Puppet MastersS


Light Saber

Flashback RFK Jr says Trump 'could be the greatest president in history if he wanted to'

Michael W. Chapman
CNS News
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:54 UTC
Trump Kennedy Jr.
© Associated PressPresident Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During an interview on CNN, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late-Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968, said Donald Trump "could be the greatest president in history if he wanted to," and could easily be "the next Teddy Roosevelt."

In the discussion with CNN Tonight host Don Lemon on Dec. 14, Lemon noted that Microsoft founder Bill Gates had said Trump could be another JFK and asked Robert Kennedy Jr. if he thought a comparison could be made between the Kennedys and the Trumps.

Kennedy said, "Well, I think Donald Trump can be, you know, any kind of president he wants. He's actually -- he has this extraordinary opportunity because he's coming into office less burdened by obligation than probably any president in our history with the possible exception of Andrew Jackson."

"And you know, both of them, Jackson and Trump came in, they were -- people were sickened, they were outraged when Jackson came in and they thought it was the end of the world and he became a -- unless you were an American-Indian, he became a very good president in defending the country against corporate power and really democratizing America in many ways," said Kennedy.

Trump does not have obligations, he said, and if Trump cares about history, "he could really be an extraordinary president."

Comment: Brave words that may not come to fruition. Trump, as Kennedy's uncle before him, has gravely underestimated the powers ranged against his vision for America.

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Chess

Twitter capitulates to pressure from Congress, will "increase transparency" of political ads


RT
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:33 UTC
Twitter
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
As social media companies face mounting political pressure from US senators investigating Russia, Twitter says it will "dramatically increase transparency" of political ads by disclosing information about who's running adverts on their platform.

Bruce Falck, the general manager of revenue product at Twitter, announced Tuesday that the company will launch "an industry-leading transparency center" that will provide users with additional information on all ads currently running on Twitter.

In the "transparency center," political adverts will have their own "special section" that will allow users to see information on the demographics targeted by any ad, the total funds spent on the campaign, and the advertiser's previous political ad spend. Additionally, Twitter will require political advertisers to self-identify and name the organization funding the advertising campaign.

"To make it clear when you are seeing or engaging with an electioneering ad, we will now require that electioneering advertisers identify their campaigns as such," Falck said.
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MIB

Krasnodar: a Russian submarine whose recent antics have revived a Cold War fear

Jamie Seidel
news.com.au
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:21 UTC
USS George H.W. Bush
© US NavyThe aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. A new Russian submarine has reportedly pulled some surprise moves near the US carrier and other NATO warships earlier this year.
The Russian submarine did exactly what it was built to do.

And that's what has NATO worried.

The diesel-engined attack submarine Krasnodar crept through the blue waters of the Mediterranean towards the Black Sea. This was to become its new home.

But, on the way, it had a mission to do.

NATO knew the new submarine was passing by. And new submarines are items of keen interest.

How noisy is it? What are its unique sound signatures? How long can its batteries last? Does it carry any new equipment?

Several specialist NATO anti-submarine frigates were following, determined to find out. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush put its sea-scanning Seahawk helicopters to the task. As was a flight of new P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft based in Italy.
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Attention

No change to 401(k) tax plan: Trump denies reports of GOP cuts to retirement account contributions


Fox News
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
Donald Trump
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
President Trump on Monday adamantly denied reports that the Republican tax plan could drastically reduce the amount of pretax money Americans are allowed to contribute to their 401(k) plans, vowing "NO change" to the retirement account rules.

"There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!" Trump tweeted.


Comment: While Trump's plan promises huge tax cuts, big questions remain

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Eye 1

US intelligence officials want Congress to reauthorize mass surveillance of internet users


RT
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:04 UTC
surveillance
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
US intelligence officials are fighting to renew the controversial spying program which allows agencies to conduct bulk surveillance on internet users.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives US intelligence permission to spy on and store internet data and communications of foreign people living outside the US.

The George W Bush-era program's authorization is set to expire on December 31 if Congress doesn't renew it. The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to privately vote on a bill to reauthorize the law on Tuesday, despite requests to hold the debate in public.

Former directors of national intelligence, the CIA and the NSA have penned a letter pushing for Congress to allow the sweeping, warrant-free eavesdropping to continue.
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Newspaper

Why isn't the media covering the Clinton uranium scandal?

Osita Nwanevu
Slate
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:02 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© The Graham Norton Show
Conservative outlets focused in on the controversy over the Obama administration's 2010 approval of the Uranium One deal, following the weekend's news that the House Oversight Committee will investigate it. (Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will do the same.) "The shady deal-brokered during Hillary Clinton's tenure at the US State Department-re-gained national attention last week when newly released FBI documents showed senior US officials, including former President Bill Clinton, sought meetings with Russian officials just before Barack Obama approved the agreement," a post at Hannity.com reads. On his radio show, Sean Hannity called the controversy "one of the biggest American scandals in history" and blasted the mainstream press for not covering it:
[I]t involves their favorite country, Russia, Russia, Russia, and their favorite world leader, Putin, Putin, Putin. And they do nothing. They do nothing. That makes them complicit, and that puts this country in danger. Are you listening Fake Jake, and the rest of you over at fake news?
All the media cares about is destroying Donald Trump. That's their only obsession. I don't even think they're in touch with their pathological hatred of the president at this point and how agenda-driven they are at this point. They know not what they do.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell called the lack of coverage a "blatant cover-up." "Their credibility continues to rapidly erode," a post quoting him at NewsBusters reads."These 'journalists' are on notice. We will continue to hammer them until they can no longer ignore this story. The media have failed the American people and must be held accountable." The Media Research Center's Dan Gainor appeared on Breitbart News Daily to talk about the story. "The media has spent endless hours promoting this Russia connection for Trump that they've never been able to prove," he said. "They've been talking about it since October of last year. And here you've got new allegations actually tying Hillary Clinton to something, and they don't want to cover it at all."

In other news:

Conservatives mocked a new CNN ad taking aim at Donald Trump and fake news. In the ad, a narrator explains that an apple shown on screen will always be an apple no matter how loudly some insist it's a banana.
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Cell Phone

Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted a demand for Sessions to appoint special counsel to probe Uranium One scandal


True Pundit
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 15:54 UTC
Chuck Grassley
It's getting a little catty in the Beltway. Sen. Chuck Grassley, usually a reserved member of the D.C. elite, just took a huge swipe at Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

In a sarcasm-laced Tweet, Grassley pulled no punches demanding Sessions appoint a special counsel to probe the unfolding Uranium One scandal.


Comment: House Republicans Nunes and Grassley open investigation into Russia uranium deal

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Attention

True Pundit exclusive: Six U.S. agencies conspired to wiretap Trump - used British intel as front to spy on campaign


True Pundit
Sat, 30 Sep 2017 15:42 UTC
trump cell phone
From the beginning it was a set up to find dirt on Trump campaign insiders and if possible to topple Donald Trump's presidential aspirations.

Before and after the 2016 election. And while this operation had many moving parts and alternating players, the mission to unseat Trump never changed. And it remains ongoing.

Paul Manafort was wiretapped. Cater Page was wiretapped. Donald Trump Jr. was wiretapped. Jared Kushner was wiretapped. Gen. Michael Flynn was wiretapped. And likely there were others.

And none of it was very legal.

In fact, most of it was very illegal, according to federal law enforcement sources who are blowing the whistle on a sweeping scheme to undermine the Executive branch and the electorate's choice for president of the United States.

And according to high ranking FBI sources, the Bureau played a definitive role in plotting this sweeping privacy breach. But the FBI had much help from the NSA, CIA, the Office of of the Director of National Intelligence, Treasury financial crimes division under DHS, and the Justice Department, federal law enforcement sources confirmed.

Comment: Unverifiable at this point, but all of the above is plausible. Slowly, details of the concerted campaign to destroy Trump are coming to light. The focus is currently on the dodgy dossier research that seems to have been the justification for a lot of the surveillance of Trump and his campaign team - as well as the surveillance itself and the unmasking of Trump-related individuals at the behest of Samantha Power or someone using her authority. (Clinton-Russia collusion is just icing on the cake of hypocrisy.) See:

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Bad Guys

India hails the dark side, causes political divide with claim that Russia is conspiring to support opposition with Twitter trolls

Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 15:14 UTC
New Delhi
The US-Indian Strategic Partnership has rapidly evolved to such a point that the Indian government is now obliquely hinting that Russian twitter trolls are backing the country's opposition leader, showing that New Delhi is willing to say and do anything in order to further ingratiate itself with Washington even if this means demolishing its decades-long relationship with Moscow.

Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani sent shockwaves through the diplomatic community over the weekend when she indirectly accused Russian "Twitter trolls" of supporting opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. The government official tweeted an article from ANI Digital which purports that Gandhi's Twitter popularity is partly due to automated bots located in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Russia, snidely remarking in her post that "Perhaps @OfficeOfRG planning to sweep polls in Russia, Indonesia & Kazakhstan ??" The report in question is nothing more than unfounded speculation, but the strong symbolism behind it in trying to capitalize on the US' anti-Russian hysteria shouldn't be overlooked. Furthermore, the very fact that a high-ranking member of the Indian government, a woman who plays an indispensable role in the projection of the country's soft power within its borders and beyond, would publicly retweet such a ridiculous claim and even add her own snarky commentary to it is very scandalous, to say the least.
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Gold Coins

China to launch petro-yuan as alternative to failing petro-dollar


RT
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:40 UTC
Yuan dollar
© Paul Yeung / Reuters
One of the world's top energy importers, China, is set to roll out a yuan-denominated oil contract as early as this year. Analysts call the plan, announced by Beijing in September, a huge move against the dollar's global dominance.

The so-called petro-yuan is a "wake up call" for investors who haven't paid attention to the Chinese plans, according to the head of Graticule Asset Management Asia Adam Levinson, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Earlier this year, the Chinese government announced plans to start a crude oil futures contract priced in yuan and convertible into gold. The contract will enable the country's trading partners to pay with gold or to convert yuan into gold without the necessity to keep money in Chinese assets or turn it into US dollars.
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