they are avoiding the huge HongKong demonstration story, with it's economic and political implications: lots of stuff out there on various sites about what it means.
But the Philippines is worried that China will start arresting our OFW in China as "spies" if we take a stand, and there is a lot of worry about 130.000 OFW, (the MB says there are 250 thousand living there) mainly caregivers or professionals, who live in Hong Kong. Will they stay or go if China invades Hong Kong ... rumors are that China is having local hooligans disrupt the peaceful protest to give them an excuse to invade...
If this happens, many Hong Kong folks will up and leave (I understand many of the rich have second homes in Vancouver Canada, just in case) but what about the ordinary folks, and what about their maids/nannies/ nurses/ etc who are Filipinos?
presumably most will stay in place and try to find other work, but it is another complication to Phil/Chinese relationship where China is stealing our fishing grounds but we aren't supposed to notice. All of this is why Duterte to try to make nice with China despite the fact most ordinary Filipinos distrust that country.
as for the rest of the news, I decided to check with commentaries and conspiracy sites to see what I have missed.
I understand that the FBI is going to list everyone who reads conspiracy theories as dangerous, but hey, since I kept quiet about a VietNam protester who was a fugitive from justice hiding next door back in the 1960's, along with some pro life stuff I managed to get published, I figure I have a file somewhere in Washington (not to mention my federal OPM file, which is now hacked and in China, probably in the same place as Hillary's emails) so what me worry?
the biggest political story not reported is that the russia Russia RUSSIA conspiracy has imploded so badly that an editor at the NYTimes has decided to change their emphasis from Russia to racism in order to destroy Trumpieboy and his minions.
a good summary is Scott Adams, who discusses this along with hoaxes in the news here.
in an earlier podcast, he dismissed the various Epstein death conspiracy theories, and dismissed it for a very interesting reason: He insists big business/ big institutions are just not that efficient. (and since his Dilbert cartoon spoofs big business, I suspect he has experience behind his saying this).
this, by the way, is called Hanlon's razor:
sounds about right.
So what does the conspiracy types who follow Q say?
Praying medic says Q is more worried about some lady whose sex cult is associated with Hollywood than Epstein. Since other conspiracy sites think Epstein was CIA or Israeli intelligence getting dirt on people for blackmail purposes, it makes one wonder what else is out there.
One of the advantage of the Epstein scandal is that it has pushed the Catholic bishops scandal off of the front pages.
Except that the modern Jeramiah, i.e. crazy Ann Barnhart, is pointing out that Epstein isn't the only sex trafficker who has been silenced to protect the powerful: one hooker who had information on the Pope's seedy friends involved in sex trafficking in Argentina was probably offed a couple months ago. Yes, she's crazy, but then you read this and it makes you want to vomit.
so why do I read her? Because she dares to be a whistleblower on the corruption in the Catholic church...I once lived in the Altoona diocese when we Catholics knew what was going on but couldn't get anyone to notice....
but she also has expertise in finance, so once in awhile she notes corruption in Wall Street etc... such as a couple weeks ago she that mentioned John Corzine, has now had his hedge fund approved.
WTF?
Business insider has a list of his bad decisions and a more recent (2017) article in the NYTimes notices the settlement of his "curious case" with MF Global, where he "lost" his customers a billion dollars or so. But apparently he apologized and all is forgiven?
Like Epstein's millions, (where did he get that money?) such numbers make my head spin. :And then people wonder why conspiracy theories pop up...
And I won't even go into the list of dead bankers claimed on the crazy site Infowars, but then you read about a dead blogger in Malta, the Bangladesh cyberheist via a Manila casino, (most of which was diverted to China and then some of it to North Korea), the Panama papers, the Ghosn/Nissen scandal, and a million scandals with the Vatican bank.
How can ordinary folk judge such things: For example, the Deutschebank scandal might mean something big, but Dilbert points out that flagging accounts are common and don't mean much, but this could point to money laundering, etc etc. So what do these things mean, and who does one believe when those who are in charge are crooked, or are accused of crimes, and one doesn't know how to sift the false rumors/fake news from the truth?
Belmont club discusses the problem of lack of trust due to the collapse of ordinary moral standards in today's world...
and here in the Philippines, the diversion of rice funds, rebuilding funds, etc etc. is just a routine occurrence.
and nobody trusts other people, unless you know them or are related to them.
Such lack of trust is one reason that people stay poor and outsiders won't invest in the Philippines.
But what happens when the multinational banks that run the world are found to be crooked? What do ordinary folks do?
place conspiracy theory here.
But it's only money, so no one seems to be worried about it.
We own rice fields and sell organic brown rice, and my husband promised me if I moved here I'd always have rice to eat.
Unless China invades Luzon and deports me (been there, done that... twice, when I was a doctor working as a missionary in Africa...so I have contingency plans for this).
So I'm fine. But what about my kids and grandkids?
In my prayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment