Puppet MastersS


People

Flashback Mueller, Rosenstein and Comey are the Three Amigos from the Deep State

Comey Mueller Rosenstein Three Amigos
There is a longtime and incestuous relationship between the fixers who have been tasked with taking down President Trump, under the fake narrative of enforcing the law. James Comey worked in the DOJ directly under Mueller until 2005. Rod Rosenstein and Mueller go even further back.

James Comey wasn't just some associate of Mueller back then, but rather his protégé. Under the George W. Bush presidency, when Comey was serving as Deputy Attorney General under John Ashcroft, Robert Mueller was Comey's go-to guy when he needed help. The two men, as it came to light years later, conspired to disobey potential White House orders to leave Ashcroft alone when he was incapacitated in March of 2004. These two men, when together, will not obey orders if they think they know better. Being filled with hubris and almost two decades of doing just about anything they want, they always think they know better.

Rod Rosenstein, current Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is also a member of the Mueller Gang, having worked directly under Robert Mueller at the Department of Justice as far back as 1990. When Comey was still working as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney's office in New York, Mueller and Rosenstein were becoming thick as thieves.

Comment: Apparently the three were all involved or at least knew about the Uranium One deal. See:

Obvious by now: Russia collusion involved Obama, Hillary, Comey, Mueller, Rosenstein & McCabe


Cell Phone

Newly released texts between Strzok and Page discuss evasion of message archiving

Peter Strzok Lisa Page
Lisa Page and Peter Strzok


Texts show pair tried to "get around" rules of message preservation


Newly released text messages between a pair of FBI anti-Trump officials at the center of the Russia investigation controversy show that they sought to "get around" rules established by the government to preserve text messages, stating that none of the agencies abide by the rules then "why should we."

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page discussed getting new Apple iPhones, in lieu of their Samsung 5 government issued phones in text messages they exchanged in August 2016. They noted in the texts that the new phones would help keep their text messages from government collection after speaking with the FBI's IT director, according to newly released August 2016 text messages.

"According to text messages produced by the committee, Ms. Page and Mr. Strzok make references to communicating with other FBI employees via text message, phone call, email, and voice mail," stated Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, in a letter dated Jan. 31, to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. "Additional text messages suggest that FBI officials used non-official email accounts and messaging programs to communicate about official business."

Comment: A Fox News host says she heard that text messages between Strzok and Page suggest they were trying to destroy evidence:
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte joined Fox News' Maria Bartiromo Sunday to discuss the latest about the Strzok-Page text message saga. During their discussion, Bartiromo says she was told texts between the two FBI agents spoke of the intent to "destroy evidence."

"After the election, they talked about this secret society, did they also talk about destroying evidence?" asked Bartiromo.

Before the Republican lawmaker could reply, the Sunday Morning Futures host followed up with a stunner, saying, "I'm told there are some texts that haven't been released yet about 'we gotta get our hands on the hard drive or we gotta get our hands on the thumb drive'."



Blackbox

What's up? Three top Russian intel chiefs all travel to Washington for talks with American counterparts - UPDATE

putin bortnikov naryshkin
© Mikhail Klimentyev / Kremlin / APRussian President Vladimir Putin (center) is flanked by Sergei Naryshkin (left), head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, and Federal Security Service Director Aleksandr Bortnikov at a meeting with intelligence officers in Moscow in December.
The directors of Russia's three main intelligence and espionage agencies all traveled to the U.S. capital in recent days, in what observers said was a highly unusual occurrence coming at a time of heightened U.S.-Russian tensions.

Russia's ambassador to the United States had earlier confirmed that Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was in Washington in recent days to meet with U.S. officials about terrorism and other matters.

But the presence of the two other chiefs -- Aleksandr Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Colonel General Igor Korobov, chief of Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) -- was not previously known.

The Washington Post said on January 31 that Bortnikov and Korobov came to the U.S. capital last week, and that Bortnikov had met with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, as did Naryshkin.

It wasn't clear whom Korobov may have met with.

Comment: Update (Feb. 2): Russian security official, Israeli premier discuss security cooperation
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss cooperation in security and countermeasures against attempts to revise the outcome of the World War II, the Russian official's spokesman said on Thursday.

"In Jerusalem, Patrushev was received by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The meeting focused on a number of aspects of Russian-Israeli security cooperation, including those in continuation of agreements reached during the latest meeting of Netanyahu and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in Moscow," he said.

