Puppet MastersS


Cell Phone

Mr. President, your predecessor wire-tapped all our phones... what are you going to do about it?

Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
Sat, 04 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump/Obamination
© KnowYourLeak
President Trump went on a Tweet storm this morning, presumably because at some point in the last 24 hours he learned that his predecessor President Obama reportedly "wire tapped" the phone lines in Trump Tower during the 2016 election campaign.

In the process of tweeting, the President actually confirmed what many of us already know - we are being actively monitored by a domestic police state.

Comment: The surveillance state is only one of many evils insinuated into and maneuvered upon the American society. Will it come down to killing the host to purge the organism?

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Jet3

'Pentagon-lite' reports: 21 more civilians killed by coalition strikes in Syria and Iraq, total 220 since 2014


RT
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 05:10 UTC
US airstrike Kobani
© Umit US-led airstrike Kobani, Syria, 2014
American coalition warplanes killed 21 civilians in 9 separate strikes in Iraq and Syria, the US Central Command has confirmed following the latest round of investigations, which brings the officially acknowledged casualty total to 220 since 2014.

In January, the Combined Joint Task Force received 27 new reports of civilian casualties in US-led coalition strikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). At the same time, it completed reviews on 19 reports, ten of which were assessed and dismissed as "non-credible." "Nine reports were assessed to be credible resulting in the unintended death of 21 and injury to two civilians," CENTCOM said. A further 19 reports, some of which have been carried over from previous months, are still open and being assessed.

The new casualty figures released by CENTCOM on Saturday bring the official civilian death toll of the US-led campaign, which began under the Barack Obama administration in 2014, to 220 people. "Although the Coalition takes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some incidents casualties are unavoidable," the statement said.


Comment: And, CENTCOM is standing right in line behind shady used car salesmen and magic snake-oil peddlers.


Comment: Military Times investigation: USCC didn't account for "nearly 6000 strikes dating back to 2014." Based on ongoing reporting by Amnesty International, in recalculation, the US Army admitted to only one out of every 300 civilian deaths. Need we ask why? The US reputably thrives on "unaccountability."

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Chess

Draining the swamp: Media lashes out about Trump 'gutting' the State department

Matthew Allen
Russia Insider
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 16:25 UTC
Trump pointing
Game on.
We wrote yesterday that Trump's barrage of tweets signaled that he wasn't interested in song-and-dance routines about removing the career warmongers from State, the CIA and Pentagon.

They go or he goes.

So imagine our surprise when we noticed that the media was already sending signals that the Deep State is worried.

Comment: See also: Trump declares open war on the deep state

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Pirates

US-backed Iraqi troops renew push to liberate ISIS-held areas of Mosul


RT
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 11:25 UTC
US Troops Mosul
© Mohammed Al-Ramahi / ReutersBoots on the ground? US soldiers at a military base north of Mosul, Iraq
US-backed Iraqi troops have launched a renewed push towards the Mosul city center, which has been held by Islamic State militants, the Iraqi military said, as cited by Reuters. Earlier UN data showed that 750,000 people may be trapped in the city.

Iraqi forces are advancing from the south and the southwest towards the old center of the city, Brigadier-General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the joint operations command, told state-run television, Reuters reports. Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service units have pushed through the Tal al-Ruman and the Somood districts in the southwest, Rasool added.

Soldiers from the rapid response team are also progressing through the Dawasa and Danadan districts, a few hundred meters from government buildings in the besieged city, a media officer with these interior ministry units told Reuters. These buildings are reportedly destroyed and are not used by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants. However, taking this part of the city would help the Iraqi forces to advance and to restore control over the city.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Israel: US delegation arrives to suss out embassy relocation to Jerusalem


RT
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 03:39 UTC
Mazeltov sign
© ReutersAhead of the game?
An American congressional delegation has arrived in Israel on a short weekend visit during which they will assess the possibility of relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, local media report.

Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who chairs the subcommittee on National Security for the US House Oversight Committee, arrived Saturday and plans to hold meetings with Israeli politicians and the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a statement from Likud MK Yehuda Glick said. The US team plans to "closely examine the issue of transferring the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - both from a practical standpoint as well as politically," Glick wrote, according to i24 News.

"The delegation is in Jerusalem to learn firsthand what it will mean to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Ruth Lieberman, a friend of DeSantis and a political advisor in Israel, told Jerusalem Post. "Its leadership intends to return to Congress with a report and a deeper understanding of what to expect, and of some of the decisions that have to be made as well," Lieberman added.

