Better dead than sued

 

Manila area and Bulacan are in a full shut down, but we are in a modified shut down.

DOH opinion on Manila area is here.

I have to wear both a mask and a face shield to walk the dog, even though I usually am not within ten feet of others.

The registration here for voting etc. has stopped, since it meant you had to sit outside the office until it was your turn. The small kiosks selling face shields, food, and various other things in the parking lot of the old city hall are still up however.

The Bank has limited hours.

this is bad: We had recently reopened (with masks and distancing) so people again were getting paid. Now they are out of work again. 

The Mayor is planning food aid to those affected by the virus:

The epidemic has flared up again alas:

so where are the vaccines?

Duterte says that the private sector can now import their own vaccines. 

Well, good, except that it will mean that some will just give out fake vaccine shots, of course, to make money. 

Corruption kills. Duterte blames other countries for the problem in getting vaccines, but since the government has been the reason we didn't get the Pfizer vaccine and delaying the importation of other vaccines, it does make one wonder.

 Indeed, one commenter noted that the government was the barrier to private entities who wanted to import the vaccines: and that this could have been allowed as early as last November. 

The Inquirer had an editorial asking that the private sector be allowed to help import the vaccine last January.

The business sector is again asking if they can do their own importation and give the vaccine to their employees.

so what is the hold up?

It comes down to money: The government doesn't want to agree to pay for those who get side effects of the vaccine.

So better 5 million unemployed, a near economic collapse and a couple thousand dead rather than agree to pay compensation for side effects of an "experimental" vaccine.

So the Pfizer deal in January that fell through and it means not allowing the private sector to buy and give out vaccines to their employees:

UA (emergency use authorization), hindi papayag ang pharma companies na walang indemnification… it protects the pharmaceutical company and the private sector as well,” said Concepcion. The indemnification is a guarantee that the Philippine government will pay compensation in case the vaccination has adverse consequences.

This Rappler article from February explains goes into detail about the liability question that is behind the delay.

The reason why indemnification funds or programs are required of countries is because vaccines being used worldwide are still under emergency use authorization (EUA), with only limited short-term data available on the full effects that could arise from receiving a shot.

Under indemnification programs, governments agree that distributing entities like COVAX, along with vaccine manufacturers, will not be held liable for unexpected adverse events. This is a risk governments absorb during the pandemic when granting vaccines emergency use approval.

So how did the Chinese vaccine end up being the only one being used? Maybe because the social media anti vaxx hysteria is about the western vaccines, not the Chinese vaccines. Hmm... wonder why.

And wonder why the Government approved to cover the side effects of the Chinese vaccine, which only stops half the cases, while dragging their feet in doing the paper work for the western and UN vaccines? Place conspiracy theory here.

It's not that the Chinese vaccine doesn't have a significant rate of side effects, but hey, if you die after the shot, they will claim you died of something else, (just like it is being claimed for the western vaccines).

Ironically, the Chinese government illegally gave 100 000 of  their own citizens working here the vaccine late last year, and they set up their own clinics to treat their sick. (I wonder if they don't trust Philippines clinics, or if it might be because it's better to treat people who don't speak the local language in a clinic where patients can be treated by those from their own country who speak their language).

WaPost article from January about the illegal vaccines being given in the Chinese community here (and notes the Phil military and some big shots got shots too).

and notes that China is using "vaccine diplomacy" in many poor countries.

ya think?

And at least one comment at the Inquirer wonders why the Chinese vaccine is being allowed but paper work delays mean the other vaccines haven't come (the gov't of course insists it is the evil western countries who won't let the vaccines come here, just ignore the deals that fell through because the paperwork over who pays for side effects wasn't done).

Translation: better dead than sued.

Mortality might be one to five out of a hundred for the disease, but 2000 out of 75 million for the shot, but guess which one makes the headlines?

Duh.

There is a lot of foot dragging to ensure people be kept safe, and if a lot more die for lack of a vaccine, well it's not their fault.

