Puppet MastersS


Airplane

Air Force One refrigerator replacements to cost taxpayers $24mn, Boeing awarded contract


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 12:58 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersUS President Donald Trump
Experts say Boeing's nearly $24 million contract to install two new refrigerators on Air Force One is not price gouging, but due to the specific requirements of the presidential plane. The jet is designed to store 3,000 meals.

Air Force One has a total of five chillers that can store about 3,000 meals to feed up to 100 passengers and crew for weeks without resupplying, according to Defense One. The chillers on the jumbo jet date back to 1990, when the current model of the presidential planes were first deployed.

Boeing was awarded a $23,657,671 contract to design, test, and install two VC-25A G12/G13 chillers for the customized 747 jumbo jet in December.

"The Air Force requires that the current air chillers in the G12 and G13 galleys be modified with new cold food stowage to improve reliability and maintainability," a contract notice from the Pentagon states.

Comment: See also: Boeing CEO says deal for new presidential aircraft close after his meeting with Trump

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Gear

'Manifestation of heinous intention': North Korea condemns US' recent sanctions against Pyongyang


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 18:52 UTC
North Korean flag
© Jason Lee / Reuters

North Korea has condemned the new round of sanctions announced by the US against Pyongyang, saying that the measures are merely a manifestation of Washington's "heinous intention" to aggravate the situation on the peninsula.

The sanctions imposed by Washington are "a manifestation of heinous intention to throw a wet blanket over the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation and to aggravate the situation," the KCNA news agency said, citing an unnamed Pyongyang official.

The US should abandon its "anachronistic" policy towards the North, the official added.

Comment: See also: Washington issues additional sanctions against North Korea, targets trade representatives in China and Russia

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Cell Phone

DOJ starts recovery of missing Strzok-Page texts

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 14:59 UTC
Strzok Page Mueller
© YoutubeFormer FBI officials Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the process of recovering five months worth of missing text messages between two FBI employees accused of bias in their investigations of both Hillary Clinton and President Trump, according to Fox News.

On Tuesday, President Trump tweeted "Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!" in reference to the fact that the DOJ blamed the five-month missing text gap on technical difficulties.


The missing texts - which span the period of December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017, were reported to Congressional investigators last Friday in a cover letter accompanying a 384-page document delivery, igniting a firestorm of speculation that the contents of the communications between the two Trump-hating FBI investigators was particularly damning. The two agents had previously discussed an "insurance policy" before the election in the event of a Trump win.

Comment:

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Question

Is Chelsea Manning subject to prosecution for running for office? Former military lawyers say yes

Jonah Bennett
The Daily Caller
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 17:26 UTC
chelsea manning
© Thos Robinson/Getty Images/The New Yorker.Chelsea Manning Talks With The New Yorker's Larissa MacFarquhar on September 8, 2017
Chelsea Manning has filed to run for Senate as a Democratic candidate in Maryland, but such a run subjects Manning to prosecution for violating Pentagon regulations on political activities, according to former military lawyers.

Manning, the transgender soldier who spent seven years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, recently filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for the Senate seat in Maryland currently occupied by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a two-term senator.

In a Thursday tweet, Manning posted a certificate of candidacy obtained from the Maryland State Board of Elections, an important and required step in the process of running for Senate. One of the lines of the certificate states: "I am a registered voter and a citizen of Maryland and meet all other requirements for the above listed office."

Comment:

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Stop

Russian FM: Washington's senseless sanctions campaign only punishes US corporations


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 00:03 UTC
Russian Foreign Ministry
© Maxim Shemetov / ReutersThe Russian Foreign Ministry building
By slapping Russia with new sanctions and restrictions, Washington only punishes US companies, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. Any attempt to browbeat Moscow into a policy change will be in vain, it stressed.

Twenty-one individuals, all of them Russian or Ukrainian nationals, and nine companies were added to the ever-expanding blacklist of sanctioned persons by the US Treasury Department on Friday. Most of the companies operate in the power and energy sector, such as Gaz-Alyans and Kaliningradnefteproduct. Commenting on the new batch of restrictive measures, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia will not cave into pressure and reserves the right to retaliate.

"Washington still cannot get rid of an illusion that we can be intimidated by US visa denials or trade restrictions, that we can be coerced into abandoning an independent stance on the international arena, defending our national interests," the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Comment:

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Blackbox

Heavily-redacted docs on death of Russian media tycoon Lesin in DC finally released by FBI


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 17:41 UTC
Mikhail Lesin murder FBI
© Iliya Pitalev / SputnikMikhail Lesin
The FBI has commented on the mysterious 2015 death of Russian media tycoon Mikhail Lesin in Washington, DC. The Bureau has chosen to release documents pertaining to the incident in heavily redacted form.

