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Multiple gunshots fired from N. Korea
hit S. Korean DMZ guard post
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 21:55 ruprecht [12] 
3 11:35 Clem [3] 
19 22:16 KBK [6] 
3 12:57 AlmostAnonymous5839 [4] 
7 19:02 Spot [6] 
3 17:02 Skidmark [4] 
3 17:04 Skidmark [6] 
4 07:28 M. Murcek [7] 
8 20:19 Frank G [12] 
0 [16] 
3 17:09 Skidmark [2] 
2 15:02 Abu Uluque [4] 
13 18:00 magpie [2] 
0 [8] 
7 16:11 Lex [6] 
1 08:52 Besoeker [6] 
0 [4] 
4 20:28 Frank G [4] 
6 19:15 SteveS [3] 
1 05:03 Bright Pebbles [4] 
0 [5] 
7 18:17 trailing wife [8] 
0 [9] 
3 16:13 SteveS [9] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
4 21:39 USN, Ret. [15]
3 11:42 Besoeker [6]
0 [8]
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0 [10]
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0 [24]
1 17:21 Skidmark [7]
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5 11:34 Besoeker [4]
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2 16:06 jpal [10]
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1 06:16 M. Murcek [6]
Page 2: WoT Background
1 15:09 Skidmark [12]
1 01:07 Bobby [18]
5 19:18 SteveS [15]
1 08:12 M. Murcek [8]
3 22:19 b [7]
0 [6]
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9 17:54 magpie [15]
Page 4: Opinion
6 21:53 Lex [13]
2 16:25 trailing wife [5]
7 22:40 KBK [10]
7 17:19 Skidmark [5]
2 09:52 Skidmark [11]
11 17:49 Clem [7]
5 12:57 AlanC [10]
1 03:26 g(r)omgoru [8]
14 23:04 Bunyip [12]
2 18:27 Clem [9]
3 13:25 Phusotle Dingle5823 [2]
Page 6: Politix
8 19:31 SteveS [12]
10 19:50 charger [3]
8 15:26 Abu Uluque [4]
10 14:27 Lex [13]
2 11:42 ruprecht [9]
4 16:39 lord garth [9]
20 15:09 Abu Uluque [11]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Boots installs safe spaces inside its pharmacies
[DailyMail] ...for victims of domestic abuse as cases surge by nearly 50% during lockdown
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 00:30 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
McDonald's Changes Policy Amid Meat Shortage Concerns
[Epoch Times] Burger patties, bacon, and sausage have been placed under the firm's controlled allocation policy, meaning that the McDonald's supply chain will send restaurants meat based on calculated demand, the firm told Business Insider. Normally, management orders the amount believed will be needed at a specific location.

McDonald's distribution centers went on managed supply, while restaurants are under its controlled allocation policy as a precaution, the firm said.
Posted by: KBK || 05/03/2020 14:51 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Past time to invest in freezer futures?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 15:40 Comments || Top||

#2  They have meat?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 16:40 Comments || Top||

#3  ^^^ no
Posted by: Chris || 05/03/2020 17:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Discard the burger and eat the greasy paper wrapper! It tastes more like meat.
Posted by: magpie || 05/03/2020 18:02 Comments || Top||

#5  ad campaign teaser:

McDonald's is going Green! Try the new Soylent Burger - available now for a limited time at your local McDonald's.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 18:58 Comments || Top||

#6  "Ingredients subject to local availability"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 19:34 Comments || Top||

#7  So if the meat supply gets boosted in the middle of the night, did the Hamburglar really do it?
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/03/2020 21:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Even lack of meat won't improve sales of that veggie-burger thing they tried to push out recently.
Posted by: ruprecht || 05/03/2020 21:55 Comments || Top||


Trump administration officials thought COVID-19 death toll would never reach 60,000 and that medical experts caused the president to overreact 'like the school nurse telling the principal how to run the school'
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 10:39 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amazing what an election year can do to people.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  This might even be credible, if there was some form of publicly stated, objective criteria for death BY Wuhan virus inasmuch as multiple locations have publicly stated they are now attributing all respiratory deaths to Wuhan virus.
Posted by: Cesare || 05/03/2020 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  You're lucky to have him.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 11:49 Comments || Top||

#4  ...Am I the only one who remembers official forecasts of millions dead...?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/03/2020 12:44 Comments || Top||

#5  No, because Trump said it about 500 times in those daily pressers.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 12:47 Comments || Top||

