Three Ukranian soldiers stepped on landmines when secretly entering DNR territory to commit sabotage action.One dead is Estonian,one is american known by surname “Texas”.

Posted by: willie | Jul 18 2020 11:21 utc | 103

Hoarsewhisperer 104
Try the bing search engine for news. It seems to bring up closest match to search terms whereas both google and duckduckgo have been tweaked to bring up the moronic ‘most viewed’ or ‘most liked’

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 18 2020 16:20 utc | 105

@ uncle tungsten | Jul 18 2020 8:07 utc | 101
“Barflies fyi tonight I am drinking a fine shiraz.”
!! cheers = 干杯 “Gānbēi” in Mandarin
Shiraz = Syrah … my fave of the reds
… so shall join you if I may !!
BTW : with thanks to your oft informative posts
Mµ

Posted by: MegaMicro | Jul 18 2020 17:20 utc | 107

Hoarsewhisperer
No sat pics turned up in a basic search so I started a trial account at Planet Labs with a bullshit company name and job title. Been thinking of doing that for awhile.
There’s no treeline around the dam and I only get a low definition view, but judging by the distance of buildings from the waterline it is not far off full. That was in February this year. More recent views have to be paid for.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 18 2020 18:53 utc | 109

@Peter AU1 | 105, Hoarsewhisperer | 108
I am still relativel new to Bing but already am usin it with DuckDuckGo and both are pretty good in terms of results. But still it amazes me at times that no matter how accurate your search wording you can be thrown completely off course by the results.
Google is a lost cause and has been for a long time I think. It survives only because it is bundled and people are either ignorant or lazy.
Also Duckduckgo has a great privacy monitor extension now which is a great way to better know the sites you visit.

Posted by: AtaBrit | Jul 18 2020 20:15 utc | 111

John Helmer gets to kick the fraudsat Financial Times and OPCW down the road again.
Roula Khalaf Financial Times editor is class act. She is competing with the NYT to be the words best bullshitter.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 18 2020 21:28 utc | 113

I see the New Eastern Outlook is running a propaganda piece for the Australian Government about how the island nations of the South Pacific are welcoming Australian (read IMF) support for their nations.
Those brave aussies are desperate to ‘save’ the island folk from China’s loans. That means they can be captured by western austerity enslavement as opposed to economic dependency on China.
After the last few decades of ignorant and abusive Australian Government bungling among the Pacific Ilsand nations, there is no chance for better relations but some remote chance for an accomm/odation for the pariah down under.
Odd that NEO is running such a piece of crap stenography.
From the story (I wont dignify it with the word ‘report’)

However, over the past few years the trade and economic initiatives put forth by China, the largest of which is the One Belt One Road initiative and includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu, has disrupted Australia’s seemingly unshakable dominance in Oceania. And Canberra, under the leadership of Morrison, was forced to first lay out a considerable amount in the form of grants and loans for infrastructure projects (2.18 billion dollars), which exceeded Chinese investments in the region, to try to force the island countries spinning out of its control to once again submit to the influence of their historical partner.

Australia has never been a partner. It is a resource extractor, a plunderer of Island wealth and dignity with a pretense of compassion and kindred support. See what they did to the newly liberated East Timor:- They stole their oilfields when the Timorese were finally getting up off their knees.
New Eastern Outlook could do better.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 18 2020 22:44 utc | 115

Peter AU 1 @106–
Yes, I must agree with your observation. It’s sorts like my retort to W Bush saying Jesus was his favorite philosopher: It’s said Jesus died for our sins, so we get to sin as much as we want. But seriously, ever since I read Our Stolen Future, IMO the problem’s industrial pollution that’s lowering people’s intellectual capabilities combined with massive educational dumbing down. Then there’s the revamped Valley of the Dolls pill culture pushed by Big Pharma to deal with behavioral issues caused by the pollution. The idea in the 50-60s was to feed your mind so it could be freed from “square” dogma and Establishment indoctrination, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that happening within the West where people are captured by their freedom and have no idea what to do with it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 18 2020 23:18 utc | 117

karlof1
My thought is that rights are freedoms, but in any functioning social system, there is also responsibilities that correspond to, or go with those freedoms.
We had a white Australia policy until the early sixties. In the remote areas, aboriginal communities worked and camped at cattle stations that were set up where their ancestors lived before white settlement. The young men would do the cattle work and the whole camp was supplied with food and very basic necessities in return. In the wet season they would go off hunting and living traditional life.
The aboriginal people gained citizenship in the early sixties. This meant they had to be paid basic wage and and also had the right to enter a pub and buy liquor along with the rights of all citizens.
With no halfway house, no preparation, they were suddenly dumped into the white mans world and everything went downhill from there. Stations could no longer afford to feed and cloth the camp which would end up on the outskirts of towns, and with a bit of money, booze took its toll.
For many, life is still a mess living on the outskirts of towns. Booze and drugs are major problems. It’s a major problem that requires well thought out programs but instead, money is sometimes thrown at it and other times its brushed under the carpet.
With the loss of their land their culture fell apart, as the land is an integral part of their culture. They where given rights of citizens but there was no attempt to prepare them for the responsibilities that go along with those rights.
then on one side is those who want to crack down on crime, and on the other side are the do-gooder types who think all aboriginals without exception who get into trouble with the law just need tolerance and programs. There are many kids and young people who get caught driving unlicensed or unregistered vehicles, petty theft to pay for booze or drugs and then there is the genuine criminal types that are a menace to everyone, black or white.
It is only well thought out socialist type programs that have a chance of succeeding, but same as in most of the west, all we have is woke types or the far right law and order types.
Somewhat different to the problems you have in the US ….
I had thought a bit about these things over the years but when you asked me about the police violence in the US I started thinking a lot more on US culture and its progression.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 19 2020 0:27 utc | 119

Is there anyone that doesn’t believe that Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-source is Skripal?
Declassified: Christopher Steele’s “Primary Sub-Source” Was His Own Employee; NYT Russiagate Propaganda Shredded By Strzok Comments

• The document reveals that the primary “source” of Steele’s election reporting was not some well-connected current or former Russian official, but a non-Russian based contract employee of Christopher Steele’s firm. Moreover, it demonstrates that the information that Steele’s primary source provided him was second and third-hand information and rumor at best.
• Critically, the document shows that Steele’s “Primary Sub-source” disagreed with and was surprised by how information he gave Steele was then conveyed by Steele in the Steele dossier.

<> <> <> <> <> <>
“Non-Russian based” is being spun as “not Russian”. Such cute phrasing and spinning is an indication that the source is Russian. An expat Russian. Most likely Skripal – especial given the tantalizing info that the source “… disagreed with and was surprised by how information he gave Steele was then conveyed by Steele in the Steele dossier.”
Skripal probably realized he was being used in a political game. Some have speculated that he had planned an escape. But him and his daughter were intercepted: “novichok”-ed, detained, and hidden away.
IMO Skripal KNEW the dossier was false and he probably ALSO KNEW that it was MEANT TO BE FALSE. Because Steele and MI-6 weren’t trying to help Hillary or ‘get’ Trump – they were trying to gin up a new anti-Russian McCarthyism.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 19 2020 1:46 utc | 121

US coronavirus data will now bypass the CDC and go straight to the White House.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-18/us-coronavirus-data-white-house-what-it-means-for-the-world/12467322
“This will have a range of likely knock-on effects. For starters, the new database will not be available to the public, prompting inevitable questions over the accuracy and transparency of data which will now be interpreted and shared by the White House.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which issued the new order, says the change will help the White House’s coronavirus task force allocate resources.”
…………..
Plenty of propaganda on CDC being an authoritative voice on the subject when they couldn’t even make a test kit, but still there is a bit of information in the piece.
Daily new cases in the US have ben skyrocketing for some time now. After the normal interval, the death count also started to rise again, but then it suddenly flatlined.
I would guess no matter how many cases US has from now on, death count will remain below one thousand per day.
Creative accounting cures coronavirus in no time.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 19 2020 2:14 utc | 123

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 19 2020 0:27 utc | 119
News from Portland not good. CGTN News the fed in plain clothing arresting protesters. Please post news as the events turns to hopelessness. Please do take care. 🙂

Posted by: JC | Jul 19 2020 6:30 utc | 125

@125 JC
My friend, the news is also good. We don’t know if the good is bigger than the bad but consider this: the states during this epidemic have been remembering their authority under the Constitution as members of the United States – with powers derived from the people, and powers delegated to the federal union itself, and powers retained to the states.
This has been for many years a very arcane and academic body of knowledge, but the crisis of this year forces it to be a controlling body of knowledge – because actually the Union is controlled by law.
Now the State of Oregon (or is it the Mayor of Portland?) is entering federal court to sue a half-dozen federal agencies and entities for stepping over the line of their jurisdiction and power.
The courts will decide, and this may – or may not – be the end of it all.
Here in the US, we live in a nation of laws. Very rarely does this interfere with the routine criminality of the criminal classes conducting their theft on a daily basis. But sometimes it does. This is one of those times.
Every state of the United States is supremely awake to what is happening with the balance between federal authority and state authority. This matters to the people, because while the people have almost no influence with the federal level of this nation, the people can have a very significant influence on their states – this is very true.
So things could happen. When the little people get closer to the power, things could happen.
It’s a gift that comes out of the pandemic. I don’t venture to say what will be revealed in the box of this gift as it is unwrapped. Merely that this gift is rarely given, and now, here in this year of great change, it appears.
~~
So be of good heart. I know you care about us. This can be a good thing. And my feeling is that it is more of a good thing than a bad thing – but we shall see.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 19 2020 7:21 utc | 127

