Happy Holiday weekend

 

the more things change the more they stay the same

Since taking on my shoulders the burden of pastoral care, I have been unable to keep steadily recollected because my mind is distracted by many responsibilities. I am forced to consider questions affecting churches and monasteries and often I must judge the lives and actions of individuals; at one moment I am forced to take part in certain civil affairs, next I must worry over the incursions of barbarians and fear the wolves who menace the flock entrusted to my care; now I must accept political responsibility in order to give support to those who preserve the rule of law; now I must bear patiently the villainies of brigands, and then I must confront them, yet in all charity.

Pope Gregory the Great recognized he had to preserve the rule of law because of barbarians and wolves who would menace ordinary folk.

He didn't have to bow to political correctness.

background here.and HERE:

Rome, his birthplace, was sacked by barbarians when he was only six years old, and barbarian raids around the Italian countryside brought throngs of dirt-poor refugees flooding into Rome, carrying with them a plague that wiped out a third of the region’s ..population.....

It was Gregory who first conceived of a global plan of spreading the Gospel to the empire’s barbarian conquerors, sending St. Augustine of Canterbury, the prior of his former monastery, to England as the head of a mission team.

He organized the first universal system of relief for the poor in Rome, harvesting produce from the Church’s lands and sending teams patrolling the streets to distribute prepared food to the indigent refugees

.

Drones and future wars

StrrategyPage has lots of essays on drones which alas I can't keep up with since this is outside my level of expertise.

But today there is a discussion of the treatment of Russian Casualties in the Ukraine war, and I came across this snippet:

The primary source of Russian losses has been Ukrainian drones. These drones come in an increasing number of types, and new models appear rapidly. Russia has been unable to compete. To make matters worse, Ukraine has developed an effective drone interceptor, further diluting Russian offensive efforts. Over the last year, Ukrainian long-range drones have intensified their attacks on military and economic targets in western Russia, including major cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. These attacks are bringing the war home to Russian civilians who have been told for years that Russian forces were winning.

this article is for later reading at my leisure:Weapons: Drone Wars Past and Future

In 2026, Ukraine plans to build at least eight million, and possibly ten million drones. They built about five million drones last year. In 2024, the total was 1.5 million drones. There have been problems. Chinese component producers are having a hard time keeping up, and last year, to assist the Russians, China halted sending drone components to Ukraine

those Chinese drones are spies for China here in the Philppines: Lots of underseas drones in the area, many being civilian drones. But China can control the regular drones too:  Philippine mission's China-made drone won't fly in West Philippine Sea

A China-made drone for a Filipino civilian mission to the West Philippine Sea would not take off, as it received prompts that required the operator to register the unit with Chinese authorities....,,According to Vonne Aquino's report on "24 Oras," the drone received the prompts even when the Atin Ito vessel was well within the Philippines, just 127 nautical miles from Mindoro...

and then there are the underwater drones:

MANILA — Five underwater drones found by Philippine fishermen were capable of gathering information that could aid in "underwater warfare", the country's military said Tuesday, noting at least one had relayed a signal to China.

That article is 2025.

StrategyPage essay on the latest aggression of China against the Philippines LINK

how to manipulate small meetings

first draft so excuse the mistakes and awkward writing

there are oodles of youtube videos on how to run meetings. Excuse my synicism but I remember the old encounter groups of the sixties where the leader guided everyone and everyone went along with them, except me because I was a stubborn nerd: I mean, I was a medical student at a time when less than ten percent of docs and less than ten percent of my class were women, so I was not obedient. It got so frustrating that I got a nurse to call me out of the meetings with medical problems that required my presence.

Most videos are how to do this, but this one is a good summary:15 Psychological Mind Tricks To Get People To Do What You Want

In Part 1 of this conversation, Fr. Murray takes apart the vocabulary: Sr. Nathalie Becquart calling synodality “a social prophecy” and “a grammar of peace”; the Synod Secretariat classifying Catholics who disagree not as people with differing views but as “resistance”; and the question nobody in Rome has answered — where in the world do we find a Catholic mandate to invent a church in a different way?

so this is how to manipulate people and a bit honest that they are doing it.