#6  The IHME is now forecasting 72,423 deaths by August 4th, contrasted with the Information presented by the coronavirus task force [date?] said as many as 1.6 million to 2.2 million Americans could die without social distancing efforts
Posted by: Bobby || 05/03/2020 12:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Too bad you can't read the story because of the pop-ups.
And if you try to close the ppoups it acts as if you clicked on them to go to the website.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/03/2020 12:49 Comments || Top||

#8  The IHME is now forecasting 72,423 deaths by August 4th

It's 66,527 today.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 13:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Doesn't matter what some backstabbing anonymous source says now, or even what they thought then. The President had decisions to make, and he made them. He used the best information available at the time.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/03/2020 13:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Rob, that's logic.The left doesn't understand it.
Posted by: Chris || 05/03/2020 14:19 Comments || Top||

#11  #8 - 63,863 is what the IHME forecast for today - 96% of 'your' number. Pretty close for a forecast. Or the US as a whole is forecast to be at 88% of the total deaths forecast (Through August 4). Assuming a certain level of 'social distancing'. Some states are exceeding IHME assumptions.

Different parameters, different answers.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/03/2020 14:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Just another example of how bad the TDS is. And where were the armchair quarterbacks then with their "expert recommendations"? Quiet as church mice, but oh so easy to sharp-shoot the President now. If he says "10", they'll say "why not 11 (or 9)?". As with pretty much everything, it's all about politics and winning at any costs (the Dems) and little to do with this crisis or that crisis.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 14:50 Comments || Top||

#13  I am skeptical about the number of reported deaths. Reminds of the number of school shootings, which turned out to be wildly inflated.

Wuhan Flu is certainly deadly, but it is being politicized, like everything else these days.
Posted by: Daffy Brown6765 || 05/03/2020 14:51 Comments || Top||

#14  No doubt, Daffy. When our very own CDC issues a directive to "error" on the side of COVID-19, then you know our doctors have little to no backbone to stand up to this. It's fraud.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 14:53 Comments || Top||

#15  I’m expecting a pulse as states open. The question is, how big? I have no idea.
Posted by: KBK || 05/03/2020 15:06 Comments || Top||

#16  2nn a day
2nnn a week
May, June, July...Aug4
2nnn*3=6nnn
2nn*4=8nn
6nnn+8nn+63863~72nnn at end of the first week of Aug

More credible than me pretending to be an epidemiologist.

Wait...I may have forgotten to carry a beach or 2.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 16:52 Comments || Top||

#17  'like the school nurse telling the principal how to run the school'

Damned nurses.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 16:53 Comments || Top||

#18  What would the numbers look like in a typical flue year if we took people still sick with the flue and released them into nursing homes?
Posted by: ruprecht || 05/03/2020 18:56 Comments || Top||

#19  Or HR telling a CEO how to run a company.
Posted by: KBK || 05/03/2020 22:16 Comments || Top||


Florida retirement villager at her very best (short video)
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 08:31 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That was great. And I saw a B-52/F-15 flyover a couple of days ago.
Posted by: Matt || 05/03/2020 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Lots of military aircraft VIC Atlanta yesterday. I'm still waiting on the BDA. :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 8:48 Comments || Top||

#3  There's some dust in the air all of a sudden.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/03/2020 12:57 Comments || Top||


ICE detainees refuse virus tests, damage detention center
[IsraelTimes] A group of about 10 federal immigration detainees in the US who refused to be tested for the virus that causes COVID-19 caused extensive damage to the center in Dartmouth where they are being held, the local sheriff’s office says in.

The inmates involved in the incident at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center reported multiple symptoms of COVID-19 and when told they had to be tested, they rushed officers.

A news release from the Bristol County sheriff says the detainees barricaded themselves inside the facility, ripped washing machines and pipes off the wall, broke windows and "’trashed the entire unit." A special response team restrained the detainees, the department said.

No staff injuries were reported. One detainee was hospitalized with "symptoms of a panic attack," another was hospitalized due to a pre-existing condition and a third "for a medical incident after being removed from the ICE wing." All three are expected "to be fine," the sheriff’s department says.

Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says the detainees have been moved to single cells pending disciplinary action, COVID-19 testing and criminal charges.

Damage was estimated at $25,000.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2020 04:03 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We knows our rights!"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 5:19 Comments || Top||

#2  And people wonder why there's a lack of sympathy for illegals.