"The sides paid special attention to consolidation of Russian-Israeli efforts in countering the revival of Nazism, the spread of nationalist ideology and distortion of history, including attempts to review the results of the WWII," the spokesman added.

As part of his visit to Jerusalem earlier in the day, Patrushev met with Israeli National Defense Council Secretary Meir Ben-Shabbat. During the talks, "it was noted that the Russian Federation makes efforts to stabilize the situation in the region, to achieve political and diplomatic settlement of crises in the Middle East," the Russian Security Council's press service said.

The officials also stressed that Russia and Israel "are at the front line of struggle against the revival of neo-Nazi movements in a number of states," and "our countries are close in their rejection of anti-Semitism; jointly oppose attempts to falsify history and to "glorify" Nazism, to deny the Holocaust and the Soviet Union's crucial role in the victory over the Nazi Germany.".



Chess

'Juniper Cobra': US forces arrive in Israel as tensions rise between Tel Aviv and Beirut

Israeli Irone Dome defense system
© AFP 2018/ GIL COHEN-MAGENIsraeli soldier walk near an Israeli Irone Dome defense system (L), a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the MIM-104 Patriot (C), and an anti-ballistic missile the Arrow 3 (R) during Juniper Cobra's joint exercise press briefing at Hatzor Israeli Air Force Base in central Israel, on February 25, 2016; Juniper Cobra, is held every two years where Israel and the United States train their militaries together to prepare against possible ballistic missile attacks, as well as allowing the armies to learn to better work together
US troops have arrived in Israel to take part in a major joint military exercise with Israeli forces - as tensions with Hezbollah move from a simmer to a boil.

US forces have arrived in Israel to take part in Juniper Cobra, a biennial major military exercise. In the last Juniper Cobra in 2016, more than 3,000 US troops took part, according to a report by Jerusalem Online.

The exercise will imitate a massive simultaneous missile attack on Israel from southern and northern fronts, according to Channel 10 News Agency.

Comment: See also:


2 + 2 = 4

Why in heavens does Bernie Sanders keep promoting the new Cold War against Russia?

Bernie Sanders
In an otherwise fine video response to the last night's vapid, flag-waving State of the Union address, Bernie Sanders once again promoted the neocon think tank-generated and unproven claim that Russia interfered in America's 2016 elections via "cyberwarfare", and repeated the completely baseless insinuation that they colluded with Trump to do so.

"How can he not talk about the reality that Russia, through cyberwarfare, interfered in our election in 2016, is interfering in democratic elections all over the world, and according to his own CIA director will likely interfere in the 2018 midterm elections that we will be holding?" asked the Vermont Senator. "How do you not talk about that unless you have a very special relationship with Mr. Putin?"

This is not an exception to the rule for Sanders, but one more addition to an already consistent and deliberate pattern. In February of last year Sanders delivered a widely viewed video message to his massive online audience solely geared at promoting the Russiagate narrative. At the end of March, he did it again. In May, he did it again. Over and over and over again, month after month after month, Sanders has been using his immense platform as the most popular and trusted politician in America to sell these world-threatening cold war escalations to the millions of Americans who adore him.

Propaganda

Daily Beast smacked by reality after running fake news piece on Nunes exchange over FISA memo

Devin Nunes
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
The Daily Beast has drawn criticism after publishing a story alleging Devin Nunes refused to answer questions about working with the White House on a memo, despite a transcript of the exchange proving its claim to be false.

The article, entitled, 'Devin Nunes Won't Say If He Worked With White House on Anti-FBI Memo,' contained the subhead, 'The House intel committee GOP leader refused to answer behind closed doors if he coordinated with the president's team on his report blasting Rosenstein, Comey, and McCabe.'

The Daily Beast cited "sources familiar with the exchange," which told the reporters about Nunes' alleged dodging of the question posed by Democrat Mike Quigley. The questions surrounded whether he coordinated with the White House on a memo alleging surveillance abuses at the FBI and the Justice Department targeting of the Trump campaign.