The investigation's reports - dated between November 2015, when the 57-year-old Lesin died, and October 2016, when the case was officially closed - were released on Saturday. Many of the pages are partly or fully redacted.

Lesin, a former press minister and ex-head of Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest media holding, was found dead in DC's Dupont Hotel on November 4, 2015. Initial reports claimed that the mass media expert, credited with inspiring the creation of Russia Today (now RT), died of a heart attack.

Later in 2016 the District of Colombia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and Metropolitan Police Department said that "blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities and lower extremities" contributed to Lesin's death. "The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has released the cause and manner of death for Mikhail Lesin... Cause of Death: blunt force injuries of the head," the statement said.

Comment: Perhaps Lesin's role in the founding of RT had something to do with his mysterious demise?

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Info

Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu says US troops must leave Syria's Manbij


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 18:36 UTC
A member of Turkish police special forces stands guard in Azaz
© Osman Orsal / ReutersA member of Turkish police special forces stands guard in Azaz, Syria
The US must withdraw its troops from Syria's northern Manbij region and put an end to its support for Kurdish militia in the area, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded Saturday.

Cavusoglu told reporters on Saturday that the US needs to immediately withdraw from the region near the city of Manbij, adding that Washington providing guns to the YPG must also stop. The foreign minister said Turkey wants to see proactive steps from the US, not simply promises.

Turkish forces are conducting an offensive, codenamed 'Olive Branch', targeting Kurdish fighters linked to the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in and around Afrin, Syria. Russia has expressed concern over the developments, urging all parties to respect Syria's borders.

Comment: See also: US promises to stop arming Syrian Kurds again as Turkey demands US withdrawal from the region

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Jet3

Japan deploys first of 10 US-made F-35A stealth fighter jets


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 16:06 UTC
Fighter jet
© Peter Nicholls / ReutersThe F-35A stealth fighter.
Japan has commissioned the first of its new F-35A stealth fighter jets at a military base in the north of the country amid ongoing regional tension over North Korea's missile testing.

The Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) plans to add another nine of the radar-evading planes to its fleet from April, according to the Japan Times. "The deployment of the high-performance F-35 aircraft is significant for Japan's security at a time when neighboring countries have been quickly building up their air force capabilities in recent years," said Itsunori Onodera, Japanese Minister of Defense.

The move to deploy the jet to the Misawa Air Base in the Aurora Prefecture comes amid increased tensions in the region following North Korea's latest series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Japan hopes to increase its overall number of F-35As to 42 in the coming years as the country seeks to replace its fleet of outdated F-4 models. Each unit costs around $95million, according to the manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
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Magnify

Unmasking PropOrNot: Who They Are And Why They Were Activated Against Independent Media

George Eliason
Washington's Blog
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 17:12 UTC
CIA propaganda
© Washington Post
A little over a year ago, the deep-state graced the world with Propornot. Thanks to them, 2017 became the year of fake news. Every news website and opinion column now had the potential to be linked to the Steele dossier and Trump collusion with Russia. Every journalist was either with us or against us. Every one that was against us became Russia's trolls.

Fortunately for the free world, the anonymous group known as Propornot that tried to "out" every website as a potential Russian colluder, in the end only implicated themselves.

Turnabout is fair play and that's always the fun part, isn't it? With that in mind, I know the dogs are going to howl this evening over this one.

The damage Propornot did to scores of news and opinions websites in late 2016-2017 provides the basis of a massive civil suit. I mean huge, as in the potential is there for a tobacco company sized class-action sized lawsuit. I can say that because I know a lot about a number of entities that are involved and the enormous amount of money behind them.
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Eye 2

Is that a threat? Trump 'will disappear in 2020 or even sooner' says Soros

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Wire
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 15:57 UTC
George Soros
© Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Thursday, far-left billionaire George Soros, who is the financial backbone of the Democratic Party, attacked President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Soros, who spent millions backing failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, claimed that Trump was leading the world to nuclear war and that he is trying to establish a dictatorship in the United States, CNBC reported.

"Indeed, the United States is set on a course towards nuclear war by refusing to accept that [North] Korea has become a nuclear power," Soros said. "This creates a strong incentive for North Korea to develop its nuclear capacity with all possible speed, which in turn may induce the United States to use its nuclear superiority pre-emptively, in effect to start a nuclear war to prevent a nuclear war, obviously a self-contradictory strategy."

Comment: That's rich coming from someone like Soros, well known for sowing discord and mayhem around the world through his dirty billions.

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