In his last podcast, Daniel Estulin tlaks about the gold stolen by the Nazis and hidden in Philipines which was looked for and then found by Marcos, who, at that point received a letter from the Trilateral Comission on that the gold should be returned to them or “else”…Marcos tried to disguise some gold for him, by painting it, and then “else” happened…..
One gets with the impression that every war the world has suffered has been orcehstrated in times of scarcity and lack of far away countries/people to plunder so as to solve by robbery some hegemonic ambitions and pretense to live always over their own means….
I think it is in this context that, after withdrawing from as many as they can international coalition/agreements, UK aircraft carriers have been deployed in the Pacific….along with those from the US…in a clear “Coalition for Piratery” which already had its premiere with the seizing of Venezuelan national assets…

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 10:06 utc | 129

@ Jackrabbit & Peter AU1
The Americans may fear a Russian alliance with China, but the British fear even stronger an alliance between Russia and Germany.
PS the direct link between Steele and Skripal is a man named Pablo Miller. He is Skripal’s main handler and also Steele’s best pal from their military days. You won’t find his name in the British press because of a “D Notice” (that wiki link even refences the Steele/Skripal/Miller ménage à trois.)

Posted by: Lurk | Jul 19 2020 10:30 utc | 131

uncle tungsten | Jul 19 2020 9:22 utc | 128
The Asian green label beer goes down good. Not being able to read Chinese, I bought a bottle of stuff that looked like whiskey. It contained alcohol and so long as a liquid contains booze I can usually drink it. But that stuff was in a different class.
I gave it to one of my daughters to offer it to guests as she she has a few of the yuppie types around but none of them could drink it either.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 19 2020 10:45 utc | 133

Why the “Coalition for Piratery” needs to send in aircraft carriers to the South Cgina Sea as their “color revolutions” do not work in China…
https://twitter.com/ComisionOctubre/status/1284484075236065280

93%. The satisfaction of the Chinese people with the Government of the Communist Party is currently reaching its highest level since Harvard University conducts its annual survey.

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 10:57 utc | 135

Another interesting opinion under the linked article from InfoLibre on the Eurogroup post-pandemic recovery fund:

In my modest opinion (and that of some people much more documented than me), what Spain and Italy should do (along with others like Portugal and Greece) would be to credibly threaten to break the deck.
And, if necessary, break it, refusing to approve the Budget of the European Union (for which, also, unanimity is required) so that the frugality that they prescribe also includes French and Dutch cows, tulip producers, potatoes onions and cucumbers and the European multinationals that are waiting for those generous funds that are in question for us and they want to condition on that we further dismantle our social and labor justice.
If that were to happen, it is very likely that, although we would also pay a high price, perhaps those who today intend to extort us will suffer worse consequences.
And, on the other hand, in our case the damages caused would be compensated, at least partially, with the economic independence gained that, in the medium term, would allow us to rebalance, socially and economically, our country.
In this regard, I recommend reading the article published yesterday in Nueva Tribuna by D. Gabriel Flores Sánchez entitled “How, when and who will pay the public debt?”, that analyzes the possible future outputs of this pulse.
https://www.nuevatribuna.es/articulo/actualidad/crisis-covid-europa-deuda-publica/20200716110515177178.html

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 11:32 utc | 137

LET THE EARTH BE SLIGHT: Lucio Urturbia, an anarchist, robber and responsible for a counterfeit that put the world’s largest bank of the time, Citibank, on the ropes, has died.
https://twitter.com/Amor_y_Rabia/status/1284651366128979969

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 12:07 utc | 139

Map of explosions which took place in Iran during July 2020:
https://twitter.com/descifraguerra/status/1284810495556493312

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 12:27 utc | 141

More on the more than oportune debate on tax havens…this time European, which European Comission forgots…
https://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20200718/482351050173/comision-europea-paraisos-fiscales.html