Take them all out past the 35 mile limit and drop them off.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/03/2020 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  When all guards carry stun guns they may still be cruel, but not unusual.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 17:04 Comments || Top||


Michigan pilot gives a literal ‘F U' to governor over coronavirus lockdown
[NYPost] A screengrab of a flight tracker that charted the trip.
"Arrow" pointing @ Michigan Governor's Mansion (+/-):

This frustrated Michigan pilot gives a literal flying you-know-what about his governor’s lock-down order.

Ed Frederick, 45, spent about an hour charting a path over Grand Rapids that spelled out this message for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: “F U,” with an arrow pointing directly over the governor’s mansion.

Frederick said he was inspired to hop in a propeller plane Friday morning after Whitmer announced an extension of the state’s emergency lockdown order through May 28.

“It’s a power trip,” Frederick told The Post.

“The government, no matter Democrats or Republicans, always seem like they’re trying to do something just to prove they’re doing something, without weighing the ramifications.”

Frederick, who lives just outside Grand Rapids, said he owns a small business with his sister, and explained that he believed a lockdown was unnecessary for the entire state, considering the largest concentration of cases were in the southeast region around Detroit.

“That’s been an issue for a lot of people in the rural counties,” he added. “There are 82 counties, but really only four need to be locked down.”
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “There are 82 counties, but really only four need to be locked down.”

Where's the power in that? Reichstag, not just a building, but a state of mind.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 7:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, yeah - it looks like an 'arrow' to me...
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2020 11:28 Comments || Top||

#3  I love the time, energy, and av gas spent doing this. Wolverines!
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 16:13 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
CBP Detains Imported Products Made With Forced Labor in China
[Townhall] U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that imported merchandise made by Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. Ltd. (Haolin) will be detained after CBP received information indicating the company used forced labor to manufacture merchandise.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 03:58 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's the way - set the bureaucracy on them!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 4:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps 20th Century history could provide other historical examples of the horrors of 'forced labor' and the governments which utilized it. Just a thought.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 4:16 Comments || Top||

#3  The slaves weren't white so it's null.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2020 7:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Slavers weren't white
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2020 7:28 Comments || Top||


Protester carries CV 'Arbeit macht frei' sign likely directed toward billionaire Governor
[PJ] The Auschwitz Museum and Memorial condemned a protester who brought a sign featuring the Nazi slogan "Arbeit macht frei" to a rally against Illinois’s stay-at-home orders.

The museum's official Twitter account responded to a photograph from the "Re-open Illinois" protest, which showed a woman wearing an American flag face mask while carrying a sign reading "Arbeit macht frei, JB."

The initials appear to be directed to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), who is Jewish.

"'Arbeit macht frei' was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of #Auschwitz. Those words became one of the icons of human hatred. It's painful to see this symbol instrumentalized & used again to spread hate. It's a symptom of moral & intellectual degeneration," the tweet reads.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 03:30 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stadt luft (or any luft) macht frei
Posted by: Lex || 05/03/2020 3:40 Comments || Top||

#2  In the future, everyone will be Hitler for 15 minutes?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 3:54 Comments || Top||

#3  ...besides, we're all Japanese internees now, not German. It's more of an American Democratic Party tradition.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 7:48 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought this was already exposed as a hoax of one sort or another.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/03/2020 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  That hypocritical fat phuk Pritzker has more important things to worry about like ensuring his wife makes her plane on time.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  In the future, everyone will be Hitler for 15 minutes?

Oh, goodie! I can hardly wait my turn. I've got a list made out and everything.

As for the protest, I see the slogan as a symbol of how far anyone with totalitarian intent will go to *bleep* over those they regard as The Other, if you give them half a chance.

Seen over on Ace of Spades
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 19:08 Comments || Top||

#7  ^LOL
Posted by: Matt || 05/03/2020 19:17 Comments || Top||

#8  :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 20:19 Comments || Top||


Coronavirus Roundup

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Orange County DA 'outraged' after commissioner releases 7 dangerous sex offenders due to COVID-19 restrictions

New Mexico CUTS OFF city ravaged by COVID-19: Roads into Gallup are shut and governor uses riot act to keep its 22,000 residents inside in the remote community with a third of the state's cases

More than 700 lawsuits have been filed across the US against fitness clubs, SXSW, airlines and prisons as Americans get fed up with coronavirus practices from businesses

Michigan deaths rise by 232 in a day to 4,021 amid protests over lockdown with its fatality rate reaching 9.3% - the highest of all states - as deaths across the U.S. top 66,000 with 1,150,000 infections

Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New Mexico CUTS OFF city ravaged by COVID-19: Roads into Gallup are shut and governor uses riot act to keep its 22,000 residents inside in the remote community with a third of the state's cases

Lujans didn't stay in power so long by being stupid.

