RAY McGOVERN: Sic Transit Gloria Mueller

Democrats, stenographers who pass for journalists and the “Mueller team” will need all the time they can to come up with imaginative responses to two recent bombshell revelations, says Ray McGovern.

Making the Worst Case Appear the Better

By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News

Friday’s surprising report that Robert Mueller had successfully sought an extra week to prepare for his House testimony on Russiagate (now set for July 24) must have come as scary news to those of his fans who can put two and two together. Over the past few weeks, it has become clearer that each of the two frayed findings of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has now come apart at the seams.

Saturday’s New York Times reports that “the Democrats said they chose to delay at the request of Mr. Mueller” after a day of negotiations, “as both Democrats and Republicans were deep in preparations for his testimony” earlier scheduled for July 17. The Washington Post, on the other hand, chose not to say who asked for the delay. Rather, it explained the abrupt change in timing with a misleading article entitled, “Mueller, House panels strike deal to delay hearing until July 24, giving lawmakers more time to question him.”

How to Avoid Eating Crow

As the truth seeps out, there will be plenty of crow to go around. To avoid eating it, the Democrats on the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, the stenographers who pass for journalists at the Times and Post, and the “Mueller team” will need all the time they can muster to come up with imaginative responses to two recent bombshell revelations from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Friedrich: Told Mueller put up or shut up. (Flickr)

Perhaps the most damning of the two came last Monday, when it was disclosed that, on July 1, Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered Mueller to stop pretending he had proof that the Russian government was behind the Internet Research Agency’s supposed attempt to interfere via social media in the 2016 election. While the corporate media so far has largely ignored Judge Friedrich’s order, it may well have been enough to cause very cold feet for those attached to the strained Facebook fable. (The IRA social-media “interference” has always been ludicrous on its face, as journalist Gareth Porter established.)

Ten days is not a lot of time to conjure up ways to confront and explain Judge Friedrich’s injection of some unwelcome reality. Since the Democrats, the media, and Mueller himself all have strong incentive to “make the worst case appear the better” (one of the twin charges against Socrates), they need time to regroup and circle the wagons. The more so, since Mueller’s other twin charge — Russian hacking of the DNC — also has been shown, in a separate Court case, to be bereft of credible evidence.

No, the incomplete, redacted, second-hand “forensics” draft that former FBI Director James Comey decided to settle for from the Democratic National Committee-hired CrowdStrike firm does not qualify as credible evidence. Both new developments are likely to pose a strong challenge to Mueller. On the forensics, Mueller decided to settle for what his former colleague Comey decided to settle for from CrowdStrike, which was hired by the DNC despite it’s deeply flawed reputation and well known bias against Russia. In fact, the new facts — emerging, oddly, from theU.S. District Court,pose such a fundamental challenge to Mueller’s findings that no one should be surprised if Mueller’s testimony is postponed again.

Requiem for ‘Interference’

Daniel Lazare’s July 12 Consortium News piece shatters one of the twin prongs in Mueller’s case that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” It was the prong dripping with incessant drivel about the Kremlin using social media to help Trump win in 2016.

Mueller led off his Russiagate report, a redacted version of which was published on April 18, with the dubious claim that his investigation had

“…established that Russia interfered in the 2016 election principally through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working in the Clinton campaign, and then released stolen documents.”

Judge to Mueller: Put Up or Shut Up

Mueller: Needs more time. (Flickr)

Regarding the social-media accusation, Judge Friederich has now told Mueller, in effect, to put up or shut up. What happened was this: On February 16, 2018 a typically credulous grand jury — the usual kind that cynics say can be persuaded to indict the proverbial ham sandwich — was convinced by Mueller to return 16 indictments of the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and associates in St. Petersburg, giving his all-deliberate-speed investigation some momentum and a much-needed, if short-lived, “big win” in “proving” interference by Russia in the 2016 election. It apparently never occurred to Mueller and the super-smart lawyers around him that the Russians would outsmart them by hiring their own lawyers to show up in U.S. court and seek discovery. Oops.

The Feb. 2018 indictment referred repeatedly to the IRA simply as a “Russian organization.” But in Mueller’s report 14 months later, the “Russian organization” had somehow morphed into “Russia.” The IRA’s lawyers argued, in effect, that Mueller’s ipse-dixit “Russia did it” does not suffice as proof of Russian government involvement. Federal Judge Friedrich agreed and ordered Mueller to cease promoting his evidence-less charge against the IRA; she added that “any future violations of her order will trigger a range of potential sanctions.”

More specifically, at the conclusion of a hearing held under seal on May 28, Judge Friedrich ordered the government “to refrain from making or authorizing any public statement that links the alleged conspiracy in the indictment to the Russian government or its agencies.” The judge ordered further that “any public statement about the allegations in the indictment . . . must make clear that, one, the government is summarizing the allegations in the indictment which remain unproven, and, two, the government does not express an opinion on the defendant’s guilt or innocence or the strength of the evidence in this case.”

Reporting Thursday on Judge Friedrich’s ruling, former CIA and State Department official Larry C. Johnson described it as a “potential game changer,” observing that Mueller “has not offered one piece of solid evidence that the defendants were involved in any way with the government of Russia.” After including a lot of useful background material, Johnson ends by noting:

“Some readers will insist that Mueller and his team have actual intelligence but cannot put that in an indictment. Well boys and girls, here is a simple truth–if you cannot produce evidence that can be presented in court then you do not have a case. There is that part of the Constitution that allows those accused of a crime to confront their accusers.”

IRA Story a ‘Stretch’

Last fall, investigative journalist Gareth Porter dissected and debunked The New York Times’s far-fetched claim that 80,000 Facebook posts by the Internet Research Agency helped swing the election to Donald Trump. What the Times story neglected to say is that the relatively paltry 80,000 posts were engulfed in literally trillions of posts on Facebook over the two-year period in question — before and after the 2016 election.

Stretch and executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google hauled before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and terrorism on Oct. 31, 2017.

In testimony to Congress in October 2017, Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch had cautioned earlier that from 2015 to 2017, “Americans using Facebook were exposed to, or ‘served,’ a total of over 33 trillion stories in their News Feeds.” Shamefully misleading “analysis” by Times reporters Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti in a 10,000-word article on September 20, 2018 made the case that the IRA’s 80,000 posts helped deliver the presidency to Trump.

Shane and Mazzetti neglected to report the 33 trillion number for needed context, even though the Times’ own coverage of Stretch’s 2017 testimony stated outright: “Facebook cautioned that the Russia-linked posts represented a minuscule amount of content compared with the billions of posts that flow through users’ News Feeds everyday.”

The chances that Americans saw any of these IRA ads—let alone were influenced by them—are infinitismal. Porter and others did the math and found that over the two-year period, the 80,000 Russian-origin Facebook posts represented just 0.0000000024 of total Facebook content in that time. Porter commented that this particular Times contribution to the Russiagate story “should vie in the annals of journalism as one of the most spectacularly misleading uses of statistics of all time.”

And now we know, courtesy of Judge Friederich, that Mueller has never produced proof, beyond his say-so, that the Russian government was responsible for the activities of the IRA — feckless as they were. That they swung the election is clearly a stretch.

The Other Prong: Hacking the DNC

The second of Mueller’s two major accusations of Russian interference, as noted above, charged that “a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working in the Clinton campaign, and then released stolen documents.” Sadly for Russiagate aficionados, the evidence behind that charge doesn’t hold water either.

CrowdStrike, the controversial cybersecurity firm that the Democratic National Committee chose over the FBI in 2016 to examine its compromised computer servers, never produced an un-redacted or final forensic report for the government because the FBI never required it to, the Justice Department admitted.

The revelation came in a court filing by the government in the pre-trial phase of Roger Stone, a long-time Republican operative who had an unofficial role in the campaign of candidate Donald Trump. Stone has been charged with misleading Congress, obstructing justice and intimidating a witness.

The filing was in response to a motion by Stone’s lawyers asking for “unredacted reports” from CrowdStrike challenging the government to prove that Russia hacked the DNC server. “The government … does not possess the information the defendant seeks,” the DOJ filing says.

Small wonder that Mueller had hoped to escape further questioning. If he does testify on July 24, the committee hearings will be well worth watching.

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 a presidential briefer. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. His colleagues and he have been following closely the ins and outs of Russiagate.

179 comments for “RAY McGOVERN: Sic Transit Gloria Mueller

  1. July 22, 2019 at 13:37

    I am a bit upset that my comment on this article was not posted since it contain important new information about Ellen Ratner telling Ed Bukowsky that Julian Assange had told her that Seth and Aaron Rich were indeed the source of the DNC emails which were downloaded on to a flash drive onsite and then hand delivered to Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. This is more “hearsay” evidence that the emails were leaked and not “hacked” by Russians from some offsite location, just as William Binney and the VIPS inquiry also concluded.

  2. July 21, 2019 at 07:54

    Ray mentions; “The Mueller team will need all the time they can muster to come up with imaginative responses to TWO recent bombshell revelations from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.” [my emphasis] But there is a THIRD new bombshell that isn’t mentioned, namely Ed Butowsky’s lawsuit against several defendants who have attempted to silence and slander him regarding the Seth Rich murder and related matters, in which he maintains that Ellen Ratner informed him that she had met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy for six hours during which time he told her that Seth and Aaron Rich were indeed the source of the DNC emails and that they had been downloaded onsite at the DNC and not hacked by anyone, including “the Russians.”

    Here is the Gateway Pundit’s report on this revelation.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/breaking-lawsuit-outs-reporter-ellen-ratner-as-source-for-seth-rich-information/

    The entire Butowsky complaint against multiple defendants is also full of very interesting details about the entire duplicitous DNC campaign to blame Russia for the Seth and Aaron Rich leaks that had not yet come to the surface before now. The entire complaint is here. Especially important, and truly revealing, are paragraphs 34 ff. i.e. to the end of the document. If those of you interested in debunking the entire Russiagate Hoax haven’t yet read this document, you simply MUST read it now!!

    https://www.scribd.com/document/417895562/Amended-Complaint-Ed-Butowsky

    • July 22, 2019 at 01:10

      Dear Dr. Fussfeld,

      You are quite right. There are THREE court cases. And thanks for the link.

      It will be interesting to see if anyone alludes to the three, or just two, or maybe one? during the Mueller testimony on Wednesday.

      I wish we knew of some congressmembers who read consortium news — or would read us, if they were told about us.

      Hate to quote profound dicta from DT, but as for Wednesday, I guess “we’ll see what happens.”

      Ray

      • July 22, 2019 at 18:07

        Indeed, Ray, Wednesday should be a real hoot!! The only problem is that most of the silly Dems will be badgering Mueller because he didn’t find ENOUGH perfidious Russian influence on our 2016 election, not because he bought into all the deliberately manufactured lies and distortions that Mssrs. Brennan, Morrel, Clapper, Comey, Podesta, as well as one Ms. Hillary Clinton, were forever dishing out on the MSM Sunday talk shows, and via Rachel Maddow and other such gullible fools, and hence found far TOO MUCH Russian influence! Now if there will be any Republicans interrogating Mueller on Wednesday, we might get a bit of push back, although even they haven’t been all that strong in general in making the case for all the Russiagate “evidence” being either cooked or mere hearsay, and hearsay from the folks just mentioned, all of whom are well known inveterate LIARS! Poor Mueller! Even if he manages to convince the Russiagate faithful Dems out for blood that there was “really, probably, more collusion going on than he felt comfortable letting into [his] report,” he will just look like all the bigger fool when the full truth comes out, as it will, I trust, — although that there is still so much resistance to admitting it must give one some pause! — so that even his weaker conjecture that the Russians “hacked” the DNC server, — and equally preposterous claim — will be revealed to be a spurious as the stronger claim of “possible” collusion. But for folks like you and me, Ray, Wednesday will be nothing short of one sweet treat!! And, let us hope, the beginning of the end of this entire odious Russiagate snark hunt!!

      • MichaelWme
        July 24, 2019 at 15:44

        I just watched as Mueller said it is irrefutable that Russia interfered in the election. I also read (several places, most recently the Daily Beast) that anyone who does not believe Wikileaks is an illegal Russian spying agency is a deluded conspiracy theorist.

        The problem with this article is the statement, found only here and ultra-right-wing tea party publications, that Judge Friederich ruled against Mueller. The mainstream media (and the record) shows she scolded Eric Dubelier, the attorney for Concord Management, and said his brief was brief was inappropriate and unprofessional and ineffective.

        The establishment media reiterate their lies that Wikileaks is an illegal Russian spy outfit, that Russia stole the election from St Hillary, that Mueller is incorruptible and effective and never railroaded anyone (in spite of ample evidence to the contrary).

        But Judge Friederich is another #NeverTrump appointed by Trump who ruled in favour of Mueller and against the lawyers representing the Russian accused.

      • MichaelWme
        July 24, 2019 at 16:08

        I listened to Mueller repeating his (and Obama’s and Comey’s lie) that Russia stole the election from Secretary Clinton, so he is not under any order from Judge Dabney Friedrich not to say that.

        I am afraid this article about Judge Friedrich ruling against Mueller is wrong. In fact, she ruled in favour of Muller and scolded Eric Dubelier, the attorney for Concord Management, one of the Russian agencies charged by Mueller. She said Dubelier’s brief was inappropriate and unprofessional and ineffective.

        Judge Friedrich is another #NeverTrump appointed by Trump.

        Consortium News has a lot of well researched articles, but I fear this is not one of them.

        And the mainstream media (I most recently read this on the Daily Beast) continue to lie that anyone who does not believe that Wikileaks is an illegal Russian spy agency and that Russia stole the election is a delusional conspiracy theorist, since all the ‘experts’ agree that this is a ‘fact’.

  3. Kay Weir
    July 21, 2019 at 03:03

    dear Ray
    thanks for the great work you have done exposing this terrible Russiagate hoax;
    making the world a safer place. You deserve a knighthood; or some better honour.
    Love your seeing humour in the situation and the fun you have with words especially in this sentence:
    “As the truth seeps out, there will be plenty of crow to go around.
    To avoid eating it, the Democrats on the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees,
    the stenographers who pass for journalists at the Times and Post, and the “Mueller team”
    will need all the time they can muster to come up with imaginative responses to two recent
    bombshell revelations……” Kay from New Zealand

    • July 22, 2019 at 01:01

      Thanks, Kay.

      But knighthood would not be my cup of tea. My forebears in counties Cavan and Galway did not have much truck for knights or landowners, or what my grandmother from Galway used to call the “high muckity-mucks.” “If THAT’S society, excuuuuuuuzz me,” she would say.

      Thanks for the thought, but rather than knighthood, I’d be happy to get some space in a mainstream newspaper.

      Ray

  4. July 20, 2019 at 16:02

    …..”the math and found that over the two-year period, the 80,000 Russian-origin Facebook posts represented just 0.0000000024 of total Facebook content in that time”
    Thank you for #TruthTelling. Let’s refocus our democracy and actually make a difference for the people… policies matter.

    • July 20, 2019 at 17:37

      that could be a lot, Susan.

  5. countykerry
    July 20, 2019 at 01:02

    Ray McGovern, thank you for informing us !

  6. rich
    July 18, 2019 at 20:43

    ray, your reportfailsto explain howit is not treason fr trump and the republicans to solicit help from russia to win the American presidential election, he in 2018, 14 republican senators traveled to moscow and recieved millions of dollars for “something” that is still unexplained a year later.
    they are traitors, during ww2, they would have been executed, we should be considering that now, rather than making up excuses for why our elected officails are consorting with he enemy of our country.

    • Seer
      July 19, 2019 at 21:13

      Hillary, is that you?

      Prove that you didn’t receive any money for posting this swill.

  7. Tom Hall
    July 18, 2019 at 05:20

    “the 80,000 Russian-origin Facebook posts represented just 0.0000000024 of total Facebook content in that time”

    This wasn’t election interference. It was homeopathy.

  8. Rong Cao
    July 18, 2019 at 01:09

    If you have watched British show “Deep State”. you will know how powerful the US intelligent communities and military-industrial complex were. Both Mueller and Comey are part of the deep state members. Maybe they have been the sleeping cells inside the FBI working for a few billionaire Republican extremists at the expense of ruining their own reputations to pursue the faker Russiangate cases, so as to help Trump to be reelected once this scandal of Democrats’ witch hunt are exposed at this articulated timing of the 2020 presidential election campaign season. All Trump needs to win is to win over the independent white voters in 3-4 swing state. President Trump does not give a crap about the immigrants in blue states in which he would lose their votes anyway.

    • alan
      July 18, 2019 at 05:13

      Ray McGovern ….was a CIA analyst for 27 years and a presidential briefer.

      While we are on conspiracy theories, what evidence do you have that he was not part of the Deep State?

      • mike
        July 23, 2019 at 20:49

        alan, the very fact that Ray McGovern is reporting on the deep state should be enough to tell you he is not a part of it.

    • Mike K.
      July 18, 2019 at 14:24

      Rong Cao “Maybe they have been the sleeping cells inside the FBI working for a few billionaire Republican extremists at the expense of ruining their own reputations to pursue the faker Russiangate cases, so as to help Trump to be reelected once this scandal of Democrats’ witch hunt are exposed at this articulated timing of the 2020 presidential election campaign season.”
      A few billionaire Republican extremists controlling Comey and Mueller? Bollocks! You are beyond daft.

  9. SteveK9
    July 17, 2019 at 16:48

    Even the trivial 80,000 posts were not all ‘Trump Good’ ‘Clinton Bad’ … they were all over the place, and more than half, after the election.

    • alan
      July 18, 2019 at 05:16

      Sure, but if they were targetted they could not be considered trivial in the context of 3 trillion posts. Nor can the principle of foreign powers using targetted social media to push their agenda be considered a trivial matter.

      • Seer
        July 19, 2019 at 21:27

        JUST FREAKING KNOCK IT OFF! This desperation to pin HRC’s pathetic failure on something other than herself and the DNC is, well, PATHETIC.

        Yeah, stir up the hornets net that is Russia. And this is exactly what “Putin’s puppet” Trump has done. Why would that be the case? IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY ZERO SENSE (unless it’s all orchestrated by the Deep State to continue to keep us divided and supporting their control over us). The US has had military in Russia (beginning of the 20th century). The US instigated the Ukrainian uprising. For those lacking an understanding of history, Nazi Germany attacked Russia through Ukraine: result being millions of Russians paying with their lives, and Hitler’s Germany being stopped.

        Those voters who swung the election for Trump detested Hillary Clinton. Anyone think that the way to lure them away from Trump is to continue to push this BS Russiagate story?

        TPTB will try to undermine Sanders’s almost certain win, if not at the party level (like happened last time) then at the General. Hanging Russiagate out there as red meat to those swing voters is one way to get them to pull the lever for Trump again: and TPTB have already made it clear that they’ll go for Trump before allowing a “socialist” at the helm: given the US’s involvement of the overthrow of democratically elected socialist leaders across the globe it only stands to reason that it has also taken place inside the US (we KNOW that folks not championing Israel are targeted by forces inside the US).

      • Mike K
        July 23, 2019 at 20:53

        That you are daft enough to continue to defend the russiagate hoax, speaks volumes about your preference to support ignorance and stupidity over facts and logic.

    • Mike K
      July 18, 2019 at 14:28

      Steve K9 you are correct. That fact is ignored by almost every “urinalist” who has covered this story. Not to mention the involvement of those russian FB posters in coordinating an anti-Trump parade in NY city right after the election.

  10. Carlos
    July 17, 2019 at 12:52

    With Erin Ratner being named as a conduit between Seth Rich and Wikileaks in a lawsuit yesterday – the second flimsy leg of Mueller’s claims – gets cut off at the knees.

    • July 17, 2019 at 17:40

      Seth Rich (deceased) *and* Aaron Rich (not deceased)

    • Chris
      July 17, 2019 at 18:21

      Do you have a source for this? Google and Bing searches yield nothing beyond your post.

      • Nana
        July 18, 2019 at 13:33

        Look @ Currie Dobson Twitter for in depth info

    • July 21, 2019 at 09:00

      Yes, the outing of Ratner in the Butowsky complaint is very important since it lends far more credence to the correct narrative that it was the Richs who leaked the DNC emails to Assange and Wikileaks, not the Russians.

  11. Joseph Pena
    July 17, 2019 at 12:42

    The problem I am having with the Dabber Frierich take on the Mueller investigation is that she was appointed to the Bench be non other than Trump ! This does not inspire confidence in me !

  12. David Cherryholmes
    July 17, 2019 at 09:30

    This one doesn’t.

  13. cletus
    July 17, 2019 at 05:29

    just read your article at lewrockwell on 7/17.

    you gave all the facts that irrefutably condemn the mueller hoax and reveal what a con man he is. I salute you for this.

    unfortutunately, you then come to a conclusion that cannot be supported by an reasonable person.

    you think that mueller’s con will be called out by the republicans on the committee.

    what a joke. They will avoid like the plague revealling that the russia claims by mueller are a hoax.
    they’ll focus completely on ‘ you did conclude that trump didn’t collude with the russians, right?”

    anyone who’s been paying attention at all knows this.