As published in a study in the midst of a pandemic, the academic Gabriel Zucman of the University of Berkeley together with his colleague Ludig Vier and Thomas Tørsløv of the University of Copenhagen (entitled The missing profits of nations), around 80% of the business profits of the EU move to Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. And not exactly for tourism, but to take advantage of its generous tax avoidance mechanisms that reduce the tax burden for multinationals.
As the Tax Justice Network explained to this newspaper, “the black list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in the EU by design does not take into account the countries of the Union. These criteria, with these omissions, are too weak to protect taxpayers. The EU selection has covered at most 10% of the world’s financial secrecy services. ”
According to Zucman’s study, Spain loses 12% of its corporation tax due to the financial engineering that is carried out … within the EU itself! In numbers, we are talking about 3,150 million euros. But profits are also lost, which are transferred outside the borders: 12.6 billion euros.
In particular, the case of the Netherlands is striking, one of the most reluctant countries – as has been seen in providing direct aid to the countries of the south, when, in practice, its tax system allows to lower the tax burden on companies up to a range of between 1% and 10%. The Netherlands monopolizes almost half of all the tax amount that Spain loses within the EU due to tax avoidance. According to ICEX data, dated May 31, all the large Spanish firms have an established presence in the Netherlands: Santander, Endesa, Gas Natural, Repsol and Telefónica, among others.
While the Dutch enter 39% of their corporate tax thanks to these corporate movements, it is Luxembourg that takes the most advantage, since 58% of their corporate tax income comes from this traveling money from multinationals.
In this context, it is understood how the debate between frugal countries and wasteful countries is conditioned by unfair tax competition. And Brussels, with its lists, instead of putting out the fire, lights it.

What Mark Rutte will achieve by his unsolidary attitude on pressing with his knee to the asphixia on the necks of the South European countries more hitted by the pandemia, is make it grow the legion of Euroesceptics which will go then to engross the ranks of the European far-right, to which he could then easily lost the next Dutch elections to be celebrated coming spring…
May be this is the desired outcome…at least at the other side of the Atlantic… and in Perfid Albion as well…Who are their Troy Horses into the EU?

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 13:07 utc | 143

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 13:07 utc | 143
Endesa, Gas Natural, Repsol and Telefónica, are the Spanish natural resources and basic infrastructures former national corporations privatized during the liberal governments of fake socialist Gonzalez ( currently seat at several of these corporations boards ), and far-right Aznar ( the one who was thanked for his support for the war on Iraq…)

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Jul 19 2020 13:12 utc | 145

“Guyana Rejects U.S. Request to Air Propaganda to Venezuela”
another upstart

Posted by: arby | Jul 19 2020 13:43 utc | 147

uncle tungsten | Jul 19 2020 9:22 utc | 128

Thank you, and if one was to drink a good Chinese spirit, what would that be?
I am partial to Lebanese Arak and Mexican Tequila so I should venture East too.

good Chinese spirit :
————————
= 🙂 there was an über fantastic plum brandy found in Shanghai
… ( still can not get it out of my mind )
= 🙁 there was a rice wine that dripped inadvertently down my chin …
… next morn there was a stain on hardwood floor …
… where the varnish was eaten away ! ( ~4 cm diameter )
… ( that ultra ridiculously cheap wine was 57 % )
Lebanese Arak :
————————
= you have intrigued me
venture East :
————————
= *Hangzhou* !! …
( There is a Chinese saying, 上有天堂, 下有苏杭
(pinyin: shàng yǒu tiāntáng, xià yǒu sūháng; literally
“above, there is heaven; below, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou”) )
( Marco Polo stated Hangzhou was most beautiful city he had seen )
( ~1400 km canal built in ~600 AD from Hangzhou to Beijing )
… … (( while Europa was in ~diapers ))
( = rent a bike there, first hour free ; circum-cycle West Lake)
( fields and fields of tea nearby )
= Nanjing previous China capital
( huge park dedicated to a ~founder of China Dr. Sun Yat-sen )
( street lined with sycamore trees )
( not as mentioned as the Beijings & Shanghais )
BTW :
(( Beijing Great Wall Badaling is the “bad” tourist one ))
(( … Mutanyu is the real one , farther away ))
BTW seriously plz :
Suggest image peek at Beijing Opera building !!
& “The Place” has/had world’s largest TV = 250 m x 30 m
To Paa-aaty :
————————
Beijing : Sanlitun area
Shanghai : Zapata’s
( ppl dance on the serving bar surface ~1.2 m up )
( every once in a while ppl lean back and gratis …
… bartender pours tequila shots into patrons’ mouths )
?ack plz? 🙂 info
Mµ

Posted by: MegaMicro | Jul 20 2020 3:52 utc | 149