Michigan deaths rise by 232 in a day to 4,021 amid protests over lockdown with its fatality rate reaching 9.3% - the highest of all states

Tragedy = when two kinds of stupid clash.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 3:12 Comments || Top||


#3  Detroit and surrounding counties account for vast majority of MI infections/ deaths, but Half-Whitmer applies her stupid rules Statewide
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 11:06 Comments || Top||

#4  /\ Truth masking via equality of burden sharing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 11:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Detroit and surrounding counties account for vast majority of MI infections/ deaths, but Half-Whitmer applies her stupid rules Statewide

For example:
CDC map of Michigan cases/deaths by county

This is one reason citizens are annoyed by Gov. Gretchen "Half" Witmer - the Wu Flu is not evenly distributed. The other reason is the utterly arbitrary nature of her rules, although to be fair, some of the stupider ones have been walked back in the face of armed insurrection protests.

Virus distribution pretty much matches the Red/Blue divide in Michigan, with the Blue cities having high rates, but the Red rural areas comparatively unaffected.

If I was a journalist, I would immediately conclude that voting Democrat makes you susceptible to Chinese diseases.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 15:54 Comments || Top||

#6  ^ Nice
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 16:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Prescribed remedy = Political distancing
Posted by: Lex || 05/03/2020 16:11 Comments || Top||


Youtube Exposing the Real Bill Gates the Press will Never Report
A 24-minute video in the link from Armstrong Economics. I love the pie incident in Brussels from around the 4:00 mark of the video. Too bad Dan Rather didn't get one in the kisser, too.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  People like Gates have big personal PR and polling operations. The "No Sale" signals they have most likely gotten on his latest effort to be "savior of us all" are probably tightly under wraps.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2020 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Video is actually from "The Corbett Report". Anybody know anything about this outfit?
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Somebody's opinion of somebody's opinions. YMMV
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2020 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Murcek’s link has two bogus characters at end, so 404.

From link: Overall, we rate the Corbett Report a Tin Foil Hat conspiracy and Moderate pseudoscience website, based on the promotion of 9/11 conspiracies, False Flags, Chemtrails and Deep State conspiracies. (D. Van Zandt 2/4/2017) Updated (10/5/2019)

More crap from Armstrong, Clem.
Posted by: KBK || 05/03/2020 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  One thing about Armstrong (he has mentioned this before, but he probably needs to mention it some more or at least have a disclaimer) is that he has office(s) in China; so, methinks he will not criticize China with much vigor. One can only hope that he really, truly, honestly believes what he considers to be the facts are actually the facts. We'll see. It may come down again to the old saying about the truth being somewhere in the middle (PRC-USA). All I have to do is recall the Warren Commission report and the Gulf of Tomkin to stick a needle in my balloon of faith.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 10:54 Comments || Top||

#6  His brother, Tonkin
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 17:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Murcek’s link has two bogus characters at end, so 404.

M. Murcek’s link is fixed. Thank you for catching that, KBK.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2020 18:17 Comments || Top||


[From AUS] Coronavirus: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program
[DailyTelegraph] China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an "assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion.

The 15-page research document, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, lays the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China.

It states that to the "endangerment of other countries" the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or "disappearing" doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in laboratories and refusing to provide live samples to international scientists who were working on a vaccine.

It can also be revealed the Australian government trained and funded a team of Chinese scientists who belong to a laboratory which went on to genetically modify deadly coronaviruses that could be transmitted from bats to humans and had no cure, and is not the subject of a probe into the origins of COVID-19.

As intelligence agencies investigate whether the virus inadvertently leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, the team and its research led by scientist Shi Zhengli feature in the dossier prepared by Western governments that points to several studies they conducted as areas of concern.

It cites their work discovering samples of coronavirus from a cave in the Yunnan province with striking genetic similarity to COVID-19, along with their research synthesising a bat-derived coronavirus that could not be treated....

ZeroHedge: Here Are The Key Findings From The Bombshell Government Dossier On China's Bat Virus Program
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Africa Horn
Egypt exerts pressures to remove Sudan PM
[MIDDLEEASTMONITOR] As part of its efforts to end negotiations on the Æthiopia dam project, Egypt has been working to undermine and remove Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok because he fully adopts the Æthiopian vision, internal sources have said.

Speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, the sources said: "Cairo has the impression that Hamdok’s close ties with the Æthiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, which dates back to before Abiy took office, made him a manoeuvring tool used by the latter to control the dam file."