Comment: There is more 'cost' than just fluttering away dollars in moving this embassy to Jerusalem, placating Netanyahu's paranoia and fulfilling part of his grand plan. Whatever Bibi is promising Trump, it is not the whole picture. Deepening the entrenchment and obligation of the US to Israel is not in America's best interest on any level. Should Trump lose perspective and order this move, it does not bode well locally, regionally nor globally. Nor does it further a two-state plan.

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Chess

Russia's end game: Unite Assad and Kurds, push Turkey out of Northern Syria

Rudy Panko
Russia Insider
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
Russia kurds flags
© Russia Insider
Ankara is trying to carve up Syrian territory in Idlib — and it looks like they might get away with it. But Moscow has shut down any dreams Erdogan might have had about seizing Manbij and the surrounding countryside. For those who missed it: Yesterday it was revealed that Russia had mediated a deal between the Kurdish Manbij Military Council (MMC) and Assad, in which the Syrian government would take control of the region.

Russia swooped in and united the Kurds and Assad, while Washington and Ankara were busy squabbling over who should control Manbij. It was a brilliant move, but one that didn't materialize out of thin air. Russia has always been interested in uniting Kurdish YPG forces and Assad in order to push Turkey and its "moderate" rebels out of northern Syria.

Here's what we reported (via Al Jazeera) back in November, 2015:
Losing control of the northern countryside of Aleppo would be a setback for the opposition. Turkey, too, would lose influence. But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be eyeing an even bigger victory. He called on the Assad government and the political wing of the YPG to unite. This has still not happened - at least not officially. But Syrian Kurdish officials have said they are ready to work with anyone fighting ISIL, and anyone who works for a united, secular and democratic Syria. Such an alliance would change the battlefield and the balance of power on the ground.
It's a simple concept, really: Russia understand that anyone who isn't a terrorist would happily unite with their political foes to preserve a secular Syria. And now that the Russia flag is flying proudly alongside the emblem of the Kurdish MMC, it seems that Erdogan's dream of creating an Islamic caliphate in Syria has gone up in smoke: We've reached the end game.

Comment: Finesse. Russia has orchestrated brilliant maneuvers, logistically and diplomatically, keeping in mind who the players really are and their ulterior motives behind involvements in the Syrian crisis. Will this development hold and truly bring about an end to this horrible and unnecessary war?

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Light Sabers

Trump declares open war on the deep state

Richard Brandt
Russia Insider
Sat, 04 Mar 2017 16:08 UTC
trump picture black and white
He has to move fast now
Don't let the medium distract from the message: Trump just declared war on America's intelligence agencies

Trump is going all-in.

He realizes that he can't last four years against a system that is determined to maintain the current trajectory of U.S. foreign and domestic policy — endless war coupled with slow national suicide.

We imagine he attempted to "work" with the system — or at least make the system work for him. In other words: Fewer wars, better relations with Russia, "America first" — and everyone gets to keep their jobs.

That's not how it panned out.
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Info

Vietnam 'considered and considers Russia an extremely important partner'


Sputnik
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 18:02 UTC
Russian submarine
© Sputnik/ Vitaly Anko
In an interview with Sputnik Vietnam, Trung Quang Khánh, a retired Colonel-General of the Vietnamese army, who earlier this week was awarded by President Putin, has praised Russian-Vietnamese military cooperation.

"The partnership of our countries has a comprehensive strategic character. We have a rich history as we stood shoulder to shoulder in the years of the military hard times. Vietnam considered and considers Russia an extremely important partner, especially in the military-technical field," the general said.
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Eye 1

The police state is alive & well

John W. Whitehead
Newsbud
Sat, 04 Mar 2017 17:27 UTC
I'm free cartoon
"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security... This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."—Historian Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
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Mr. Potato

New York congressman lawmaker Sean Maloney makes a complete fool of himself with more Russian hysteria

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 17:15 UTC
chuck Schumer
President Trump took to twitter to embarrass Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck "fake tears" Schumer for their hypocrisy related to the Russian Ambassador meetings with Jeff Sessions.

Never mind the fact that the first meeting between Sessions and Ambassador Kislyak was organized by the Obama White House, and the second meeting was fully disclosed to the public, took place in the Seante and was attended by two military personnel...the Democrats continue to push the Russian narrative, even if it means exposing their own lies and stupidity.


Comment: For more information read Harrison Koehli's excellent piece:The Fourth Turning and Steve Bannon Pt. 3: Implications for Hysterica-America

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