Puppet Masters

Eyebrow raising claims about advanced space technology made by recently retired US General

Brett Tingley
The Drive
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:08 UTC

Recently retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Steven L. Kwast gave a lecture last month that seems to further signal that the next major battlefield will be outer space. While military leadership rattling the space sabers is nothing new, Kwast's lecture included comments that heavily hint at the possibility that the United States military and its industry partners may have already developed next-generation technologies that have the potential to drastically change the aerospace field, and human civilization, forever. Is this mere posturing or could we actually be on the verge of making science fiction a reality?

Who is Steven Kwast?

According to his official USAF biography, Lt. Gen. Kwast graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in astronautical engineering, and also holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Kwast previously served as Commander of the 47th Operations Group at Laughlin Air Force Base and the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB. Kwast boasts more than 3,300 flight hours in the F-15E, T-6, T-37, and T-38 and over 650 combat hours.

Lt. Gen. Kwast most recently served as Commander of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) at Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), but retired in August. According to some reports, Kwast was prematurely relieved of his duties at JBSA and blacklisted for promotion after speaking out on space-related issues despite a service-wide gag order. Kwast declined to comment on the reports and retired on September 1, 2019.

Which Korea?! Seoul shows 'preemptive strike' with F-35s & boasts of 'glorious victory' over Pyongyang in holiday propaganda

RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC

© Republic of Korea Air Force Screenshot
A simulated North Korean military installation is destroyed in a promotional video released by the South Korean air force.

The South Korean Air Force has put out an incendiary video simulating a preemptive attack on its northern neighbor using a high-tech arsenal of US-supplied weapons. Pyongyang is unlikely to receive the clip in holiday spirits.

The promotional video depicts computer generated F-35 fighters and other jets launching strikes on North Korean positions, clearly marked with bright red stars - in case there was any mystery about who the message was intended for.

Published earlier this week, the four-minute video begins with a US-made Global Hawk spy drone detecting enemy activity, at one point showing what appears to be a North Korean Hwasong-14 ICBM platform just before it's blown apart in a dramatic explosion. A narrator speaking in Korean then pledges the "glory of victory is promised under any circumstances," according to JTBC, a South Korean TV network.

Comment: See also:

'Years of upset'? What PM Johnson's 'getting Brexit done' will really look like

RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 21:21 UTC

Boris Johnson's Conservatives rode to a landslide victory on the promise to 'Get Brexit done.' But the jubilant PM may face an uphill battle to secure the trade deals he promised British voters.

PM Johnson will struggle to complete a trade deal with the EU by the end of the transition period - December 2020, Professor John Ryan, a senior partner at the organization Brexit Partners told RT.

"That [UK-EU trade deal] is not possible because it is too short of time."

Furthermore, Ryan claims that any aspirations of striking a number of big trade deals with the likes of Japan, China and the US is "fanciful." He argues that those countries will wait and see what is happening between the UK and the EU before laying their cards on the table, suggesting that any quick deals may not be secured so easily.

Comment: Johnson's "earthquake" will likely suffer disastrous aftershocks:

And check out SOTT radio's:

German MPs in uproar over US' Nord Stream 2 sanction threats, call for retaliation

RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 16:21 UTC

As the US braces to slap sanctions on European firms building the last leg of the Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a senior MP in Berlin argues that formal protests don't work anymore - but a strong response could.

Germany may follow America's lead in foreign policy and defense expenditures, but it is less submissive when it comes to energy security, which is sacrosanct for Europe's economic powerhouse. This week, US lawmakers introduced a bill tightening the chokehold on Germany's flagship energy project it jointly runs with Russia, targeting European companies laying underwater tubes for the much talked-about Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The proposed sanctions package, yet to be approved by the Senate and the president, stipulates asset freezes and revocation of US visas for Nord Stream contractors. And Berlin doesn't much like it.

Comment: Germany can sorely afford to suffer the threats and the meddling of the US for much longer:

Paternity deposition: Hunter Biden must answer questions under oath including his financial record

Zachary Stieber
The Epoch TImes
Fri, 13 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC

Former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden will have to answer questions under oath on Dec. 23 as part of a paternity case, according to a new court filing.

Biden, 49, will be deposed two days before Christmas in Little Rock, Arkansas, reported the New York Post and the Daily Mail, citing a court filing. The deposition will be part of a paternity case that 28-year-old Lunden Roberts brought in May.

The case is progressing forward after Biden took a DNA test, which showed "scientific certainty" that he is the father of Roberts' child, according to the woman. Roberts also said in a motion (pdf) in September that Biden verbally admitted that he is the father of the child, who is 1. Biden has not contested the claim.

Biden will have to answer questions about his financial situation, including how much he was paid per month to work for the Ukranian energy company Burisma; a lawyer for Roberts instructed Biden to bring "all exhibits" he plans to use in his defense.

Roberts also asked in a recent court filing that Biden admit "that you or an entity owned, controlled, or under your direction or supervision received money from a Chinese person, entity, or corporation for foreign (meaning international) or domestic (meaning the United States) investment purposes."

Analysis: What's good-bad-ugly about US-China trade breakthrough

RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 14:32 UTC

The limited deal between the world's two largest economies was welcomed by the stock markets and international organizations, but there are concerns that the deal is far from flawless and lacks necessary details.

Washington and Beijing announced on Friday that they finally reached a "historic and enforceable agreement" on a phase-one deal that cancels looming tariff hikes, which were set to kick in on Sunday, as well as lowering some of the existing ones.