The sources added: "What makes the situation more favourable for Abiy’s endeavour is the ongoing tension and disputes between the Sudanese army and other civil components, since the fall of al-Bashir’s regime," in reference to the army’s deposal of Sudan’s long-term dictator earlier last year.

Æthiopia is building a $5 billion dam near its border with Sudan, which it claims will provide the country with much-needed electricity and economic regeneration. Egypt believes that when the dam is filled, already-scarce water supplies from the Nile will be restricted.

Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
THIRD Russian doctor plunges from Covid hospital window: Medic, 37, is now fighting for life... 24 hours after warning of PPE shortages and being forced to work despite being infected
[MAIL] A third Russian doctor has plunged from a hospital window after complaining about medics facing intolerable coronavirus pressures.

Alexander Shulepov, 37, is fighting for his life with head injuries after taking part in in a video which claimed he was ordered to work despite testing positive for Covid-19.

He and colleagues also warned about PPE shortages in Voronezh city. Later - lying in a coronavirus hospital bed - Shulepov made a second video to retract the claims amid suspicions he was pressured to do so.

On Saturday, while being treated at Novousmanskaya district hospital, the experienced ambulance doctor plunged from a second floor window sustaining skull fractures. He is now in a grave condition.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 10:45 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Assisted 'plunging'.... or unassisted 'plunging?'
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 11:29 Comments || Top||

#2  graphic added
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Hillary in town?

BTW, wasn't Russia sending aid/equipment abroad?
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 11:35 Comments || Top||


Project Sledopyt: eavesdropping on foreign satellites
[NASAspaceflight dot com] Court documents published last year suggest that the Sledopyt project has experienced significant delays over the last decade and may still be a long way from becoming operational.

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/b08ea492-82f5-48be-b41e-ef31801de6b3
https://kad.arbitr.ru/Card/639d0527-97ad-476c-802d-2834ebb4725d

The documents reveal that the project got underway on 24 July 2009 with a contract signed between the Ministry of Defense and the Radio Research and Development Institute (NIIR), the prime contractor. This was for what was officially described as “the creation of a network of specialized complexes to monitor radio emitting spacecraft” / “OKR (experimental design work) Sledopyt”, also referred to as 14Ts032 (14Ц032).

One follow-up contract was signed on May 1, 2010 between NIIR and a university called the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (NIU MEI) for the IPK-S system, which is intended to intercept medium-frequency signals from satellites. Another online source makes it possible to trace that specific work to a small design bureau within NIU MEI called NPTS KB RPS (headed by Yuri Bugayev). It is also known to build radar calibration satellites called KYuA (three of which have probably been launched as Kosmos-2512, 2537 and 2538).
https://mpei.ru/AboutUniverse/OficialInfo/orders2015/MPEI-15-179.pdf

The July 2009 contract stipulated that the Ministry of Defense should complete “preparatory work” at the construction sites in 2012-2013, but this work ran into delays and was subsequently affected by the Western sanctions imposed on Russia beginning in 2014, which made it necessary to import certain hardware from other countries. Apparently, the preparatory work was still not completed by 2016 and on October 29, 2016 the Deputy Minister of Defense signed an order “to stop work on the OKR” on November 1, 2016 and conclude a new government contract with NIIR after completion of the preparatory work. It then took another two years (until November 6, 2018) for the Ministry of Defense and NIIR to reach an agreement on annulling the original July 2009 government contract. That decision officially went into effect on November 27, 2018.

Does this mean Sledopyt has been canceled or suspended? Most likely not. The October 2016 decision of the Ministry of Defense probably ordered NIIR to temporarily halt only the work that falls directly under its responsibility, namely the design and production of hardware needed to pick up satellite signals. Presumably, the Ministry of Defense has since signed a new contract with NIIR (replacing the one of 2009) that set new timelines for the company to finish its part of the work.