We see this mindset with medicines that might or might not work to save lives.

the WHO is discouraging another cheap drug that seems to both prevent and treat Covid if given early: 

Ivermectin. 

According to this article, there if a planned "double blind" study going to be used in the Philippines, but since there is no approved "human" version, hey don't dare use the  Ivermectin approved for animals. 

The dirty little secret: the problem with "double blind" studies are that they often compare "apples and oranges": The statistics are often from  patients who are critical  and in the hospital: But as I have pointed out, other anti virals for influenza and for Herpes infections have to be started early to work, and many people don't seek a doctor's help early on, and of course the tests might not show positive early in the infection (which is why international travelers who tested negative are continuing to spread the disease all over) 

If there was an approved package saying "start this if you think you have covid symptoms", as is being done in some places in India, probably thousands of lives would be saved, but never mind. 

About the problem of lawsuits for side effects: One thing you have to realize is that here in the Third world, corruption is rampant, and the government here is dubious about vaccines with side effects after the Dengue vaccine scandal.

A poor person who gets sick after getting the shot will think he got sick from the shot, even if he is suffering from another infection or illness. And hey, if that means they can get money, why not?

In medicine, we used to call these cases the "green poultice" treatment: That injuries awaiting compensation won't get better until the court case is settled. So if one allows compensation for side effects, hey, a lot of people who get ordinary side effects will notice them more. And this doesn't include of course the possibility of fraudulent claims.

add to this the "anti vaxx" hysteria, and you have a perfect storm.

heck, even Biden's new health chief is now hysterical on youtube about the epidemic. WTF? Get a back bone lady: This is not about your angst. Just the facts, ma'am.

She seems to be saying if you evil Christian Republicans who refuse to wear masks are to blame: without mentioning the problem of the new Brazilian strain of the virus which is both more infectious and possibly more lethal than previous strains.

The Brazilian strain of covid is now in the Philippines, and there is a worry that it might be partly to blame for the latest outbreak.

the Brazil strain is also causing a terrible outbreak in several Latin American countries: and as a doctor, I worry that it will be spread to the US via those illegally crossing the border to seek a newer life in the USA.

Right now, over 100 thousand illegal entries from Central American, some of whom are covid positive and being released into the local communities.

One wonders how many carry the new more infectious and more lethal Brazilian strain of the virus.

But the vaccines do protect you against them, so don't worry.

Now, if we could only get the shots here. 

Because unlike China, the US is not arranging for their citizens to get the vaccine. Heck, the local VA hospital in Manila has limited treatments to veterans, and won't test you. But nothing on their website about Covid shots. LINK

and the Embassy continues to say: no shots for you, Joe.

The U.S. government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas. Please follow host country developments and guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination. U.S. Veterans currently receiving healthcare benefits from the VA Manila Outpatient Clinic will continue to receive e-mail updates about COVID-19 vaccinations directly from the VA Clinic.

yes, if you are a disabled veteran, you are still waiting for the email to say if you can get a shot.

One other note: 

I understand why these people are coming to America. If I lived in a hell hole with crime and few economic opportunities, and heard that the US border would be open to all comers, I would have packed my bags and started hitch hiking north too: hoping to get in before someone in the government realizes it was a mistake and recloses the border.

But you know, this could be done in a better fashion by open visas for people who want jobs, and then allowing them to take approved buses or planes to enter the USA to resettle them, using military bases for housing if they need to find a place for them to stay.

They did this for the Vietnamese refugees years ago, and during a similar influx during the Mariel boat lift.

Many of these refugees had family members or friends in the USA, and who provided them a place to stay. One suspects many of today's refugees could similarly be settled with help of families or by churches who would sponsor them until they found a job.

But never mind. The real scandal is that no one seemed to be prepared for the influx.

By the way, did I mention my son is visiting his wife's mother in Mexico? His wife and mother are dual citizens, thanks to President Regan's amnesty. And their children are full Americans who have jobs in the USA.