What's in the deal?

The US will lower from 15 to 7.5 percent levies on approximately $120 billion of Chinese imports. However, 25-percent tariffs on roughly $250 billion worth of Chinese goods will remain in force. While China did not announce the elimination or reduction of existing tariffs targeting US imports, it agreed to boost purchases of American goods to $200 billion over the next two years, including agricultural imports critical for the US.

The deal also requires structural reforms from the Chinese side regarding intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, currency and foreign exchange, among other things.

Comment: The negotiations so far are phase one. Today's concerns over gains and losses may be equalized in a later agreement.

See also:

NATO may be all about values, but pay up! Pentagon's Esper reprimands US allies (vassals?)

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 02:03 UTC

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper argues that NATO members should pay up because there can't be "free riders," but then goes on to say US alliances are all about "mutual respect and common values." It can't be both, so which is it?

"There can't be any free riders. There can't be any discount plans. We're all in this together," Esper said on Friday at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, referring to nineteen NATO members who are still failing to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on "defense."

In reality, however, free-riding on the massive US military apparatus is precisely what NATO is about. Its first secretary-general articulated the alliance's purpose as keeping "the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down," and by golly that's precisely what NATO has done throughout the Cold War.

Comment: See also:

Defense Secretary Esper point blank tells Syrian Kurds the US never promised them a state

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 13 Dec 2019 22:58 UTC

The US never promised Syria's Kurds that it would help them build an autonomous state, Defense Secretary Mark Esper has insisted, despite years of hints to the contrary. So much for the birth pangs of that New Middle East...

Esper told reporters on Friday:

"Nowhere, at no point in time did we tell the Kurds, we will assist you in establishing an autonomous Kurdish state in Syria, nor would we fight against the longstanding ally Turkey on your behalf.

"We live up to our obligations, and our obligation, our agreement, our understanding with the Kurds was this: that we would work together to fight in Syria to defeat ISIS."

But now that ISIS has been declared dead almost as many times as its late leader Baghdadi, is it game over for the US-Kurdish partnership?

Esper's words no doubt came as a shock to anyone expecting a continuation of the Assad-Must-Go policies of the Obama administration, in which it was understood that the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces would be rewarded for doing their part to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad with their own semi-sovereign state à la Iraqi Kurdistan. US media have long sung the praises of 'Rojava' as some sort of feminist utopia, but this "brave social experiment" is now imperiled by the Trump administration's stubborn refusal to continue waging a war it has all but lost in Syria.

Comment: See also:

Hungarian FM Szijjarto: Pity that human rights are used as excuse to interfere in another state's domestic issues

RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 13:58 UTC

The EU's policy regarding sanctions and restrictive measures is sometimes marked with double standards, Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto told RT, stressing that even an issue of human rights can be seen differently inside the bloc.

Budapest is committed to upholding human rights, the Hungarian foreign minister said, adding that unfortunately, sometimes a reference to this matter serves as a basis to persecute some political interest. Sometimes the reference to human rights serves as a basis to interfere into domestic issues of other countries on an ideological basis, on a political basis, without any good reason.

Szijjarto noted that even an understanding of what human rights means, raises a debate. Migration is a huge challenge, he states. Szijjarto doesn't agree with other European players that migration is a fundamental human right. He says that the fundamental human right is to have a "safe and secure" life at home, and if this right is violated, everybody is allowed to go to a safe country. Migration cannot be the reason to violate borders between safe countries.

The Shakespearean tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn: Destroyed by appeasing his enemies

Neil Clark
RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2019 19:05 UTC

The Jeremy Corbyn project has ended in tears with an utterly demoralising general election defeat for Labour, but it could - and should - have been very different if only Corbyn had trusted his own instincts.

There is a distinctly Shakespearean air to the political demise of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which took place, appropriately enough, on Friday the 13th of December 2019 (or you could say 15 March would have been even more appropriate).

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries," the great bard wrote in Julius Caesar.

JP Sears - Why two classes of citizens is a GREAT idea: [Link]

Animanarchy

Is this not a case of, The pot calling the kettle black.

Winternights3

Here's a Mandela Effect for you. I swear I read more than one article saying she died about 4 months ago. 4 Months later I read this - at least I...

scrutinizer

Wait!.. WHAT?! Agents de Surete Ferroviaire with Service Weapon?!? I know I left france a while back, but back then even cops were not allowed...

tof

US politics is as complex as the money supply issue One big scam hidden under layers of deception Tbh..I could care less if she drops down dead...

LMAO

Puppet Masters

Eyebrow raising claims about advanced space technology made by recently retired US General

Which Korea?! Seoul shows 'preemptive strike' with F-35s & boasts of 'glorious victory' over Pyongyang in holiday propaganda

'Years of upset'? What PM Johnson's 'getting Brexit done' will really look like

German MPs in uproar over US' Nord Stream 2 sanction threats, call for retaliation

Paternity deposition: Hunter Biden must answer questions under oath including his financial record

Analysis: What's good-bad-ugly about US-China trade breakthrough

NATO may be all about values, but pay up! Pentagon's Esper reprimands US allies (vassals?)

Defense Secretary Esper point blank tells Syrian Kurds the US never promised them a state

Hungarian FM Szijjarto: Pity that human rights are used as excuse to interfere in another state's domestic issues

The Shakespearean tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn: Destroyed by appeasing his enemies

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us