The actual construction work on the sites is done under separate government contracts between the Ministry of Defense and various military construction companies. The most recent one is known to have been signed on April 6, 2018. Building contracts signed with various subcontractors in 2019 for the 1511/1 site in Noginsk-9 clearly show that the project is still alive. Also, in a recent interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, the head of Russia’s Main Space Surveillance Center Sergei Suchkov mentioned the development of a system to pick radio signals from satellites (most likely Sledopyt) as one of the goals to be accomplished as part of a program to modernize Russia’s space surveillance network before 2025.
http://redstar.ru/nablyudat-za-zvyozdami-i-garantirovat-bezopasnost-strany/?attempt=1

Nevertheless, imagery of the sites available on Google Earth shows little progress in the construction work. As mentioned earlier here, construction of the 1511/3 site in Sukhodol does not even seem to have started, which may be partly due to an archeological discovery made on the planned construction site several years ago (see the previous posting). In short, all signs are that more than ten years after it began, the Sledopyt project is still some years away from entering service.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies


China-Japan-Koreas
Multiple gunshots fired from N. Korea hit S. Korean DMZ guard post
[EN.YNA.CO.KR] Multiple bullets from North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), prompting the South to broadcast a warning and fire back, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.The gunshots hit the guard unit in the central border town of Cheorwon at around 7:41 a.m.. No casualties or damage to South Korean facilities were reported, according to the JCS.

Following the incident, the military issued broadcast warnings, and fired back twice, it added.

"We are taking actions via inter-Korean communication lines to grasp the detailed situation and to prevent any further incidents. And we also maintain a necessary readiness posture," the JCS said in a release.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Hmmmmm.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Pudgy doesn't have to go to all this trouble just to prove he's still alive. All he needs to do is read from today's newspaper on live TV.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/03/2020 15:02 Comments || Top||


What is OPLAN 5029? The 'Mission Impossible'-style plan in place to secure North Korea's nukes
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  One of 5029+ OPlans to do one thing or another? Probably dozens just for this.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/03/2020 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  OPLANs are like the coach's playbook. Given that no one has actually practiced one on any playing field, you can guess how smooth it will all be. None usually contain any options dependent upon the opfor's reactions.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 7:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Nothing says 'top secret, eyes only' like being published on a news network.
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/03/2020 14:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Chile and Argentina have territorial claims in Antarctica that they still hold. Back in the 80's I heard there was an OPLAN involving sending Rangers to rescue American citizens at Little American research station from Chilean and/or Argentinan occupiers... OPLANs are like that with some realistic and some straight out of fantasy land.
Posted by: magpie || 05/03/2020 18:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh this is so neat-o, getting to see government plans for a contingency. Now show us the one about how we invade Mexico to stabilize it, or Canada if they get into a civil war over Quebec separatism, the update of "War Plan Crimson".

Of course we have a plan for it - we probably have plans for everything from "The Big One" earthquake in Cali to an Alien invasion of China.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 || 05/03/2020 18:28 Comments || Top||

#6  we probably have plans for everything

Let's hope! And speaking as your Career Advisor, in the staff meeting when it all starts to go south, you don't want to be the guy who says "Doh! We never thought of that."
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 19:15 Comments || Top||


Five Eyes intelligence dossier claims China Lied and worse.
[Twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Although not exactly 5eyes is as trustworthy as china is...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2020 5:03 Comments || Top||


Economy
Cops arrest 22 protesters at Austin rent strike as thousands of struggling tenants across the country rally to urge landlords to waive payments during pandemic that's left 30 million unemployed
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And just like that, every developer in the country stopped building rental housing.
Posted by: Matt || 05/03/2020 8:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Are local and state governments waiving property taxes?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, Texas does of sorts.

How to Freeze Texas Property Taxes at Age 65
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 17:09 Comments || Top||


How natural gas is withstanding the energy market collapse
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Natural gas is withstanding the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
-fueled economic crash in a way that its closely associated relative, oil, isn’t.

Oil prices have reached record lows, with the U.S. benchmark oil price briefly dropping below zero last month after trading at around $60 per barrel at the start of 2020.

The U.S. natural gas price, meanwhile, is stable, staying below $2 per million British thermal units, or MMBtu, a historically low level it has been hovering at for a while due to a glut produced from the shale boom.

Oil producers are shutting in their wells, prompting tens of thousands of layoffs, because the pace of the price collapse was so sudden, caused mostly by the fact that the pandemic has crushed demand for transportation fuels made with oil, as people forgo driving and flying.

"The negative impact on demand in gas markets is not as significant as it is with oil because it’s not being driven by transportation," said Dustin Meyer, director of market development at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. oil and gas lobbying group.

U.S. natural gas production, by contrast, has remained steady as people stuck at home depend on it for power and heat. Because it’s been so cheap for so long, natural gas in recent years passed coal as the most used fuel for electricity, at 38% of the mix in 2019.

While some important uses for gas are falling, without the need to power or heon the lam office spaces and some nonessential manufacturing facilities, demand has picked up in other places, such as in feedstock for plastics used to make key health equipment.