  14. whatwaswas isis
    July 17, 2019 at 03:39

    Until Trump’s tax returns are made public, there is nothing that detective work or “forensics” can comment on. This mongrel who makes jokes, and is able to reach into the archives of what was, then manipulate the facts of what is, results in torturing the torturers, which distorts factual history. Bush is another master of BSing the BS he fabricated to rewrite history. His library is a shrine to the lies of what utter contempt a sick and depraved mind can sculpture in evil thoughts, while presenting himself as a man of a Christian God. Your children’s children will step into that library and hopefully be aware of what evil was and is. I can’t wait for the Trump “library” to present itself for us to get some comic relief, and also force us to take an acid bath of true rebirth of what and who we should really be. I Christen his legacy and his erection of a thought of leaving us a building of his “work”, the mother of all urinals. I hope many generations of free Americans will be able to get near the stench of corruption and get a little whiff of mankinds worst. They can walk away, moan ahhhh with a smirk on their faces. He was a builder alright alright.

  15. Realist
    July 17, 2019 at 01:46

    x

  16. Realist
    July 17, 2019 at 01:44

    What’s the deal with Correa, former president of Ecuador who gave Assange asylum in the London embassy, suddenly backing the story of CNN that Assange meddled in the U.S. election from his sanctuary? Why not act then? Why keep this allegation a secret till now? Something does not smell right. Correa was being pursued on charges by his replacement, president Moreno who turned Assange over to the British authorities. Was Correa offered some deal of immunity for his latest words? Disturbing development, is it not? Who can you believe or trust from day to day?

    https://sputniknews.com/world/201907171076269935-former-ecuadorian-president-correa-claims-assange-meddled-in-us-elections-from-london-embassy/

    • defiance demon
      July 17, 2019 at 04:09

      Pretty strange, eh? My first thought was that Correa was threatened with assassination. But the suggestion of being offered immunity to “play nice” with the CIA backed Ecuadorean government is plausible. Why in the hell any whistleblower would seek asylum in any South American country is beyond my brain power. Now that fascist Bolsonaro rules Brazil, Glenn Greenewald really should think about leaving asap. Not just Brazil, but the whole damn continent.

      CN getting attacked; pro-Assange accounts getting shut down with no explanation; other sites of genuine, honest journalism getting flooded by deep state government trolls. Truly we are living in scary Orwellian times, and I don’t see it getting better.

    • Dave P.
      July 17, 2019 at 11:52

      Realist – It seems like that Correa , in a kind of exile now and fearing for his life if he returns to Ecuador, wants to get back into seat of power again sensing that time is ripe to jump the ship. He is trying to get into good books of the American Establishment which is hell bent on getting rid of Trump. Talking to CNN, see how he is praising Hillary and the Clintons, forgetting what she along with Obama did in Hunduras, Libya, Syria, and and elsewhere. It is not that Clintons with their millions love the immigrants, all they want are their votes and devotion to the Empire, which Hillary so desperately wanted to preside over. And it sure is getting clear that they have succeeded in winning over these minorities to the cause of the Empire.

      And Correa’s complete betrayal by attacking Assange. Correa says to CNN that Assange did not release the emails of Trump forgetting that Trump was not a career politician that there was nothing there to release except, like most of the Developers, his financial doings, and his love for beautiful women. Everything about him was in the open, and he was saying all these things about immigrants what he is tweeting now, people still voted for him.

      The situation in the Country is very fluid and conflicting, and they need an enemy to shore up the support at home to alleviate the damage done by the election of Trump. Russia has always been a convenient target for the Western imperial Powers for a century now.

      Situation is the same in Western Europe as it is here. There was a very interesting article in The Saker recently, the interview with Dmitri Orlov, the East Coast based writer. Towards the end Orlov answers questions about Europe and U.S. Below is the link:

      https://thesaker.is/the-saker-interviews-dmitry-orlov/

      • Realist
        July 17, 2019 at 18:04

        Update on Correa’s remarks. It would seem he had been misrepresented with respect to the CNN slander of Assange.

        Rafael Correa: “There are a lot of things in [CNN’s] article which – and I insist – depict things as actual and checked, although this is not the case. It appears as if they’ve proven that Assange engaged in espionage – with Russian spies, I think. Do they believe repetition is proof? What proof? Is the Mueller report a big proof? What report? *laughs* It’s like the report which said Iraq had WMDs or those videos where things are shown and God knows what happens to them.”

        https://sputniknews.com/latam/201907171076277633-its-a-lie-we-never-knew-of-interference-and-would-never-allow-it—-ex-ecuadoran-president-correa-/

        The truth is slippery and hard to catch, just as intended by those in power who mutilate it to their own purpose.

        I hope this gets posted. Nothing else by me has made it through today. The “post comment” button has been transformed into an eraser.

        CNN… construct[s] a fake reality so that, when Assange gets extradited and sentenced to disproportionately severe punishment, even the kind-hearted people applauded this giant disgust. It’s a trap and you should be careful not to fall in it. We do remember Iraq’s “WMDs,” which they used to justify an invasion, and the whole world applauded them. And then we discovered it was all a lie.”

        • Realist
          July 18, 2019 at 01:59

          The last paragraph is part of the quote from Correa. How it got transposed to the bottom of the comment, after my own statements, is a mystery.

          Well, anyway, at least Correa’s actual comments were revised in the press. The first indication was he agreed totally with CNN, when, in fact, he considers CNN to be chronic liars.

        • Dave P.
          July 18, 2019 at 02:43

          I took a sigh of relief. The earlier interview report by CNN cited in Sputnik News came as a shock. Correa as a person and as a politician always came out as principled. In this interview with Sputnik News , he clarified his views. It is a good interview.

    • Jill
      July 17, 2019 at 13:37

      Realist,

      Thank you for that link. World psychopaths do play a long game, so it is possible that Cornea was the US pick for Ecuador (as one person in the article postulates). It’s also true that the US regularly makes and carries out threats against people who don’t fall into line. I’m certain anyone with a passing familiarity of the US in Latin American realizes what the US has and will do. I don’t think making false statements out of extreme fear for oneself and the people one values is out of the question.

      Until we have more information, we can only say what we know. We know that Assange published 100% truthful information about Hillary Clinton. The American public had a right to know that information. If any person did not want to know that information they did not have to read it. If they did not want to believe it, they did not have to believe it. If publishing relevant and truthful information about a candidate for president is called “interfering” with an election, we are in serious trouble as a nation.

      I have always been interested in the demand that wikileaks, and wikileaks alone, must cover everything about every candidate. Were no other media organizations publishing information about Trump? I believe I remember one or two stories about Trump in the MSM! I also seem to remember that many MSM stories were not published without candidate Clinton’s expressed approval and that sometimes, her staff actually wrote the stories for the MSM.

      Now to me, that is interfering in an election but that conduct was not engaged in by wikileaks. Assange didn’t even give Trump his debate questions in advance. I guess Assange and Putin need to get a better game??? :)

      For whatever reason, Correa is “confirming” something which did not occur. The publishing of relevant, truthful information about a candidate for high office is simply journalism. This information may have interfered with Clinton’s personal plans to become president but the relevant audience for reporting is the public as a whole.

      In no way is truthful, relevant information an “interference” in the public process of an election. The same would be true if relevant, truthful information about candidate Trump was reported unaccompanied by relevant, truthful information about candidate Clinton.

      • Dave P.
        July 17, 2019 at 15:06

        There was this very good rebuttal on RT yesterday regarding CNN’s story on Assange, with George Galloway commenting on it. The link is below:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yntLTi1KWEk

  17. Robert G. Hilton
    July 17, 2019 at 01:13

    There was no expert report showing hacking because the expert had found that the Russians did not hack. Simple as that. The way it works is, that an expert puts nothing in writing until AFTER orally consulting with the attorney who hired him. If the news is bad for said attorney, then the expert is instructed NEVER to put the bad news in writing. I used to hire experts when I litigated patent infringement cases, and that is the way it works. If you pay the expert, then you make the rules. The judge may understand this too. I’m pretty sure that the Crowd Strike expert also gave Muller (Andrew Wiseman?) the same news about no hacking.

  18. michael weddle
    July 16, 2019 at 22:41

    Why, shortly after Random Juan claimed the presidency, was a Crowdstrike employee trying to stoke the Venezuelan coup?

    https://steemit.com/venezuela/@michaelweddle/crowdstrike-employee-tweeting-pro-coup-propaganda-on-venezuela

  19. michael weddle
    July 16, 2019 at 22:17
  20. ramblingidiot
    July 16, 2019 at 22:02

    Thank you for your service.

  21. Bailey
    July 16, 2019 at 20:27

    I wish that this constant debunking of Russia Gate would be doing some good. Sadly it’s not. Most of the members of daily kos believe everything about Russia Gate and even after reading some of the great essays written here that debunks it they instead say that this website has been bought out by Russia.

    I once thought that if people really looked at the evidence or lack of it that they would wake up and smell the propaganda. It has always been so obvious to me that there was never any there there and I couldn’t understand how people bought into it. But I think it has to do with who people voted for in the last election. Hillary’s supporters just can’t believe that she could have lost without outside interference. Sad.

    • O Society
      July 16, 2019 at 23:41

      Hgdd

    • O Society
      July 16, 2019 at 23:42

      Sad

    • O Society
      July 17, 2019 at 04:56

      Apologies for the noise, Bailey. Entering random words to get comments to show. Then unable to delete these due to technical difficulties here at CN site. Nothing to do with you or your comment. Carry on…

    • July 17, 2019 at 09:08

      Hillary Clinton did not lose the election she had 3 million more votes and Donald Trump Donald Trump only won because they bought the Electoral Congress

      • Skip Scott
        July 17, 2019 at 09:58

        It’s the Electoral College, not Congress. And who, pray tell, bought them? Establishment Republicans hated Trump, and tried to maneuver to get it to the House to get Colin Powell into the presidency.

      • Truth first
        July 17, 2019 at 11:57

        Nope, she lost alright. Buying the Electoral Congress is OK in the USA which is why DT is in the White House.

      • July 17, 2019 at 17:46

        Now we’re talking “conspiracy theory”.

      • tom
        July 18, 2019 at 16:14

        Sanders would have won….and easily

        Hillary only won the “popular ” vote by 3% to a game show host and you brag?

        Even Trump figured out the electoral college!