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update:

The Brazilian strain entered the Philippines via Japan from an overseas Filipino from Brazil came home....

and there is a perfect storm with the huge influx of Central and South Americans who are entering the USA and a possible new outbreak of this newer, more virulent version of Covid. 

Which explains the hysteria of Biden's health expert (who for some reason preferred to condemn Trumpie's minions instead of telling us about where this latest outbreak is coming from ).

Also note the part about Brazil's president being criticized in the press, because of his anti China policies. 

....

The Brazil and British variants are here

Dr. Campbell discusses the more dangerous mutation of the Covid virus that happened in Brazil, the P1 variant. It is now spread to 20 other countries.

...

 There have been several mutations of the covid virus, for example, the one ravaging the UK is more infectious but not more lethal.

The bad news: the P1 varient, a mutation that happened in Brazil, is not only much more infectious but it seems to be more lethal because reports say it is killing "low risk" people there. 

Early reports say that the US/European vaccines do prevent this strain (ah, but what about the Chinese vaccine, which the Philippines seems to be buying up instead of alternatives. The Chinese vaccines have a 50 percent prevention rate).

This Brazilian variant has been a real danger because it is spreading in South America and reports from countries there are worrisome. LINK BBC and the NWO blames the president there with only a hint in the middle of the article say it might be due to the new mutation.

and reports from Mexico are now revising their data upward LINK

everyone is pointing fingers at the presidents, but this is absurd: the virus spread here shows that it will spread even if masks etc are used.

Ah, but if you blame the local officials, you don't have to notice where the virus came from, and how a major country allowed it to spread outside the local area and into the world.

Here in the Philippines, we are in the second wave: the British variant (P3) is here and is believed to be more infectious but not more lethal and this might be partly to blame, but now we are seeing reports of the more lethal Brazilian variant too (P1), which could be a real danger.

There is a report with lots of technical details on the various strains and where they are found in this article from the PhilStar.

So how did it get here?

The P.1 variant, which was first detected in four travelers from Brazil in Japan, was detected in a sample taken from a returning oversease Filipino (ROF) with an address in Western Visayas. The ROF came from Brazil, DOH said in a statement.

sigh.

it is a world wide scourge, but don't name the country that let it lose on the world by it's lack of prevention when it was first reported. 

If you name that country, you will be banned by the social media and called out for Asian hatred.

Given the Chinese aggression in the West Philippine sea, one suspects that the pushing of the idea that China will let us get their vaccines in order that locals see China as their "savior", not as an aggressive bully.

And of course the shenanigans in the DOH which is buying the Chinese vaccine but failed to do the paper work to get the US Pfizer vaccine in January (although we might get the Moderna vaccine by May) or the delays is getting the India vaccine, one does wonder.

and given China's aggression against Taiwan and the Philippines, one does wonder how much of the "Anti Asian" stories which are making headlines in the US and elsewhere is part of a deliberate anti American propaganda aimed at America's Asian allies.

 (by the way, the Asian hate crime meme was in our papers over a week before the shooting of the sex workers in the USA... making one think it had something more to do with a deliberate propaganda campaign than with reality, especially since most of the hate crimes against Asians are by other minorities. )

alas, the "side effect" of the MSM promoting propaganda and opinion instead of hard news is that in Europe and the USA people have stopped believing in the media and in the experts advice.

On the other hand, we wear masks religiously here, and we are having another outbreak.

I can't even walk the dog now without both a mask and a face shield, even though I rarely get closer than six feet to anyone when I do so.

Sigh

Sars-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which has infected more than 119 million people worldwide as of March 13, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 2.6 million people had died.