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this is first draft but the videos say what I want to say: It's a scam manipulating people, and of course normal folks end up leaving the meeting (as I did in the encounter groups of the sixties)  because they know the emperor is naked

TSP playing politics again with my retirement savings

 Instapundit reports TSP, the sefl investing retirement plan for govt employees, is playing politcs again with our retirement saving.

This time they are investimg money to promote DEI and Trumpieboy caught them at it.

Management contracts awarded for managing billions of dollars contributed by civil service employees to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for their retirement conflict with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning spending by federal departments and agencies on programs based on diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) concepts....

 

“It’s under the ‘Annual Reports’ section in which the FRTIB requests multiple data points that tie into left-wing DEI ideology. Among the information sought, the agency requires that BlackRock and SSGA/SSIM each ‘Provide a report on the investment manager’s use of women/minority owned brokers,’ ‘Provide data on the firm’s management composition as it relates to women/minorities,’ and ‘Provide a summary of the firm’s diversity philosophy,’” The Federalist report added.

The problem with the TSP mandating DEI activities among its contractors is that Trump’s March 2026 executive order required termination of all such programs within federal departments and agencies because under DEI concepts “employees, applicants, or contracting parties are treated differently, separated, or singled out based on their race or ethnicity, rather than treated equally and objectively based on their merit and without regard to their immutable characteristics.”

so why is TSP allowed to push DEI?

The TSP appears to escape the EO’s mandate because it manages billions of dollars invested by civil service employees but without a specific congressional appropriation for that purpose. As a result, the TSP is not sufficiently subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to be covered by the EO.

This is not the first time TSP has pushed policies that undermine the USA.

Back in 1990 they added a fund with overseas investments that included Chinese companies associated with the ChiCom military.

I wrote about it here.: and Trump stopped it LINK... more HERE.

more links from the past about the TSP board trying to send money to the Chicoms:: https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/372466 names behind the decision: 

AonHewitt was behind this: 

as my blog noted: 

Who is AonHewitt: Wikipedia article says an investment firm that cares for retiree funds. all over the world. Hewitt expanded into "China" in the early 2000s, before it merged with Aon. my blog back then noted: who is on the employee advisory council? Gov't website; (a) The Board shall establish an Employee Thrift Advisory Council. The Council shall be composed of 15 members appointed by the Chairman of the Board in accordance with subsection (b). so they are from various labor organizations but are appointed by the chairman of the board. How convenient.

I haven't followed the investment stuff since then, but it sounds like the board was infiltrated by those with an agenda. 

 

dog

doglove

so yes your dog loves you.

and we have puppies....

our latest puppies are being weaned

The Watchdogs including the father and mother of the puppies.

Rain rain go away

Phil Star Article: No don't blame all the money supposed to be used for flood control that disappeared, it is the heavy rains causing this.

Actually we have had heavy rain/thunderstorms almost every day so this is true.

and now maybe a typhoon is coming:

MANILA, Philippines — The massive flooding that hit parts of the country was caused not only by issues involving flood control projects, but also by the unprecedented volume of rain brought by recent weather disturbances, President Marcos said yesterday. After a situation briefing with Central Luzon local officials in San Fernando, Pampanga, Marcos said heavy rains had overwhelmed the country’s flood management programs.

 

Marcos noted that the government is also eyeing long-term flood control projects, including the construction of river dams in Nueva Ecija and a long dike that could extend to Bataan.e.

Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan reports from the northern Philippines, where inundated communities are demanding answers. Residents say they are ready for the potential for monsoon flooding, but are angry that flood control measures they say were paid for seemingly do not work. pic.twitter.com/eeQ3mXcAQU

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 22, 2026

.....

WATCH: Barangay officials found undersized and allegedly substandard steel bars in a damaged flood-control project in Claudio Salgado, Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.

Several sections collapsed last week following continuous rains brought by the southwest monsoon or Habagat. | via… pic.twitter.com/3PaSyuGiSO

— GMA News (@gmanews) August 23, 2026

....

but it's not corruption, garbage blocking the sewers and drainage systems, or the substandard flood control projects that used shoddy cheap construction instead of paying for decent materials and construction: It's climate change. DUH.

The floods that submerged many parts of Luzon due to the southwest monsoon are indeed a result of climate change, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday stressed that these are not only due to anomalous flood control projects.https://t.co/l30POY0bwg

— Politiko (@Politiko_Ph) August 24, 2026

more hereL