"Instead of seeing a very low price market or negative pricing like we did with oil, you are seeing something that looks like price stability or even resilience with natural gas because its primary end use in this country hasn't changed all that much," said Kevin Book, managing director of the research group ClearView Energy. "Most of America doesn't understand how much of its electric power comes from natural gas, and the masks, gloves, and gowns they are so focused on are also coming from natural gas."
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
France to extend coronavirus emergency for two months
[Aljazeera] France will extend a health emergency imposed to fight the new coronavirus pandemic for another two months until July 24, Minister of Health Olivier Veran has said.

A draft law says a lifting this month of the emergency, which began on March 24, would be premature and carry the risk of an intensifying outbreak.

"We are going to have to perform a long-distance run," Veran said on Saturday, adding he was aware that the French people had already been asked for "colossal efforts" in the fight against the virus.

The bill will go before the Senate on Monday and the National Assembly most probably the day after, said government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye. It is expected to become law by the end of the week.

The new emergency bill also lays out the quarantine conditions for people coming to France from abroad.

Veran said travellers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country.

"This quarantine will be imposed on any person returning on French soil," Veran told a news briefing after the weekly cabinet meeting.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 04:32 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if there are protests in France comparing Veran to Hitler?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 5:08 Comments || Top||

#2  ..Petain?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 7:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Just travelers, or are the French going to be watching sunsets for the next two months, (like Californians)?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/03/2020 8:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Hopefully they slap on some jaunes gillets and hit the streets.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 8:43 Comments || Top||

#5  /\ "Gilets jaunes" to be more precise/correct.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Just travelers

How many North Africans/day?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 16:55 Comments || Top||

#7  As long as the hospitals are able to cope, things should open. Staying locked down extends the epidemic, not stops it.
Posted by: Spot || 05/03/2020 19:02 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Alarm over deaths of bees from rapidly spreading viral disease
[Guardian] A viral disease that causes honey bees to suffer severe trembling, flightlessness and death within a week is spreading exponentially in Britain.

Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) was only recorded in Lincolnshire in 2007. A decade later, it was found in 39 of 47 English counties and six of eight Welsh counties, according to data collected from visits to more than 24,000 beekeepers.

As well as struggling to fly, the afflicted bees develop shiny, hairless abdomens. Piles of dead individuals are found outside hives with whole colonies frequently wiped out by the disease.

The viral disease has been around for centuries – its symptoms were first described by Aristotle ...
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not in North Texas. We planted four Eggleston Holly trees last fall, and they have been covered in honey bees all this week!

But beware of the bee-killing Giant Asian Hornet, invading from the Pacific Northwest! (h. t. Mrs. Bobby)
Posted by: Bobby || 05/03/2020 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Good! Glad to see the bees out there!
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 1:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Read a trash thriller recently, 'The Demon Crown,' by James Rollins. All about killer hornets sent from Asia in a terrorist plot.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/03/2020 1:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Honey bees been dying off for what, a decade now?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 4:04 Comments || Top||

#5  g(r)omgoru, they started fussing about fifteen years ago. There are more up to date articles, but Call off the bee-pocalypse: U.S. honeybee colonies hit a 20-year high from 2015 has an interesting graph. It’s behind the paywall, but you should be able to read it if you drop the headline in the Google search app.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2020 7:54 Comments || Top||

#6  And now the "murder hornet"...someone sent me this today
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 7:59 Comments || Top||

#7  if someone is in need of a grant you can be sure that they will suddenly discover it is a 'new more virulent strain'
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 05/03/2020 8:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Shhhh, not so loud. Pelosi might try to slip that into the next recovery bill.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 8:45 Comments || Top||

#9  #5 Right. 10 (actually almost 12) was when I was exposed to the problem.

It’s behind the paywall, but you should be able to read it if you drop the headline in the Google search app.

Neh, I don't care about pollination (professionally) anymore.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 8:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, the disease has been around since Aristotle, so 10 years is quite the conservative number.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/03/2020 9:29 Comments || Top||


#12  Treat the hives the same way American foulbrood (another bed disease, fungal, I believe) is treated: dig a 6' deep hole, pile in the hive and all the tools and gear used to work with it. Douse in kerosene and light.