        Hillary lost states that went to Obama Twice …..the bigots

        Hillary turned blue states RED…..the ignorant.

        Hillary and Trump were the 2 most hated candidates in US history

        Americans’ Distaste For Both Trump And Clinton Is Record-Breaking

        https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-both-trump-and-clinton-is-record-breaking/

        RECORD BREAKING!!

        Only Hillary Clinton could cheat and lose to her own pied pier……

        • Skip Scott
          July 19, 2019 at 08:34

          Great comment, and spot on! The fact is those who control both parties would rather see Trump president than a REAL progressive. The DNC is just as rigged today as it was in 2016.

        • ML
          July 21, 2019 at 20:31

          You got that right, tom. And then some!

    • Occupy on!
      July 17, 2019 at 21:29

      I’ve been unsubscribing to DailyCos since 2016. They keep coming back to try to catch me, but as HW said, “Burn me once, shame on….” – well, you know what he said.

  22. Bill Abernathy
    July 16, 2019 at 19:54

    Ray McGovern story is like listening to a song bird! You enjoy it’s beginning, middle and end.

  23. tom
    July 16, 2019 at 19:44

    So you stand with the Bush war criminals?…..thats what Mueller is.

    Flashback: Mueller Has Lied Before, Just Ask Him About WMD’s

    https://youtu.be/uTDO-kuOGTQ

  24. ex-PFC Chuck
    July 16, 2019 at 18:08

    A post yesterday at The Conservative Treehouse expands on a Gateway Pundit post about an amended filing to the court in a Texas libel suit that could blow the whole Russia-gate hoax wide open, taking with it whatever shred of credibility the Mueller Report might still have. Not to mention the rationale for silencing Assange, General Flynn’s prosecution, and the murder of Seth Rich.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/07/15/lawsuit-claims-julian-assange-confirmed-dnc-emails-received-from-seth-rich-not-a-russian-hack/

  25. robert e williamson jr
    July 16, 2019 at 17:23

    Much thanks again to Ray.

    It seems that torches and pitch forks are gaining in popularity. Progress, finally!

  26. Vera Moldt
    July 16, 2019 at 17:13

    It looks like this fraudulent fable has finally been debunked by the US judicial system. Now the Hillary bots will have to come up with another excuse for her wealthy donors as to why she lost the election to a much maligned TV host that spent a small fraction of her campaign funding. This also takes some of the fuel out of using the Russiagate fraud for a march to war with Russia that was accompanied by large defense spending increases. Russiagate was the perfect gift to the Clinton campaign apologists and the MIC that needs a causus belli to feed the public war machine. That gift box has now been unraveled to display an empty box. I’m surprised Ray McGovern did not bring up the issue of the alleged hacking of DNC emails to have been contrary to the capability of the internet at that time. The rate of transfer was consistent with downloading to a flash drive but impossible for transfer of packets across an IP network – further debunking the Russia hacking narrative. This whole house of cards has crashed in and it seems that it will be impossible for the Russiagate fraudsters to reconstruct their tawdry myth.

  27. ranney
    July 16, 2019 at 16:56

    That’s a great article Ray. Thank you!
    Now I am wondering if there is any chance you could take apart Rachel Maddow’s report on Monday night. I confess I turned her off about half way through it, because I couldn’t stand listening to her lies. But she was going on about how Russia gave wikileaks the DNC stuff and how some new evidence proves it. I wondered at the time why she was doing this again, but now I understand – it was because of the Judge and I think word must have come down to trash Assange (she did have some nasty things to say about him). None of what I heard made sense to me or why it was taking up so much of her hour so I turned back to NPR, but the vehemance of her lies (she was pushing this version pretty hard) stuck with me. So could you write something about this please? If not on CN maybe you could give us a link to another web site or broadcast that discusses what she is doing and the damage she is causing.
    Thanks again for your efforts to keep this story straight.

  28. Joe Tedesky
    July 16, 2019 at 16:28

    u

  29. Jessica Hooser
    July 16, 2019 at 16:17

    Another absolutely ignorant unintelligent comment. It’s hard to believe so many people in America can be so absolutely stupid.

  30. Joe Tedesky
    July 16, 2019 at 15:52

    Finally after proving that she was the worst possible presidential candidate the Democrat’s could have ever endorsed our anointed one Madam Hillary left her wandering party with the oversold ominous Russia Gate fiasco to waste this country’s easily distracted valuable time with. This waste of time should be criminally prosecuted for all the disruption it has caused. Such a parting spectacle of arrogance it is that Hillary Clinton left her struggling party with these multiple claimed allegations without evidence filled nonsensical accusations of Russian collusion that the country is even more divided than ever due too even more unreal false flag issues for it’s citizenry to deal with. Where in this Hillary created event is Patriotism to be found? Like where is love of country even considered when releasing upon the world such a mean spirited compromise driven hoax? When it comes to this issue of Russia Gate Investigation the wrong party is being investigated.

    • Skip Scott
      July 17, 2019 at 07:20

      Hi Joe-

      I think you might be giving Hillary too much credit as being the “creator” of RussiaGate. She was certainly on board, but I think it is most likely John Brennan’s baby.

      For the evil ones leading our so-called “intelligence” agencies, there is no patriotism, only power. They are servants of an empire that goes beyond our borders. They seek global dominance for the Oligarchy at any cost. Patriotism is for us “little” folk. For them it is a quaint notion to be used to manipulate the proles.

  31. Clark M Shanahan
    July 16, 2019 at 14:58

    “My prior service brothers and sisters feel the same.”
    ???
    Have you read Howard Zinn, Frank??

    You would do yourself good reading Twain’s writings on our nascent neocolonial campaigns.
    Then, Kinzer’s “True Flag”.

  32. Realist
    July 16, 2019 at 14:26

    Sooner or later Mueller is going to have to invoke the “Emily Litella option,” asking us all to “never mind!”

  33. July 16, 2019 at 14:10

    “We all should burn in hell?” Umm… you might be taking all of this a little too personally, Frank Castle. Just a suggestion.

    What Robert Mueller hasn’t done is provide any public evidence of Russian collusion, which was the mandate.

    Show me the money. Where’s the evidence? That’s correct, show me the evidence.

    https://osociety.org/2018/07/20/ten-things-which-would-convince-me-its-not-a-witchunt/

  34. jaycee
    July 16, 2019 at 14:08

    Perceptive bloggers identified the IRA as a commercial clickbait operation two years ago. Everything about that operation was consistent with that description. Describing the IRA as a Russian government psy-op program, in turn, was inconsistent with the evidence at hand and so required the assumption that its purpose was to “sow chaos”, or similar guesswork. It should be remembered that the Facebook / Twitter people were initially reluctant to go along with the latter theory, and only came on board after a great deal of pressure from members of Congress such as Mark Warner. So this whole nonsensical story was magnified at the insistence of powerful Democratic congressional persons, and Mueller was simply bolstering their arguments – which was his job it appears. The result has been not only a false consciousness deliberately seeded through the public, but also a raft of social media and alternative news censorship which has been silencing both alt-right and progressive voices.

  35. July 16, 2019 at 14:06

    I enjoyed the first Consortium News Live Broadcast. Have you stopped making it possible to download articles? I see no icon for this article, Sic Transit Gloria Mueller, or for the article on Israel’s interest in Libya. I have been downloading articles and would like to continue to do so. Gretel Munroe

  36. Jeff Harrison
    July 16, 2019 at 13:45

    Thanx, Ray. I’ve said from the outset that Russiagate was bullshit perpetrated by Three Names who just couldn’t stand the fact that this was the latest in a long string of failures that this incompetent, arrogant woman perpetrated on the American people. It was bullshit from jump street because Three Names won the election by 3M votes but in the American presidential election you not only need the votes, you need the distribution. Distribution she didn’t have. Russia (or any other actor sufficiently large and determined) can sway votes for one candidate or another but they can’t sway distribution. I personally thought the claim that Russia via the Internet Research Agency sought to sway the election by disparaging Three Names and pumping up Thump. Three Names won by 3M votes. Looks like Russia’s IRA did a spectacularly poor job of meddling.

    There are some take aways from this that the government should be looking into/doing something about.
    1. Russiagate never had any legs. The legs that it got came from an effort by the deep state to create them out of thin air. The deep state tried to take on the role of the Praetorian Guard in old Rome. Their role originally was to protect the emperor but it morphed over the years into picking who would be the emperor. The likes of Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Struck (however you spell it) and his femme fatale (at a minimum, there may be more) should all be marched off to jail and locked up for a considerable period of time for their attempts to destroy our democracy (or republic – a distinction without a difference).

    2. Seth Rich’s murder needs to be actually investigated now that he has been outed as the source of the leak to Wikileaks.

    3. The Republican party needs to be banned as a political party. Any clear eyed view of the 2016 election will conclude that the decades old effort by the Republicans at voter suppression and gerrymandering are what resulted in the 2016 results. 80,000 votes in three states that the Republicans have invested great voter suppression efforts – Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania would have changed the election results. This should have been a major neon sign that winner take all for electoral votes is a bad idea. If proportional EC votes were mandated, third parties would have a chance and our presidential elections might become actual contests. Otherwise, we’ll continue to have elections that are between two candidates – worse and worser.

    • ML
      July 16, 2019 at 15:49

      Fabulous remark, Jeff- thank you! ML

    • tom
      July 16, 2019 at 19:37

      oh please , Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania voters know what Hillary Clinton did to unions and working people.She was the neo liberal queen.

      Hillary only won the “popular” vote to a baboon by 3% and only because California is bigger than most counties.

      • Charlene Richards
        July 16, 2019 at 21:44

        I am one of MANY Democrats who voted for Trump in the general election NOT because I supported Trump, but as the only possible vote to damn the DNC and Hillary Clinton.

        And while I am here (not to defend Trump), I think his recent comments against “the squad” (particularly Omar) were nationalistic, NOT “racist”.

        • ML
          July 17, 2019 at 11:13

          Charlene, would Trump have made the same comments about Congress members whose heritage was Northern European like the Swedes or from say, Germany? Or how about from where his own wife is from? I think not. Instead, he chose to denigrate brown-skinned people with his “go back to where you came from” bs. This is nothing if not racist. You voted for a racist, malignant fool. And yes, HRC is also a sociopath no doubt. Why vote for the vile? This is exactly where either third party voting or not voting for President at all makes sense.

          • SteveK9
            July 17, 2019 at 16:56

            The point is that the ‘Congress members whose heritage was Northern European’ … were not trashing the country, nor were those ancestors.