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Ivermectin use analysis:

The You Tube alternative

Here are some suggestions if you are tired of watching the violence porn of US crime shows, or the banality of the Hallmark channel (beautiful 30 year old yuppie with a career but no family ties goes to small town and finds a good looking guy who isn't gay but who never married but promptly falls in love with her).

so we have stumbled across some classic British series on Youtube:

We have watched most of the Agatha Christie's Poirot series, thanks to Fadi, although more recently other sites have started posting them.

Some of these ordinary looking nice folks are very wicked people, (one wonders where Mrs Christie got the idea for her crimes), but Hercule Poirot (and Miss Marple) usually figures out the truth behind their nice guy mask.

and then there are the gal detective/gardeners of Rosemary and Thyme. Lovely scenery in most of them too.

and we just ran across this series, recently added to youtube: again from the UK: Imagine a non violent cop show. This show is from the end of the series:

......

there are also other older BBC or ITV series on line.

Being in Asia, we usually watch the KDramas (Korean dramas) on local streaming sites, and some on our local TV dubbed in Tagalog. But now you can see the best Korean tv series on Netflix in the USA. (Crash Landing on You, the World of the Married, to name two).

But a few K dramas are also on youtube.

Saimdang is about a woman artist who is on the Korean currency: But she is more famous for raising her son to be a Confucian scholar, so the feminists complained about it, because hey, drawing a flower is more important to feminists than loving your children.

The series is highly fictionalized and a bit confusing, but does show the tension between a woman's work in the arts and trying to keep her marriage intact and raise her children both in medieval Korea and modern times.... and it has beautiful cinemetography:

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and at present we are watching this modern comedy/romance. Not just the romance between two co workers, but the stories of their families are part of the plot.

....

fyi how to kill grandmom

This is, of course, from New York State. Presumably Governor Cuormo was not aware of the danger, so the one who should be blamed is the doctors/bureaucrats who pushed the policy.

the problem was this policy was based on the idea that if you had adequate well trained staff and enough PPE you could successfully isolate people back in the nursing homes.

The problem? Reality. Too many nursing homes lack well trained staff and even if they are well trained (reality: Pay is poor, so you tend to get lower quality staff,)... and even when the staff is dedicated, the dirty little secret was that they don't have enough staff to protect the patients (it is work intensive to gown and glove and mask properly, but the budget had estimated a staff/patient ratio needed for less intensive nursing, meaning that you didn't have enough people to do all of these things). And of course, there was often a shortage of PPE early in the epidemic.

All of this was known to anyone with common sense or experience. But hey, the policy and paper work said it was okay so don't make waves or you might lose your job. (been there, done that, don't ask)... Who do you believe? The policy or your lying eyes?

And a similar policy was used in other states, for example in Pennsylvania.

And remember, the trans lady doc whose appointment is being hailed as a civil rights triumph for the Biden Administration  pushed the same deadly policy in Pennsylvania after putting her mom into a hotel to keep her safe.

which meant she knew the policy was wrong, but followed orders.

Vice Ganda call your office. 

In the long run, hiring a person because of sexual orientation rather than competence is setting back the cause of trans acceptance.

End sarcasm

Family news: Quarantine and other covid news

 we are in shut down mode: Limited hours, a curfew, and stricter enforcement of being on the street. We have 40 cases in our town, including the owner of the small supermarket where we shop.

the mayor has a report on what they plan to do, but alas in Tagalog.

Bulacan is on strict quarantine along with the Manila region

Manila Bulletin story here. PhilInquirer story here.

In the meanwhile, where are the vaccines? Some didn't come because they haven't been paid for, but where are the vaccines that were paid for, or the UN donated vaccines? And what is going on with the loans needed to buy vaccines?

 PhilInquirer link.

Senator Lacson points fingers.

this is a big propaganda win for China, who is donating vaccines while the European left wing press insists the problem is the evil west won't send their vaccines.

Background is that the ten million doses of the Pfizer vaccine wasn't sent here in January because someone in the government didn't sign the paperwork. Is there a connection here?

India has offered 8 million doses but is awaiting the Philippine government to do the paper work.

