man can’t “collude” with his own staff. Itis important that we do not overthink this guy. Before he started talking to Kim, he was openly threatening to nuke his whole country. As horrific as the real deep state is- and it doesn’t include federal employees at the EPA or Interior doing their jobs- this is a very crazy person, doing exactly what the GOP and its deep state denizens want him to do, with two of the biggest wingnuts of all- Bolton and Pompeo- in his ear. The fact that the Dems are actually pushing him because he’s not crazy ENOUGH on Russia and North Korea is a perfect illustration of how dangerous this moment is.
Trump who lies constantly about the stuff that does not matter vs Obama who lies constantly about the stuff that does.
Pick your poison.
The biggest insult to our American way of life caused through this Russiagate hoax is this…..
http://www.propornot.com/p/home.html
Once again all the angst and fear over bogey men (Russians this time) coming in through the bathroom window has robbed us citizens of even more of our inalienable rights. Yes someone should pay for this breach of our freedom of speech. Besides that the commotion over Russia and Fake News obscured what the DNC did to the Bernie Sanders Campaign of 2016.
I cannot thank you enough Ray McGovern and Consortiumnews for this rich assessment of Russiagate. It’s been a chore keeping up but the Iraq run up proved that not paying proper attention leads to massive death. Now it is totally necessary to call out those involved in both deceptions as Treasonous, and try our best to right the Ship Of State. We cannot fail at this task the alternative is unacceptable
It seems to me that things will be flushing down the “memory hole” shortly. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t imagine that Barr will back up Nunes. Nunes will most likely be brought to heel or dealt with “a la Deep State”. I suspect that war is on the horizon and that it will distract the proles from all things RussiaGate, and Hiatt will remain warmongering cheerleader-in-chief.
Here is an article that looks at whether nations around the world regard the United States or Russia as the greater threat to their nation:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/03/which-is-greater-threat-russia-or.html
It is interesting to see that nations that have traditionally been pro-American feel that the threat posed by American power is growing.
Excellent recounting of the Russiagate problem, with the humor of Ray McGovern.
But prosecuting a few partisan liars does not deter the corrupted secret agencies.
They serve the corrupt politicians installed by our money-controlled fake elections.
The US mass media are purely propaganda agencies for the dictatorship of the rich.
The judiciary are at least 99% corrupt and never punish the dictatorship of gold.
The tools of democracy belong to them, and are not available for peaceful reform.
Indeed “the America[n] people are tired” but then prefer the “dog that didn’t bark.”
I would agree wholeheartedly with all of your points. Indeed, so far as I can tell from my late spouse’s American FB friends (all well and highly educated), they have been completely taken in (willingly?) by the Orwellian/Huxleyan (as I have indicated in other comments here). Moreover, and ethically-morally worse (in my view) they pay all but zero attention to what the US and its vassals (UKFRIS especially but not only) have been and are doing around the world, particularly in the ME and EE. They don’t care, clearly, that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have been killed, maimed, their living destroyed along with their homes in order to feed the intractably voracious MICIMATT, to further the hegemonic planetary dominance of this country and line the pockets of the bourgeois ruling elites. Meanwhile homelessness, poverty rises in the west, infrastructure falls apart, rents rise astronomically (but the bourgeoisie don’t rent, do they?), real jobs at the lower socio-economic levels of western society are steadily eroding, and the planet is being destroyed for the benefit of the top 10%. And they are all sycophants now of the FBI-CIA (particularly) and NSA (I guess the Alexa, smart tv, smart phone etc syndrome wherein your life is totally and freely revealed to these agencies has weakened their resistance to secret agency surveillance?). Gone from the collective memory, apparently, is what these agencies (the first two particularly) have done – heinously, criminally, inhumanely – at home and abroad.
No – what concerns them is the Strumpet’s idiotic “windmill cancer,” Reds under their beds, Putin Derangement Syndrome (there has to be *something* there, of course there is), ID politics (strangely void of income inequality), and yet more trivia. I truly do not understand what use their education has been if it doesn’t
And my thanks to Mr McGovern for another cogent piece.
Yes, many well educated people simply believe the TV like the uneducated. Too much trouble to learn about the world and think about policy issues. It is easier to let the tube do the work, and denounce dissonance as nutty. That includes most of those of liberal arts as well as of technical educations. They will wait until Walmart offers a nice policy package in their price range. And then buy into that after their political/social/ethnic/religious/career tribe has approved.
H.L. Mencken said (approx.) that “The average man avoids truth [because] it is dangerous, no good can come of it, and it doesn’t pay.” Oligarchy can rely upon fearmongering and mass media repetition of nonsense and exclusion of criticism, and suppression of dialogue in the primary workplace venues of discourse, and threats to employment security. And of course oligarchy has the rewards that support the duopoly racketeers and their supporters. Most know that the path to wealth and power is adoption of the very rationales that enslave them. Their social contract does not extend to taking unusual risks for others.
Ray nailed it when he says, as long as as you keep in with the deep state and the industrial military complex you can really say what you like and are untouchable. That combined with a stupid public means the Russia gate farce goes on and metamorphosis into a different shape but is the same species.
There needs to be serious consequences for those who perpetrated & peddled this ridiculous Russiagate hoax? Someone has to pay for 3 years of gaslighting & lying to the Worlds citizens! The Media outfits & Politicians need to be hauled before the Courts & punished for their slander? Jail time & massive fines as well as Public apologies to Trump & the Country & people that they have victimised & slandered must also go to Russia & Putin! But this will never happen because in America, gross criminality & propaganda is the new normal & these people who claim to be journalists but are really intelligence assets, never are held accountable for the thought crimes they commit? These people have blood on their hands, half a million civilian deaths in Iraq alone due to the WMD lies they told & countless deaths in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan & other places & they continue to lie more recently in Venezuela? There is no Journalism or Journalist’s in America as Ray McGovern highlights here? They have gone the way of the Dinosaurs & what they have now is a Nazi styled, propagandist Media organisations, bought & paid for by the US Gestapo Intelligence agencies to serve the MIC War criminals to enable their endless wars & War profiteering economy!
This. Well stated. There need to be s e r i o u s consequences indeed. We’re talking t r e a s o n after all.
I look forward to the day CN stops attacking the bishops and rooks, and starts attacking the Queen.
This is a battle between US President Trump vs former Presidents Obama, The Clinton’s and the Bushes who he is accusing of treason and sedition.
The Republicans opposed Obama on everything except the $trillions for bank bailouts, the bipartisan support for his seven wars on behalf of Israel and Saudi Arabia, making Bush’s tax cuts for the Rich permanent, setting up the NAZI regime in Ukraine, and expanding the police state and jailing whistleblowers (like Manning and Kiriakou). Obama was still able to pass RomneyCare, deport record numbers at the border, and even do a few decent things by Executive Order like DACA and the treaty with Iran (which almost all of our politicians hated, and would have been overturned at Israel’s request by Hillary as well as Trump). So one would expect the Democrats to oppose Trump (although they oppose him even in self interest?), and to refuse to work with Republicans in a bipartisan manner in Congress.
But to accuse Trump of treason(!) on the basis of political opposition research and to use the Justice Department and Intelligence Agencies for political purposes just to undercut an Outsider who spewed hyperbole about the Establishment, goes far over the line. This is sedition. If allowed to continue, it will become the norm in American politics for the foreseeable future. We have become a Police State Banana Republic under Bush Cheney and Obama Hillary, and Trump has the tools (if someone can show him how to use them) for expected spiteful revenge.
More great work!
Consortium news has helped keep me sane in this sorted matter.
Keep it up!