          • nwwoods
            July 17, 2019 at 17:50

            @SteveK9
            No one trashed any country, with the possible exception of the individual who used the term “shithole countries”

        • July 17, 2019 at 17:49

          “go back to where you came from” is the quintessential classic racist trope.

        • defiance demon
          July 17, 2019 at 19:28

          When making a choice between the lesser of two evils, you’re still choosing evil. I voted for Jill Stein.

        • July 17, 2019 at 21:34

          I am with you on both counts, Charlene.

  37. July 16, 2019 at 13:38

    Thañk You, Lord, for Ray McGovern.

  38. Raymond Comeau
    July 16, 2019 at 13:31

    I just read 8 lines of crap supplied by someone who is highly paid for crap, or who is absolutely divorces from facts!

  39. Raymond Comeau
    July 16, 2019 at 13:30

    I just read 8 lines of crap supplied by someone who is highly paid for crap, or who is insane!

  40. John Puma
    July 16, 2019 at 12:36

    The proportion of IRA “stories” among total Facebook postings
    in the period in question, can be expressed in manner a bit more
    readily grasped: on average, one IRA posting appeared among
    every 412 million total. For perspective the US population is now
    about 330 million.

    The FBIs bungling with Crowdstrike information is reminiscent
    of its reported 9-11 careless incompetence.

  41. Bob Van Noy
    July 16, 2019 at 11:50

    Test

    • July 16, 2019 at 17:10

      Testosterone

  42. July 16, 2019 at 11:42

    Roger Stone is, by all accounts, a vicious and loathsome person. It’s hard not to want to see him twisting in the wind at the end of a gallows rope. But that is exactly why we have a justice system that is based (when it works) on the truth, whole and nothing but. Let the truth lead where it may – basing our (justified) anger at Stone, Trump, Miller, McConnell et al. on less than the complete truth can only damage our own case. Stone, Trump, Miller, McConnell et al. have no such problem, since every word that comes out of their mouths is a lie, and they don’t care. We do, so we need to insist on the truth, even when it does not confirm what we want to believe. That is one of the hardest lessons of any democracy, but democracy will not survive without it.

    • July 16, 2019 at 13:23

      Well it looks like most of the words that have come out of Comey`s and Mueller`s mouths have all been lies as well wouldn`t you agree? And can you point to a single Democratic truth teller in this Democrat created mess? If you can it would be a rare individual indeed.

    • Jessica Hooser
      July 16, 2019 at 16:14

      Wow that is an absolutely ignorant unintelligent biased stupid comment. Are you really that stupid? It almost seems like a fake comment it is so incredibly stupid.

      • July 16, 2019 at 19:54

        Blanket condemnation and insults are no substitute for a reasoned rebuttal. Perhaps, you should try it.

    • tom
      July 16, 2019 at 19:40

      Mueller is a Bush cabal criminal who belongs in prison next to Bush.The FBI was being used a tool to get Hillary Clinton elected and illegally spying on Trump….as they have been the rest of the population…..The CIA and Brennan were the masterminds.All proved criminal and liars.

  43. Skip Scott
    July 16, 2019 at 11:18

    Please expound on the history of all the “courageous work” Mueller has done for us, and specifically what those “evil Rooskies” have done to subvert us. We’re all ears.

    BTW, Ray McGovern is also one of your prior brothers in service.

  44. Robert Emmett
    July 16, 2019 at 11:15

    Man, I’m always looking for a little poetic justice in the devolution of these *stories*, and this article offers a tri-fecta. In particular, the photos: Is Judge Dabney wearing a knock-off Nehru suit or a Chairman Mao outfit? (Ha ha); the caption for the pic of the Meulle musing could be, Which line of bullshite should I use next?; and, unlike what even the most virulent defenders of the Russiagate narrative offer as *evidence*, the three moaks in suits in the third photo from Facebook, Google and Twitter are actually the ones who are perfecting the direct targeting of political propaganda tailor-made to individual voters and injecting it directly into their brainpans, er, *newsfeeds*. Ha ha ha ha ha.

    Sadly, this face-saving saga, no doubt initiated by famed political rapper Hilarious C (she of the spooky open-mouthed laugh), already has corrupted untold numbers of ordinary people eager to keep-up and to polish whatever turds the oh-so-powerful *security complex* plus MediaCorps are shoveling out. The needle of disinformation has found its vein, the damage has long been done. I can’t imagine the mass narrative changing. And as much as I would love to see media shites forced to gag on their own lies, I don’t see them walking this thing back to the beginning. Nope, just like lying a country into war, there will be rationalization after deceit after change-of-subject and still the herd will gallop unquestioningly behind the WaPo, NYT, CNN, PBS, or whatever four horsemen you might care to name. And don’t they just know it.

  45. Peter VE
    July 16, 2019 at 10:56

    Meanwhile, the helpful stenographers at NPR gave a bunch of time this morning to the claim that the Russians spread the meme that Hillary Clinton had Seth Rich killed. Coincidence or conspiracy?
    I suspect most people hearing it this morning had little idea who Seth Rich was, or that there ever was a hint that he might have had anything to do with WikiLeaks.
    Another own goal by the MSM!

    • Jill
      July 16, 2019 at 13:06

      This may be why NPR featured that story:

      “Businessman Ed Butowsky filed a lawsuit on Monday that outed FOX News reporter Ellen Ratner was his source for the Seth Rich information.

      This comes after Michael Isikoff’s report last week that labeled Butowsky as a Russian source.”

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/breaking-lawsuit-outs-reporter-ellen-ratner-as-source-for-seth-rich-information/

    • Chet Roman
      July 16, 2019 at 13:12

      Yahoo’s reporter Michael Isikoff is a sock puppet for the CIA/FBI that provided the info to NPR and was one of the first to spread the lies told to him by Steele about Russian interference. He must have tried to head off the lawsuit filed today. Ed Butowsky filed a lawsuit against the liberal media claiming defamation and business disparagement. He claims that Assange told Ellen Ratner (Fox News analyst and sister of Assange’s lawyer who passed away) that Seth and Aaron Rich provided the emails to Wikileaks.

      https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/07/15/lawsuit-claims-julian-assange-confirmed-dnc-emails-received-from-seth-rich-not-a-russian-hack/

    • Kieron
      July 16, 2019 at 17:22

      I don’t think anyone with a couple of brain cells would dismiss the idea that an insider with the DNC having access to delicate, perhaps damaging material, being what seems on the surface, to be the victim of a motiveless murder would ask the question, was there any connection between Seth Rich’s demise and the crap storm that ensued after the Wikileaks release. Really hello !

    • LarcoMarco
      July 16, 2019 at 17:46

      “NPR’s Steve Inskeep talks to Michael Isikoff” – what a predictable farce! “We talked to Deborah Sines, who was the federal prosecutor in charge of the investigation into Seth Rich’s death. She was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, which prosecutes local murders. And she would see these conspiracy theories about her case circulating on the Web. She was – she wanted to find out where they were coming from.”

      At least we now know that Seth Rich’s death is/was a Federal case. No more claiming the DCPD has jurisdiction. But no disclosures of the contents of Seth Rich’s cell phone and laptop.

  46. Eric32
    July 16, 2019 at 10:38

    The author seems consumed by this carnival of politicized legalized covert intelligence operations, by people and entities trying to retain money and power.

    What’s important is that the system hasn’t been working for decades, and there’s going to be increasingly serious problems, maybe fatal ones, rising if a big overhaul doesn’t occur.

  47. George
    July 16, 2019 at 10:11

    McGovern: “Democrats, stenographers who pass for journalists and the “Mueller team” will need all the time they can to come up with imaginative responses to two recent bombshell revelations.”

    CNN: “Hold my beer.”

  48. Jill
    July 16, 2019 at 10:11

    This is a very good explanation. Thank you. Like signorRossi, I see the CNN story (as in fable) to be an attempt to reanimate Russiagate. That is one of the weirdest articles I have seen!

    Democrats are arguing that had the public not had accurate information about Hillary Clinton she would have won the election. The accurate information was so damning that people turned against her and voted for Trump. That is a very disturbing argument to make and I wish that non-powerful Democrats would think about the implication of what they are saying.

    Russiagate is so powerful. I see all kinds of accusations that it was Putin who controls Jeff Epstein (I gather because Epstein can implicate one or more Clintons).

    I’m reading all these sites such as that of Vicky Ward and there is one statement after another that someone’s chauffeur is a Russian, or just that someone knew a Russian etc. There is no link given between these various Russians and Epstein. It’s just that someone who is from Russia did a normal, everyday job. That kind of thing is scary. (This isn’t to say that I’m not grateful to her reporting which actually exposes Jeff Epstein, I am.)

    People are being trained to hate other people just because they are from Russia. That’s both sad and horrifying. Sad because the human family needs to get along with each other and horrifying because it is wrong to just hate someone because they come from some place you don’t like. This is a really low level of thinking and it is certainly not ethical.

    • michael
      July 16, 2019 at 12:35

      For years only NAZIs (most over 85 years old by now) and Arabs (now the Saudi headchoppers and other Sunni states are our (and Israel’s) best friends) could be ‘villains’. Now the only ones you can racially/ ethnically discriminate against are the Russians.
      (Even Chinese are everywhere and supported Clinton during Chinagate, and learned our jobs and high technologies, leading to huge profits for our oligarchs. How bad can they be?)

    • Adriana
      July 16, 2019 at 13:06

      You are very sensible???

    • Adriana
      July 16, 2019 at 13:07

      You are very sensible???

      • Adriana
        July 16, 2019 at 13:08

        I did not write those question marks. Did thumb up and a heart.

    • Gregory Herr
      July 16, 2019 at 19:28

      The absurdities know no end. Kamala Harris blames Russian bots for the Kaepernick kneeling controversy.

      https://youtu.be/PJ7GI28ywCI

      You can’t make this sh** up. But Kamala does!

      • Bob Van Noy
        July 17, 2019 at 09:02

        OMG, Greg she’s my senator, never fell for her image but this is amazingly over the top. Thanks…

      • Bob Van Noy
        July 17, 2019 at 09:07

        OMG, Greg, she’s my senator and I’ve never believed her pitch but this is absurd, thanks…

  49. Al Pinto
    July 16, 2019 at 09:43

    The DNC and MSM sold, and sold well, the Russiagate to the general public. Does it really matter, if the “Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has now come apart at the seams”? Neither the DNC, nor the MSM will report/mention either of the court case, pretty much a blackout for the general public.

    Even, if these court cases are widely reported, do you really believe that the majority of the people would change their mind? After almost three years, there’s no way that these people will change their mind. The only change that widely reporting these court cases would result in is, that Trump and HRC supporters would hate each other even more.