Laptop

McCabe put under active DOJ investigation - sat on Weiner laptop emails for three weeks

horowitz McCabe, Wray weiner laptop
Michael Horowitz, Andrew McCabe, Christopher Wray
The Justice Department's internal watchdog has been investigating former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for apparently sitting on emails obtained from Anthony Weiner's laptop, the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian reported Tuesday (of note, Barrett was recently outed as a potential source of FBI leaks, according to text messages between FBI employees accused of political bias)

The DOJ Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, wants to know why McCabe allegedly took little to no action for approximately three weeks on the trove of emails sent by Hillary's top aide, Huma Abedin - Weiner's wife, which were discovered during an unrelated investigation into Weiner "sexting" with an underage girl.
The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has been asking witnesses why FBI leadership seemed unwilling to move forward on the examination of emails found on the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) until late October about three weeks after first being alerted to the issue, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point. - WaPo
In late September 2016, approximately five weeks before the US election, thousands of Huma Abedin's work-related emails were found on Weiner's laptop. According to WaPo, the New York FBI office alerted FBI headquarters within days - though accounts as to the exact date vary.

Comment: A little background


USA

Trump's message to the Feds: 'New American moment' and tougher accountability

Trump SOTU address
© NBC NewsPresident Trump at the 2018 State of the Union Address
In his first State of the Union address, President Trump on Tuesday night declared "a new American moment" in a call for unity that also pushed for greater authority to fire federal employees who "fail the American people."

He combined his review of first-year economic accomplishments, which he called record-breaking, with praise for deregulation and a promise for a bipartisan effort to rebuild crumbling infrastructure. While he called out members of the military, law enforcement and veterans for special recognition, he made few references to the work of other federal employees.

"All Americans deserve accountability and respect - and that is what we are giving them," Trump said to applause. "So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers - and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people."

Trump cited the Veterans Affairs Department and the 2017 VA Accountability Act as his model. "Since its passage, my administration has already removed more than 1,500 VA employees who failed to give our veterans the care they deserve - and we are hiring talented people who love our vets as much as we do," he said.

In the regulatory arena, Trump also invoked new Washington accountability. "We have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history," he declared, alluding to major changes in direction at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. "We have ended the war on American energy and we have ended the war on beautiful clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world."

USA

What is the true 'State of the Union?' A house divided, enslaved, mired in mistakes of the past

Lincoln message
© Life in the Journey/KJN
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." -Abraham Lincoln
History has a funny way of circling back on itself. The facts, figures, faces and technology may change from era to era, but the dangers remain the same. This year is no different, whatever the politicians and talking heads may say to the contrary.

Sure, there's a new guy in charge with a talent for stirring up mayhem and madness, but for the most part, we're still recycling the same news stories that have kept us with one eye warily glued to the news for the past 100-odd years: War. Corruption. Brutality. Economic instability. Partisan politics. Militarism. Disease. Hunger. Greed. Violence. Poverty. Ignorance. Hatred.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Brush up on your history, and you'll find that we've been stuck on repeat for some time now.

Comment: What goes around, comes around...and goes around again unless something is learned and something is changed by 'we, the people'. We have to demand a different way forward, and with it, a determination to never, ever, let go of the power of choice. Each go-round on this loop factors in the 'advancement' of ways and techniques to more strongly, more quickly and more thoroughly lock in the current outcome of this repetitious trajectory: repression of the inherent traits that live within each human culminating in the eventual annihilation of mind, heart and psyche of all of humanity on a global scale. It is the war we have to fight. Choose it.


Attention

Too many wars make too many enemies

black countries on red
© SOTT.net
If Turkey is not bluffing, U.S. troops in Manbij, Syria, could be under fire by week's end, and NATO engulfed in the worst crisis in its history.

Turkish President Erdogan said Friday his troops will cleanse Manbij of Kurdish fighters, alongside whom U.S. troops are embedded. Erdogan's foreign minister demanded concrete steps by the U.S. to end its support of the Kurds, who control the Syrian border with Turkey east of the Euphrates, all the way to Iraq.

If the Turks attack Manbij, the U.S. will face a choice: Stand by our Kurdish allies and resist the Turks, or abandon the Kurds.
Should the U.S. let the Turks drive the Kurds out of Manbij and the entire Syrian border area with Turkey, as Erdogan threatens, U.S. credibility would suffer a blow from which it would not soon recover.

But to stand with the Kurds and oppose Erdogan's forces could mean a crackup of NATO and loss of U.S. bases inside Turkey, including the air base at Incirlik.
Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea. NATO's loss of Turkey would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.

Yet Syria is but one of many challenges to U.S. foreign policy.


Comment: Wars are not one-sided, and picking to fight one is never a requisite. Choosing to fight many wars simultaneously is downright insanity.


Comment: And there it is. The 'memo' trumps unholy wars. This is what distracts the American public from the ongoing, escalating and mind-blowing atrocities being committed daily in its name.