And three million doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine is also being sent.

we expect a lot of propaganda about how nice China is to send us vaccine, in order to distract people from noticing their increase aggression in the West Philippine Sea

and just to make things worse: the Taal Volcano is acting up again.

 this is south of Manila so we should be okay.

A Black (Filipino) General?

 StrategyPage has a book review:

The US Volunteers in the Southern Philippines: Counterinsurgency, Pacification, and Collaboration, 1899-1901

a nasty war that caused many civilian casualties via malnutrition and disease, and not one remembered much in the USA.

Two of the 25 regiments in these volunteers were African American but alas, the book doesn't cover them because there was little written about them at the time, but the reviewer does note a strange problem with the black soldiers:

Although due to the nature of the regiments selected – all white – we do not get see the experiences of the African American troops (some of whom reportedly deserted to the insurgents), 

Why yes. This story is known here in the Philippines, which brings us to General David Fagan:

 

....

a more scholarly discussion can be heard here:....

....

not every American backed the American repression of Filipino independence: Mark Twain is one who opposed it when he saw that the US would not let the Philippines become independent (as they did with Cuba) and the "humanitarian" war soon became a war with atrocities on both sides.

Sigh.

This wasn't the first time that American soldiers figured out that their "enemies" had more in common with them than those on the American side in wars of aggression. The desertion of the Irish soldiers during the Mexican American war is another little known chapter of American history, and was partly due to the anti Catholic bigotry of the American side.

as for the Philippines: things are a bit more complicated than the simplistic "bad American" meme that the antifa types are pushing. Either way, the oligarchy would have ruled, as they do today: But the Americans did allow some self government, and did establish rule of law and schools for the non elites and the legacy of the Thomasite teachers is one reason for the "love hate" relationship with the USA, and one reason that many Filipinos  like those in our family, who were essentially anti American in their desire for independence nevertheless fought the Japanese takeover, just as they fought previous Chinese, British, Dutch and Spanish invaders.

The Ancient copper workers of the Great Lakes

 I sort of aware that some AmerIndian tribes used copper in South America, and also that there was an extensive trade in iron from meteorrites, but even though I lived in Northern Minnesota, I was not aware of the Ancient Copper Culture of the Great Lakes. And they have now redated when that was going on:

Archeology Magazine:

Pompeani said the study suggests that the Old Copper Culture emerged at least 9,500 years ago, and peaked between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, when the evidence suggests copper use began to decline.

why it's in the news now? Because they have redated the artifacts and pushed back the dates. 

Science Magazine article Link 

so why did they stop mining copper? 

this article claims climate change.

 AncientOrigins article notes:

Why Did The Old Copper Culture And Copper Tools Decline? There is one thing about the North American Old Copper Culture that makes it unique. After copper tool-making activity among Great Lakes Native Americans peaked around 3,000 BC, the practice went into decline after that. The archaeological record shows that the region’s inhabitants had returned to using tools made from stone and bone almost exclusively by 1,000 BC...

Professor Pompeani has collected data from sediment cores and tree rings that suggest the Great Lakes region experienced drought-like conditions for an extended period of time starting around 5,000 BC. This would have placed great strain on Native Americans who lived there and relied on the land to provide them with all the essentials of life.

Under these circumstances, the associated social and ecological displacement may have caused a shift in survival-related practices . Societies struggling to survive may have been limited to the basics, giving them less time to devote to mining copper and processing it to make durable copper tools. Beyond a certain point, practical considerations may have motivated a return to bone and stone, with copper reserved primarily for luxury items like the beads, bracelets, and other decorative items that have been found at various Great Lakes archaeological sites..

more HERE:(Milwaukee Public Museum)

Timeline:

 

to put it into context: Here is an article on the use of copper in the neolithic world. They mention lots of places, including central and South America, but not the Great Lakes copper culture.

when I checked on youtube, there seems to be several lectures on the copper culture... here is one lecture.

 

 

Law and order might stop the drug war refugees

 Strategypage notes that Duterte, who is being condemned by "human rights" types (which is pushing him away from an alliance with America), is popular here: because we are now a lot safer.

Now, if he only can get the vaccine roll out better. And we hope that China, who is now suddenly becoming more aggressive in the West Philippine Sea, doesn't pull a stunt to start a war here.

But my point is that yes, destroying the criminal element can be done. By the government, not by private hit jobs (as was being done before Duterte) which often mean thugs on both sides got away with murder. Now it's only the cops, and the government can fire crooked cops. But not the crooked politicians since their friends and relatives will cover up for them. Sigh.

Colombia pretty well stopped their "communist" (FARC) insurrection with a combination of carrot and stick, amnesties and reeducation of ex FARC types, and aggression against the narco terror heads who hired many of the ex FARC types to terrorize locals to grow drugs.

So the fight has moved elsewhere, alas, because the dirty little secret is that the USA has a drug taking problem. The tip of the iceburg is the overdose deaths (70 thousand in 2019 and 81 thousand in 2020), but the effect of drug taking on keeping a job and causing family break up or women refusing to marry their druggie boy friends or children abandoned to be raised by relatives or in foster care is a big problem.

Luckily the churches in the USA are aggressively fighting this cancer: NOT. Too interested in telling us not to use air conditioners and to live a green lifestyle while ignoring the casualties of drug taking sleeping on the sidewalks. Sigh. I am now reading Paul Johnson's book that has a chapter discusses how opium use in China preceeded the "opium wars", and he wonders why some cultures descend into massive drug use and others don't. Hint: he has no idea why. But he does note China was corrupt, and that there were several massive civil wars that broke out during the 1800s, so maybe something was brewing beneath the surface.

Well, anyway, my point is that much of the illegal "immigration" is not Mexican but from Central America, which is terrorized by gangs who make money from drugs, and with corrupt governments who let them do it. 

They will also smuggle people for profit, so essentially the innocent fleeing refugees from the narco terror are actually making these gangs stronger.

Mexico who has tried to keep the place peaceful is now being inundated with these refugees and criminal gang related crimes. The gangs are like the Mafia: anything to make money. And hey, they read the papers too, and know Biden said he's let everyone in. Svoila, instant uber-migration of poor people looking for a place to live and work in peace (along with the gang members and the drugs they carry of course), and the women and children who come are at risk of being trafficked as sex workers etc. of course. 

War correspondent Michael Yon has two reports on John Bachelor's podcast that discusses what he is seeing.

Not all the desperate refugees are coming from narco gang infested Central American countries: some are fleeing the socialist paradise in Venezuela or the new narco states that replaced Colombia.

Micheal Yon reports on what they face trying to transverse the dangerous Darien Gap:

and this report from ElPaso: 

Sigh. A good alternative would be to send in someone to train local cops to fight, and to punish or convert the local politicians and work with the young men in gangs to rehabilitate them... The churches, both Catholic and evangelical, do this, and indeed several dozen clergy have been killed or been "disappeared" by these gangs in recent years.

But until someone finds an answer to the thirst for taking drugs, and changed public opinion against drug use, the mess will continue.

Back in to Lockdowns

 Joy reports the mayor of her company's town in Bulacan has the virus, and there has been a new outbreak in Manila, including a few cases of the newer strains that have everyone worried.

One result is that, if you want to travel to Manila, you have to get the expensive (100 dollar) test. This will make our rice deliveries a lot more expensive.

And travelers to the Philippines are essentially banned too:

this is bad: We had started to reopen a bit and now are back in lockdown, although our town is still semi open.

as for getting the shot: Duh. They finally started giving them to high risk workers. A good start: 300 thousand got the shot, but remember, there are over 10 million in the Manila area.

Most of our relatives in the US either got the vaccine because they are caregivers etc. and the others have started getting the vaccines.

My daughter in law, a caregiver, got it, but my son only got one shot: He said you can go in and get it in Walmart, but didn't go into details.

Well, anyway, they are spending their Easter Vacation visiting her family in Mexico. He had to get a test right before going in order to enter that country, and he said he'll have to get the test repeated to get back into the US.

Kuya's mom is in a independent living home, since she can't care for herself in her home, but has deteriorated and they said she has to transfer to a nursing home. She is resisting, so they are trying to get her declared incompetent.

If this happens, and she doesn't want to go to a nursing home, another option is to come here to the Philippines, where we can take care of her in the day and hire a night time caregiver. And probably have to hire a new cook, since she hates our cook Dita's cooking.

She has had the shots, so no problem there, but how will she travel? It's a terrible flight from the US to Manila: two hours to the hub airport, twelve hours to the linking airport in Asia (Japan, Korea or China) and another 4 to Manila. Then a four hour drive to here.

I started urging her to come here two years ago, but now she is in such bad shape I worry about the trip. One of the grandkids is a nurse and could accompany her, but still I worry.

And of course, her medical care is not paid for in the Philippines: so far she has refused dialysis, but she might have to face getting it in the future. If she need dialysis, it will cost her 100 each dialysis at the local hospital.

I'm doing fine: I still walk outside with the dogs and we have a huge garden, but no church or shopping in the mall: And recently, I stay inside most of the time: not just because covid but because of my asthma and it is now hot season.

IT might be awhile before we get the shot in our area... but like the travel instruction, the news changes frequently.

....

Factoid of the day: the Truth is in the tooth

I always try to follow stories of DNA analysis that comes from analyzing the marrow inside teeth: not just human DNA that allows one to figure out who is related to whom or follow the course of migration, but the ability to identify infectious disease.

But teeth morphology (shape) can also give clues to ancient man's activity of daily lives. 

Including toothpicks: In this case, not from humans but in the Neanderthal teeth.

 Neanderthals used toothpicks 45 000 years ago.

Polish archeologists found evidence of wear on molars that probably had been caused by a "Fairly stiff cylindrical object".

headsup Archeology

I seem to remember that one evidence of domestication of horses was also implied by the wear patterns on teeth caused by bridles.

The sexual trafficking of Asian women

 some Incel just shot up a couple of massage parlors. 

The story is being framed as anti Asian hate crime, which is a story I have seen in the local papers with stories of attacks on Asians in the USA: Usually framed as Trumpieboy is to blame, while ignoring that most of the attackers were black gang members attacking small people who looked like they wouldn't fight back and who just happened to be Asian.

in this case, the MSM will blame the Christian churches and the Trumpiefollowers, so they have a twofer victory. (/s)

But the real story behind this is the real tragedy:
That many of the women in these "Massage parlors" are Asian women who are forced into being prostitutes.

the Democratic Underground report here.

Every time you drive past one of these places in your city, know that you are most likely driving past a place where women are being held against their will and forced into sexual slavery. How we tolerate the horror that goes on in these places in hundreds of cities across out country is a great shame. This is organized crime trafficking women who are beaten, raped, and held captive. It must be stopped.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/us/massage-parlors-human-trafficking.html

...Prostitution is not the right word, that implies that their lives were somehow less valuable, even though it shouldn't imply that. These women were very likely victims of human trafficking before they were murdered. Their deaths are no less tragic because of where they were forced to work. More tragic really.

NYTimes has quite a few stories about this, both now and in the past, when a famous white sports entrepeneur got caught in a raid in 2019.

LINK from yesterday. Not all give sex, but are pressured to do so.

LINK March 2019. The girls are often lured into the work.

LINK from Feb 2019: an expose on the massage parlor which was raided. Lots of details.

this week the Washington Examiner called the story of the Asian prostitues in the massage parlor was a conspiracy theory. So you can see how this is going to be spun.

Sigh.