    This Russiagate will be with us pretty much forever, it’ll morph in to accusing people of being Russian agents and/or Russian Bots. We already see this taking place and just wait, until next year. It’s not going to be pretty…

    • michael
      July 16, 2019 at 12:40

      Aaron Mate has done a brilliant job researching and debunking Russiagate. Unfortunately for him, he is now ostracized and has to survive on the margins, with other people with critical thinking skills.

    • July 16, 2019 at 13:28

      You’re right. The truth doesn’t matter, just the BS narrative that has been shoved down our throats for the last few years. It never made any sense to anyone who really thought about it but the media whores just keep spewing total nonsense and they surely won’t change their ways now. The fact that the entire crock is really irrelevant to the majority of our citizens doesn’t matter to them a bit.

  50. AnneR
    July 16, 2019 at 09:42

    Thank you again Mr McGovern for another article on this never ending saga. While I hope that sanity begins to dawn among the so-called progressives, I have serious doubts.

    1. Neither the BBC World Service nor NPR have mentioned (at least while I’ve been listening) Judge Friedrich’s ruling vis a vis provide the evidence (discovery) to the IRA 12’s lawyers or tear up the indictment (essentially). Indeed, I’ve not heard, on the MSM, anything about those 12 IRA folks employing a lawyer and challenging Mueller’s indictment. Silence works as well as obfuscation, lies.

    2. The Demrats simply will not let their Russophobia go. I gather (from RT – tut tut I must be an RU bottle) that Ms Harris AIPAC schmoozer, keen and eager lock ’em up and throw away the key, corporate-capitalist crony Kamala has been accusing the Russians of stirring up the controversy surrounding Kaepernick’s bending of the knee. The Russians and their bots did it.

    3. And then this morning on NPR – a Steve Inskip interview with Michael Isikoff focusing on the Seth Rich “conspiracy theory” and of course the whole thing (or that segment which I could stomach hearing) presumed as a matter of established, and thus true, fact that everything that went wrong for the DNC’s HRC campaign was caused by the Russians – for which read Putin. Isikoff was there as an “investigative” journalist for “Yahoo News” – and his “investigation” had shown that the Russians were – who else – behind the conspiracy theory that Seth Rich was killed by HRC thugs in order to keep him permanently quiet about corruption in the DNC. (Corruption – a rather mealy-mouthed way of avoiding bringing into NPR daylight what the DNC were actually doing: determining who would be the Dem candidate willy nilly of who the voters wanted. But this mealy-mouthedness is fully in keeping with NPR’s basic silence on what Wikileaks revealed via that insider download.)

    Orwellian. Propaganda at its Bernays, Goebbels best. Despair…. This business is *not* going away. The Demrats – both in DC and their bourgeois/progressive supporters have far too much invested in the whole confabulation for them to admit that the former deliberately lied and the latter were willing? hoodwinked.

    • July 16, 2019 at 14:57

      Dear AnneR,

      Thanks for your comment. I would like it if somehow “despair,” could be disallowed.

      There are enough of us, after all. And, as Annie Dillard put it, “There never was anybody but us.”

      I also take some inspiration from the dismal-sounding, yet somehow uplifting words of I. F. Stone:

      “The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.”

      THE CHALLENGE IS TO ACCEPT THAT, AND FIND JOY IN TRYING — AND EVEN IN LOSING.

      I believe the losing does not last forever; think we all need to do our part in the “interim.”

      Best regards,

      Ray

      • DW Bartoo
        July 16, 2019 at 19:44

        That sums things up precisely, Ray.

        None of us may live to see a complete turn-around, yet it is the honest effort to encourage and build the foundation for that fundamental systemic change to conscious and principled human awareness which is the measure we must make of ourselves.

        Your sense of moral presence, Ray, is very much appreciated.

        It serves as inspiration for all, and especially the young, who already understand, and encourages, as example, those who are coming to understand.

        DW

      • AnneR
        July 17, 2019 at 08:33

        Dear Mr McGovern – thank you for reading and replying to my comment.

        And, yes, I do understand the objection to despair – though not, might I add, any thought that its frank expression be expunged!

        Were it only the whole Russiagate fabrication, delusions, time and money waste (oh well, only taxpayers’ money) and fallout that was so dreadfully wrong, being heinously enacted. Indeed were it all that our taxes were being wasted on.

        Perhaps that’s it – Russiagate while distracting from the things that the DNC and HRC did, said, *also* makes for good deflection from the war crimes we are committing, the never ending imperialist warmongering we are engaged in, from the fact that many Demrats voted for those nice tax breaks given to the wealthiest tiers in our society, that many of those Demrats voted to hand over to the MIC *even more* loot even as the Pentagon can’t account for the billions, or whatever fantastikal amount, it has already received over the years, deflection from the fact that despite such a “good” economy increasing numbers of people are living ever more economically precarious lives, rents rise astronomically, healthcare is a joke (or would be were its lack not so serious for so many). And that’s not to mention the realities of climate change or the continuing (and MSM ignored) 70 plus year plight of Palestinians, among so many others.

        My late husband used to tell me to write to NPR, the BBC, to let them know that they weren’t codding everyone with their disinformation, non-information, lack of objectivity – their propaganda. And I did, often and used to ask for a response. Did I even get those? You must be joking…

        • AnneR
          July 17, 2019 at 14:08

          In case someone might think that I expected either the BBC or NPR to alter their ways because of my “letters” (interestingly the BBC only allows/ed for around 1000 characters or something equally useless) – no. But when (in the case of the BBC) you can tick the “please reply” box and get total silence, not even a “thank you for your…blah blah…we shan’t pay any attention to your complaints…,” in response it is pretty frustrating.

          As for NPR – I stopped our contributions. Why would we *pay* for the privilege of being propagandized? I just wish we had stopped them years earlier…

          Anyway, thank you Mr McGovern for your continuing coverage of this whole affair. I just wish my late partner in life and love had known of this website.

          • July 17, 2019 at 21:26

            About 40 years ago, I figured out what NPR stood for: Ninnies, Propagandists and Rhetoricians.

  51. ML
    July 16, 2019 at 09:24

    Each morning when I arise, I get my coffee and settle down to read Consortium News. I also make a habit of a quick perusal of what the stenographers are jawing about on CNN… today, there is a real doozy smearing Assange. The spinners are working overtime to patch over all the holes in their hoax story. I couldn’t get through the whole thing because it’s another smear piece and a long one… including the old saw that Assange smeared feces on the Ecuadorian embassy’s walls. I had to stop reading. Gosh, I can’t abide those people. Thanks Ray, for telling the truth. We are drowning in $h** out there in la-la land. CN offers a much-needed dose of reality medicine. Thank you kindly, all.

    • Skip Scott
      July 16, 2019 at 10:19

      Here’s a good essay by Caitlin Johnstone regarding the Assange hit-piece.

      https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/new-cnn-assange-smear-piece-is-amazingly-dishonest-even-for-cnn-e7c361d98639

      • M Awan
        July 16, 2019 at 14:16

        A bit off the topic but CN hasn’t yet commented on Jaffery Epstein Underage sex scandal.

        • Skip Scott
          July 16, 2019 at 19:25

          See the CN Live video. The first guest is Francis Boyle, and he has an interesting take on it.

        • Skip Scott
          July 16, 2019 at 19:27

          See CN live video. The first guest is Francis Boyle, and he has an interesting take.

      • ML
        July 16, 2019 at 17:52

        Good essay, thanks Skip. Wouldn’t you love to have dinner with Caitlin and many of the great commenters here? What a time we would have! It’s a little dream I like to dream.

    • DW Bartoo
      July 16, 2019 at 12:17

      I do not know where you got the CNN story, ML, though it appears you got it straight from gift-donkey’s mouth.

      From RT (today, at 11AM Eastern time)

      “CNN has released a new ‘exclusive’ report, accusing Julian Assange of conspiracy with Russia (including RT) to meddle in the 2016 US election.

      Citing a report compiled by a private Spanish security company – but not providing any of it – the network basically rehashed the entirety of the Russiagate conspiracy on Monday …”

      The whole article is well worth a gander, as the Dem-media attempt goose up the drivel for what they hope will be a slam dunk (most fowl).

      Apparently, the Dem-leaning MSM has no intention of letting go the lucrative idiocy of ‘Russia-did-it! with the angry assistance of Awful Assange.

      The MSM is not bound, of course, by the legal constraints now judicially imposed upon Mueller and other government agents, so they can claim and conflate whatever they wish.

      Thus, Skip Scott’s very legitimate concerns, about the amnesia memory hole, may well be assuaged by a media hell-bent on slathering lipstick on this particular pig as they attempt, once again, to launch it into perpetual orbit,
      at least until after Assange is locked away for the rest of his life.

      Perhaps getting Assange and continuing to demonize Russia is far more important to certain “interests”, than is the other service of Russiagate, the saving of private-public Hillary’s reputation of being the permanent victim of vast conspiracies as official history. She may now be relegated to the hoary realm of legend and myth. (Which may be the best that wannabees may hope for, short of making the ultimate “great” career move.)

      The two-fer-one deal may be unraveling, at least in part.

      Getting Assange must be the real deep state/media deal.

      DW

      • ML
        July 16, 2019 at 16:07

        Hey DW, yes, it was on CNN yesterday. It was ridiculous. Full of lies and spin. Today, I didn’t see it still there, but it might have been hiding in the shadows on that sorry site. Can’t stand to spend more than about 5 minutes there, just to see what they’re lying and obfuscating about any given day.

        • DW Bartoo
          July 16, 2019 at 20:15

          You are a far braver soul than I, ML, as I’ve not the fortitude to watch the MSM at all. As there is an ongoing pattern to their propaganda, I find that the specific outrage is less important than countering the underlying corruption and deceit, for the outrages, as you say, are daily and come sometimes in vicious and violent swarms. I consider we are currently in the midst of such a plague, owing to the rapid unraveling of the over-arching “Russia-did-it!” canard.

          Well past doubling down, the media mayhem is at quadruple levels and may well reach full warp speed any second, now, as the universe of managed public awareness has just experienced the equivalent of a Big Bang.

          The old media-centric, elite controlled system has lost its gravitas and no holds bind the alternative far horizons of possibility.

          Bringing the metaphor back to Earth, we witness, essentially, the impact of an asteroid of changed awareness sweeping away the lumbering and flesh-rending dinosaurs, as more nimble and resilient sensibilities rise to conscious existence.

          Note the tinge of real desperation ever more evident in the rhetoric of accusation, intimidation, and aspersion.

          The media is rattled and lashing out randomly, as profitable empire crumbles and deep-state imperialism no longer rules without question.

          • Skip Scott
            July 17, 2019 at 07:42

            I hope you are right and that we are witnessing the death throes of empire. I also hope for some kind of retribution for the masters and their evil servants.

            I can’t watch the world news at all, but even local news goes to the “national” desk to torture those of us just interested in what’s going on locally. I walk out of the room or push the mute button. I don’t have any TV at home, but I have been caregiving an elderly uncle for the past 2-1/2 yrs at his place. I don’t know who is more demented, my uncle or CNN.

          • ML
            July 17, 2019 at 11:16

            I like to see what the propagandists are up to, DW. That’s the only reason I dare look. Cheers to you and your good comments.

    • Adriana
      July 16, 2019 at 13:16

      Sheit smearing is done, but not by Julian Assange.#FreeAssange.

    • Realist
      July 16, 2019 at 14:22

      Yeah, that yarn CNN has recently come up with is a real hoot. It has Assange basically running the Ecuadorian embassy personally and turning it into a nest of Russian spies plotting against Hillary during the 2016 campaign. It was as fanciful as the latest piece in Der Spiegel that makes Assad into another modern day reincarnation of Hitler. Der Fuehrer has more earthly manifestations than Vishnu. Remarkable how he gets around. Lucky for us the CIA is always johnny on the spot to thwart his evil plans, the way Dr. Who always manages to trump the Master’s deviltry. Humans, gotta love their antics.

      • Dave P.
        July 17, 2019 at 01:07

        I loved this analogy with “Vishnu”, the omnipotent Hindu God.

  52. July 16, 2019 at 08:57

    Liberals had better wake up now to realize that Russiagate was all a hoax perpetrated by Clinton and cronies because she lost the 2016 election. I’m ashamed to say I voted for Hillary – wow what a huge mistake on my part. Fortunately she did lose the election or who knows where we’d be now. Don’t get me wrong, Trump is an absolute nightmare but at the very least you know where he is coming from. On the other hand Clinton , Obama and other mainstream politicians are underhanded, secretive and subversive all while smiling and selling us lie after lie…We came, we saw, he died? What the hell kind of sick, deluded person would say such a thing?

    • James Ruston
      July 16, 2019 at 11:10

      37 indictments, many convictions and jail time for many of Trump’s top aides is not a hoax.

      • Skip Scott
        July 16, 2019 at 11:26

        No convictions are related in any way to the core premise of RussiaGate. Furthermore, as has been stated many times, you can indict a ham sandwich. Indictments are not proof of anything. There is, however, much proof that RussiaGate was a fabrication by members of our so-called “intelligence” agencies.

      • July 16, 2019 at 14:13

        What Robert Mueller hasn’t done is provide any public evidence of Russian collusion, which was his mandate.

        Show me the money. Where’s the evidence? That’s correct, show me the evidence. You know, the evidence Mueller (or anyone else has) Donald Trump committed treason as John Brennan says, and is guilty of collusion with Putin, as Hillary Clinton says.

        I mean, you can’t can’t show me where the evidence is because there isn’t any. No pee tapes, no smoking guns, no nothing. And that’s a problem. A big problem, because it means the entire Mueller spaghetti Western unraveled into something not even my cat is interested in playing with. The yarn got no evidence.

        Prove me wrong. Please. We know how this story ends and have from the beginning. There’s no evidence. It’s bullshit. Yes, every word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth is bullshit. Problem is Trump’s lies don’t exonerate Clinton and Obama’s lies. All the stuff coming out of Comey, Clapper, and Brennan’s mouths is bullshit too.

        https://osociety.org/2018/07/20/ten-things-which-would-convince-me-its-not-a-witchunt/

      • ML
        July 16, 2019 at 16:14

        James Ruston, study and read the extensive list of articles on this site and see what independent investigators and real journalists have learned about Russiagate before you draw your conclusions. You will need to spend hours reading though. Turn off your tube, throw away your NYT and your Wa-Po and get to reading- you’ve got A LOT of work to do! Wash out that brain. It’s been co-opted by the best propaganda money can buy and needs a through de-programming.

        • ML
          July 16, 2019 at 16:15

          Thorough, sorry.

    • Guy
      July 16, 2019 at 11:27

      Kudos to you Susan for the awakening .Am not a US citizen nor do I think that Trump is doing good things for you so I really sympathize with you.
      Cheers from Canada, not that we don’t have our own problems up here .

    • defiance demon
      July 17, 2019 at 19:47

      “Obama and other mainstream politicians are underhanded, secretive and subversive all while smiling and selling us lie after lie… We came, we saw, he died? What the hell kind of sick, deluded person would say such a thing?” Uh huh…. and she said that well before the election. Yet you voted for her anyway?

      “Trump is an absolute nightmare but at the very least you know where he is coming from”. Really? The way he flip-flops on so much of what he shoots off at the mouth about? It doesn’t take much intelligence to manipulate and confuse people to keep them off balance in that way.

  53. Skip Scott
    July 16, 2019 at 08:27

    I have the feeling that a bunch of this is about to be flushed down the “memory hole”, and that the flushing will be accomplished by a new war with Iran. As was speculated by Francis Boyle on “CN Live”, the Epstein revelations might be a warning to Trump from the “Deep State” that there will be no backing out the next time they gin up an excuse to attack. Where RussiaGate failed, the Epstein case will probably succeed in bringing Trump to heel.

    I hope I’m wrong, but I think Mueller will never testify (at least not publicly), and the “mighty Wurlitzer” will make sure the proles attention is diverted. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…

    • Gregory Herr
      July 16, 2019 at 19:05

      I am certain there are those in the Pentagon who understand the grave repercussions for the global economy should Iran be militarily attacked. I would think saner heads in theses circles also recognize the likelihood and perils of escalation and wider involvement in a war launched against Iran. But if the crazies actually have their way, and war is launched—then the Rubicon is crossed and nothing much else will have import.

      As to the Epstein affair, the bad news is that Comey’s daughter is the prosecutor. I don’t know—are there records of Trump flying on Lolita? I have heard that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar a-Lago. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if they had something on Trump. But most certainly, Bill Clinton (twisted s.o.b.) is guilty as hell. There’s some low hanging fruit for a prosecutor with a shred of humanity.

  54. David G
    July 16, 2019 at 08:19

    The link to Gareth Porter’s CN article does not work. It can be found here:

    https://consortiumnews.com/33-trillion-more-reasons-why-the-new-york-times-gets-it-wrong-on-russia-gate/

  55. July 16, 2019 at 08:19

    Ray McGovern, you are a much-needed voice of clarity and sanity. My heartfelt thanks for all the enlightenment you bring.

    • Mark Symmonds
      July 16, 2019 at 15:12

      How credible could be somebody like Ray McGovern, a wannabe spy inspite he is barely a former CIA employee now retired, who basically writes for a totally unknown and un-influential media organization named “Tell the Word”, a “publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington”? Really? Are you serious? Please keep some sense of decency and proportion here, I am not asking to measure people’s IQ but, but…. there is a clear & neat limit in self-restraining excercise, if you people at Consortium News aspire to practice some kind of independent journalism this is definitely not the case! The pro-Trump inclination (the most ignorant casino owner, most divisive, racist, incompetent POTUS ever, in the last 200 years of US history) transpiring from this and other pieces published in CN is so blatant, so un-sofisticated and gross that the few lines I am using here to write this, are already way too much of a waste! We are all BBB (bored beyond belief) by this partizan politics and super-bad information tactics, it does not bode well for the consistent, persistent geopolitical downgrading of the United States. I am sorry for you, Americans.

      • Skip Scott
        July 16, 2019 at 15:52

        Mark-

        You are not one to be talking about IQ. First and foremost, neither Ray McGovern nor many of the commenters here are pro-Trump. Your mind is stuck in a false dichotomy. Ray has said repeatedly that Trump is the worst president ever. That does not exonerate those who created RussiaGate out of whole cloth. Until we rein in these rogue members of our so-called “intelligence” agencies, it matters not a whit who is president. The entire system has been subverted.

        As for independent journalism, please cite examples of organizations that satisfy your criteria. With six corporations owning the entirety of the MSM, I can’t imagine any of them qualifying as “independent”. Also, please explain the phrase “super-bad information tactics”, and cite some examples. Here at CN we prefer evidence-based, logical arguments over meaningless criticism.

        I appreciate your pity of we Americans. Our government has been one sorry mess for my entire life, and I am 63 years old. I would like to see some sort of sea change for the better before my final days. I think the future of humanity depends on it. Any ideas?

      • Gregory Herr
        July 16, 2019 at 18:37

        Check your reading comprehension Mr. Lack of Sophistication. To characterize CN as pro-Trump is inanely ridiculous. “Super-bad information tactics” — there’s a belly laugh for ya. If you’re a paid troll, someone need be demanding a refund for such tripe.

  56. OlyaPola
    July 16, 2019 at 08:15

    “When deflating a balloon care is required to ensure it doesn’t shoot off in all directions exposing the
    skill levels of would-be performers.”

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnBatchelorShow/~3/aAwQLCFQdr4/7316766

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnBatchelorShow/~3/ZQxeLShL8Ik/7316765

    Even Mr. Houdini became undone even if not in the way expected.

    Perhaps through lack of co-ordination?

  57. Marko
    July 16, 2019 at 07:31

    Even worse news for the Russiahoaxers is the recent revelation , documented in a lawsuit , that Ellen Ratner , sister of deceased Wikileaks’ lawyer Michael Ratner, met with Assange in the fall of 2016 and was told by him that Aaron and Seth Rich provided the DNC leaks to Wikileaks. Ed Butowsky was made aware of this , with instructions by Ms. Ratner for him to relay the information to the Rich family. When he did so , in December 2016 , he was told by Joel Rich , Seth’s father , that he was already aware of his sons’ involvement.

    This is no longer conspiracy talk , folks. Ed Butowsky is not dumb enough to make these claims on court documents without knowing he can back them up. Shit is about to get real for Mueller and the DNC.

    “BREAKING: Lawsuit Outs Reporter Ellen Ratner as Source for Seth Rich Information” @ Gateway Pundit

      • DW Bartoo
        July 16, 2019 at 09:37

        Well, Skip Scott, either this revelation will put “paid” to the “Russia-did-it!” charade, or else the Voracious Memory Hole will act like a giant black hole and the event horizon will be swallowed into total nothingness as a new Middle-Eastern Adventure captures the hearts and minds of the happy warriors and consumers of U$ Imperialism.