Repeat the burning until nothing recognizable remains, then fill in the hole.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/03/2020 17:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Commercial monoculture crops are making necessary the movement of "mercenary bee colonies" that are trucked from site to site to allow for pollination -- the rest of the time there is no way there are enough flowering plants to support the necessary hives. So we are transporting the infection across great distances -- Hurrah for industrial agriculture!
Posted by: magpie || 05/03/2020 18:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
US Women's equal pay claim dismissed by court
h/t Instapundit
[BBC] - ...the court said: "The women's team has been paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than the men's team over the class period."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/03/2020 04:08 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, the men should sue?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2020 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  BBC must be heart-broken.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't watch fuute ball but am impressed when I do stumble across a (game, match, herd, squabble?) contest.

Not only do those poor bastards run like a mile between goal posts but they deliberately do a knee slide. When I did that as a kid, I ended up wearing bandages with gravel inserts for weeks.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 17:02 Comments || Top||


Government
U.S. intelligence leader Grenell orders consistency in describing 'masked' identities
[Just The News] The leader of U.S. national intelligence has issued a memo ordering the entire U.S. intelligence community to adopt consistent principles on how information on anonymous identities are disseminated in government reports.

The memo written by Richard Grenell, the acting director of Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and obtained by Just the News states Grenell's "increasingly concerned" with intelligence reports in which the policies regarding masked identities are "inconsistently applied."

The intelligence community for a variety of reasons regularly suppresses, or "masks," the identity of sources, subjects of investigation and other Americans that may end up in IC [intelligence community] reports. Operatives will often describe masked individuals in ways vague enough to preclude any identification of them. Yet Grenell in his memo implied that this practice is not rigorously followed throughout the community.

"It is critical that we afford the same rigorous privacy and civil liberties protections to all U.S. persons regardless of whether they are a private citizen, Member of Congress, or an official serving within our Government's Executive Branch," he wrote in the memo, issued late last month.

A senior administration official involved in intelligence matters this weekend told Just the News that there is a wide variety of protocol spread out across the intelligence community.

"There are 17 intelligence agencies and each one has its own rules for how to safeguard the identities of Americans who inadvertently appear in intelligence reporting. Congress has rightfully created a high standard for its members and staff, but the ADNI wants to ensure the privacy of all Americans is being respected equally," the official said.

In the memo, Grenell directed "all IC elements" to review their identity dissemination protocols and "as necessary, modify internal procedures to ensure the rules governing disseminations are consistently applied."

"Moving forward, all IC Elements should, by default, characterize U.S. person identities in disseminated intelligence reporting in a sufficiently generic manner to mask their identity," he also said.

The director asked that every agency under his purview report back within a month to describe the steps it will take to ensure compliance with the order.
Posted by: Clem || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the memo, Grenell directed "all IC elements" to review their identity dissemination protocols and "as necessary, modify internal procedures to ensure the rules governing disseminations are consistently applied."

Ha! Good luck with that.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2020 8:52 Comments || Top||


Science
Robot 'spy' gorilla records wild Ugandan gorillas singing and farting
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/03/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who gave them the beer...
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/03/2020 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Reminds me of days back at the Lodge
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/03/2020 11:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Robot spy gorillas? Now *this* is the 21st century I was hoping for.

You're having second thoughts now about that "hobo" you keep seeing hanging out on the park bench, aren't you?
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2020 19:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Harambe returns
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2020 20:28 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
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Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
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Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2020-05-03
  Multiple gunshots fired from N. Korea
hit S. Korean DMZ guard post
Sat 2020-05-02
  Trial begins in Denmark of man accused of attack plot for Iran
Fri 2020-05-01
  Southern Transitional Council declares self rule in Yemen
Thu 2020-04-30
  German government bans Hezbollah — Interior Ministry
Wed 2020-04-29
  El Salvador's President Takes On The Country's Gangs Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Tue 2020-04-28
  Haftar declares himself a ruler of Libya
Mon 2020-04-27
  Pakistan to keep Mosques open during Ramadan
Sun 2020-04-26
  GNA Refuses Operation IRINI Because It Will Disrupt Arms Supplies From Turkey
Sat 2020-04-25
  North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un again rumored to be dead
Fri 2020-04-24
  Poland Detains Lebanese Man Suspected of 'Planning Attacks'
Thu 2020-04-23
  Afrin: Kurdish population more than halved since 2018 offensive
Wed 2020-04-22
  Trump says he's ordered Navy to destroy
Iranian boats should they harass U.S. ships
Tue 2020-04-21
  North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger
after surgery, or so they ay
Mon 2020-04-20
  U.S. crude falls below $15 a barrel, down more than 20%
Sun 2020-04-19
  44 suspected Boko Haram jihadis found dead in Chad prison


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