        Whatever happens, it will be wholey interesting times ahead.

        DW

      • jmg
        July 16, 2019 at 10:01

        There was a related, extensive 2018 interview about Butowsky’s private investigation into the Seth Rich case to help the family, what they found, and what happened (the DNC assigned someone to represent the family, etc.; the mentioned lawsuits were later dropped/dismissed). It included, without naming Ratner, the unverified mention: “his friend came back from London with information that he said he wanted to get to the Rich family.” Since this alleged private message appears to be not only doubtful, but of course also not confirmed by WikiLeaks, we can’t really know if it happened or not.

        Ed Butowsky Sits Down With Gateway Pundit for First Interview After Being Sued by Family in Seth Rich Murder Mystery — March 19, 2018
        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/ed-butowsky-sits-first-interview-gateway-pundit-sued-family-seth-rich-murder-mystery/

        • Marko
          July 17, 2019 at 07:02

          “Since this alleged private message appears to be not only doubtful, but of course also not confirmed by WikiLeaks, we can’t really know if it happened or not.”

          The difference is that these are plaintiff’s claims in a defamation lawsuit requesting a jury trial , the lawyer for which , Ty Clevenger , has already stated clearly that he is prepared to present witnesses and documentation to verify the claims. Having Ellen Ratner , a reporter for Fox News , stating in court that she met with Assange and received this information personally will represent a quantum leap in the credibility of the notion that Seth Rich was involved in the DNC leaks.

        • Skip Scott
          July 17, 2019 at 07:30

          It wouldn’t be confirmed by Wikileaks because they never reveal a source. Supposedly the message was meant to be delivered only to the Rich family. As for Butowsky, I find him credible, and he doesn’t seem stupid. I think he probably has proof of his conversation with Ratner or he wouldn’t have brought it into a court case.

          • Marko
            July 17, 2019 at 18:35

            If this lawsuit proceeds to discovery and Aaron’s and/or Seth’s emails , Ebay accts. , bank records , etc. are examined, you won’t need Assange. This is the rather obvious significance of this disclosure relative to something similar in the media.

    • Eric32
      July 16, 2019 at 11:17

      I wonder why Seth’s murder hasn’t been solved?
      I wonder why there’s almost no media attention paid?

    • July 16, 2019 at 17:32

      Marko, polo! Here it is:

      Seth Rich, disgruntled DNC worker, blows the whistle on HillBillary Clinton rigging the Democratic presidential primary against Bernie Sanders, so he gives data supporting his discovery of rigging to Wikileaks. Rich got the data on a thumdrive downloaded at DNC HQ itself.

      No Russians, no hacking, just a whistleblower on the fraud ironically called US “democracy.” We’ve all seen the data Rich leaked. Emails detailing HillBillary Clinton’s graft and fraud and collusion against Sanders.

      No wonder no other candidates besides Sanders ran against HillBillary, for they all knew the fix was in from its inception!

      I dunno who killed Seth Rich, but I do know the Democratic party stole the election from Bernie, then projected its own crimes onto Russia, same way a kid projects his own crime of breaking a cookie jar on his brother when he tells Momma “He dit it –> He ate the cookies and broke the jar!” Meanwhile, there’s chocolate smeared all over the DNC’s face.

      We have evidence for this, the leaked emails themselves tell the story

    • Gregory Herr
      July 16, 2019 at 18:15

      Seth Rich copied and leaked the DNC e-mails and was murdered for it. For this to become irrefutable common knowledge will be quite one godsend of a reality check. Maddow might not be able to get out of bed for weeks.

      Repeat after me Rachel…there was no Russian hack, there was no Russian hack, there was no Russian hack

  58. jmg
    July 16, 2019 at 07:13

    From the Brennan–Comey–Rogers assessment/opinion (January 6, 2017):

    “We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence. . . .

    “- High confidence generally indicates that judgments are based on high-quality information from multiple sources. High confidence in a judgment does not imply that the assessment is a fact or a certainty; such judgments might be wrong.

    “- Moderate confidence generally means that the information is credibly sourced and plausible but not of sufficient quality or corroborated sufficiently to warrant a higher level of confidence.”

    Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections
    https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

    ——–

    “When they say they have ‘high confidence’, that means they don’t have any evidence!”
    — Bill Binney, former NSA Technical Director

  59. DW Bartoo
    July 16, 2019 at 07:10

    Thank you, Ray McGovern for this splendid article laying out the facts which make clear the absurdities of these last several years. One hopes, now that the “Russia-did-it” canard is fully exposed, by US courts, that the truth may finally get through, over or around, the media wall of enforced ignorance and Mueller hero-worship, and reach the ears and eyes of the people.

    Should that actually happen, it might even be possible that other truth, long subject to media manipulation and distortion, the cases of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning come readily to mind, could be seen in the honest light of day after an almost eight year protracted nightmare of media driven deceit, psychological torture, and deliberately vicious character assassination is revealed, in Assange’s case, as it might well be, by Nils Melzer’s report to the UN.

    The legacy U$ corporate media have much to answer for, from promulgating lies that led to war, to missile attacks, and to brutal economic sanctions, a form of economic warfare, to efforts to start a new Cold War, and to aggrandize intelligence agencies which have sought to pervert justice and to illegally influence the political process by falsely accusing, on the flimsy words of partisan political operatives, another nation of the very actions those agencies have used, repeatedly and for many decades,to destroy the political processes of other nations, including the very nation singled out to take the blame for Hillary Clinton’s abysmal and pathetic failure in the 2016 election.

    What a waste of time, resources, trust, and energy it has bee, these last years, yet it was all so very profitable and lucrative for the media, even if it were “not good” for the country.

    The media have damned and convicted themselves.

    The U$ intelligence agencies have exposed themselves as corrupt, completely dishonest, vindictive, petty, and thoroughly untrustworthy.

    It remains to be seen if the people have learned anything, and whether they will do anything with this costly, yet necessary, education.

    DW

  60. Allan
    July 16, 2019 at 07:04

    Will Adam Schiff spend the week with Bob Mueller to get their story straight

  61. OlyaPola
    July 16, 2019 at 06:55

    As Mr. McGovern and others realise:

    ““When deflating a balloon care is required to ensure it doesn’t shoot off in all directions exposing the
    skill levels of would-be performers.”

    although others interpret the skill levels of would-be performers differently, and hence no need for “Russiagate” as Mr. Putin and others have kindly communicated to the opponents on various occassions encouraging in some opponents resort to belief to bridge doubt to attain “comfort” and/or resort to attempting to deflate balloons.

    If for any reason you and/or your associates are of the view that you have been “misrepresented”, you and they have the opportunity to respond publically – “tweeting” excepted.

    Enjoy your journey.

  62. July 16, 2019 at 05:49

    Thank you Ray McGovern, you are on point as usual. As you know, there is not now and never has been any public evidence produced of Russia-gate. Where’the Beef?

    https://osociety.org/2019/07/14/skull-of-death-mass-media-inauthentic-opposition-and-eco-existential-reality-in-a-pre-fascist-age-of-appeasement/

    Rather than a scientific forensics based investigation, what we have here is a religious belief, namely Putin is the devil… or is it Trump who’s Beelzebub? I guess it’s both. So says Marvel comics.

    Certainly neither one is an angel and at least one of ’em is an idiot; however, it seems rather impossible this dynamic duo of evil together are responsible for all the world’s problems.

    Is Trump incompetent or is he a supervillain mastermind? Can’t be both, folks. I’m going with Hanlon’s razor. The main hole in the Russia-gate Pinky & the Brain belief is and always has been Trump is Peter Sellers as Chauncey Gardner, not James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.

    All of which begs the question, just what in the blasted blue blazes are the powers that be trying to distract us from by hammering us with this tired cliche of a melodrama?

    How ’bout they’ve screwed the world for future generations, assuming there will be any?

    An anthropocene of climate crisis, rigged elections, neoconservative forever wars, oligarchy, fossil fuel junkies, neoliberal economic desolation, and the extinction of species, including ours impending.

    This is exactly what the “Hey, look –> over there!” bait’n’switch scam us supposed to distract us from. Now I may be some dumb but I sure as hell ain’t plumb dumb. We’re all going to die or worse unless something changes drastically, as in a monumental attitude adjustment.

    Trump’s vanity wall monument to himself isn’t going to keep our problems out folks, because We the rubes of the United States of America continue to fall for the asinine reality TV WWF wrassling plot storyline narratives of nonsense and gibberish foisted upon us by crooks and confidence men.

    We should be ashamed of ourselves. Now where’s my torch and pitchfork? Let’s storm the castle already, Ray.

    • July 16, 2019 at 09:13

      You’ve inspired me to add some artwork and references to your essay, Ray. Thank you and hope you enjoy!

      http://osociety.org/2019/07/16/sic-transit-gloria-mundi

      • July 17, 2019 at 07:59

        Dear O Society,

        Many thanks.

        Ray

    • Bob Van Noy
      July 16, 2019 at 09:21

      “The main hole in the Russia-gate Pinky & the Brain belief is and always has been Trump is Peter Sellers as Chauncey Gardner, not James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.”

      Brilliant O Society, one of my favorite movies, and remember the final scene has Chauncey walking on water

    • July 16, 2019 at 13:51

      “Yes, I understand.”

      Fixed it for you Bob Van Noy, now with more Rainbow Walrus – ha ha!

      http://osociety.org/2019/07/16/sic-transit-gloria-mundi

  63. UserFriendly
    July 16, 2019 at 05:18

    ?Unfortunately this is partially bunk. The first bit the judge didn’t rule that there was no evidence, she ruled that Mueller publicly saying that the IRA = kremlin and they did try to help Trump win was prejudicial in the case against the IRA (quite obviously so). But him not being able to say that during his testimony should go over well with the democrats. Of course if he actually wanted to explain all he would have to do is drop the case against the IRA because it’s never going to trial anyways. Almost makes you wonder if he filed those charges expressly so he wouldn’t have to connect the imaginary dotts.

    • Aiya
      July 16, 2019 at 11:03

      What they called “trying to help Trump” was a miniscule amount of social media posts, 56% of which were made AFTER the election. And Facebook had to look 3 times to come up with ANYTHING–what they finally reported were posts coming from Russia or eastern Europe, posts in Cyrillic language, and posts from people with Russian/European names.

  64. signorRossi
    July 16, 2019 at 04:39

    Meanwhile CNN is killing the time with another major smear-piece against Julian Assange…

  65. Miranda M Keefe
    July 16, 2019 at 04:02

    Thanks Ray

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