The sex trafficking of Filipinas who think they are being hired as maid or singers or restaurant workers is a big worry of the government here: They try to regulate these things, as they try to prevent people from taking jobs that exploit them in other ways (overwork, no time off, keeping their passport so they can't flee) but there is just too much corruption to stop it.

As for the Asian massage parlors: they are not only found in the USA: 

A couple years ago, one radical Muslim mosque attacked some of these places in Pakistan, causing an international incident when the government interpreted it as an Islamicist uprising and retaliated and destroyed the mosque and killed quite a few people in retaliation. 

UKGuardian story on the incident notes how the raid started.

Since January thousands of burka-clad women and stick-wielding students at his madrasas took to the streets, kidnapping prostitutes, intimidating movie store owners and branding western diplomats' wives as hussies for "spreading nudity" by wearing sleeveless shirts. When they abducted seven Chinese nationals working in a local massage parlour, it deeply embarrassed Gen Musharraf, before a key ally, and forced him into action.

Italics mine. China is the "key ally" here, and the local "masage parlour" was a eurphemism for covering up prostitution. 

And this open flaunting of prostitution in these places upset a lot of the locals: stuff like this is how the radicals recruit people to support them.

Culture matters you know.

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update: there is now a flood of "hate crimes against Asians" stories that appeared out of nowhere.

The "Anti Asian Hate crime" meme first came to my attention with a "Ain't it awful" article in one of our local papers. they lamented an elderly Asian man who died after an assault, but not noted in the article was that this was a "knock out" incident by a black gang member (where someone punches a random passerby, usually an elderly person who won't fight back). 

Most of the articles stress the crime numbers are up 100 percent, but if you bother to read the entire NPR article, you see this:

In Los Angeles, for instance, the number of hate crimes directed against Asians was up more than 100% from 2019 to 2020, though the actual numbers were from 7 to 15. The numbers were bigger in Seattle, where the police count hate and bias crimes together. Asians were targeted 49 times in 2020, compared to 21 times the year before. That's a big increase, but there were also big jumps in crimes targeting whites and Blacks. And it's important to remember that 2020 was just more violent across the board.

 

and they then go on to say, hey Asians feel they are targeted. Ah, but when there is a "full court press" to convince Asians they are going to be victimized by evil white supremicists, well, maybe some of them will believe it, instead of seeing what this is actually about:

blaming Trumpieboy and his minions as hate filled white supremicists who kill Asians.

ah but is it truth or is it distortion?

a quick glance at this graph would make one suspect there was a problem, since it shows a huge jump in NYC for example, but the actual number was 28 in a city of ten million people.

and compared to previous yeas, it shows a minor change in the numbers, which are still lower than they were 25 years ago.

And of course, the story has come at a convenient time for China, who will now use the story to counter western complaints about their one million Uighars in concentration camps or the jailing of democracy advocates in HongKong.

Indeed, one wonders who in the news rooms decided that this was a story two weeks before the shooting up of Massage parlors and prostitutes run by Asian criminal gangs.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence. 

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Andrew Sullivan's take on the feeding frenzy of the media.

Accompanying one original piece on the known facts, the NYT ran nine — nine! — separate stories about the incident as part of the narrative that this was an anti-Asian hate crime, fueled by white supremacy and/or misogyny. Not to be outdone, the WaPo ran sixteen separate stories on the incident as an anti-Asian white supremacist hate crime. Sixteen! One story for the facts; sixteen stories on how critical race theory would interpret the event regardless of the facts. For good measure, one of their columnists denounced reporting of law enforcement’s version of events in the newspaper, because it distracted attention from the “real” motives. Today, the NYT ran yet another full-on critical theory piece disguised as news on how these murders are proof of structural racism and sexism — because some activists say they are.

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update: Instapundit link to articles discussing how a professor in California is accused of hate speech crimes for criticizing China's response to Wuhan Flu.

The faculty member in question made a political comment in forceful language. He has the right and perhaps the obligation as a citizen and an academic to comment on matters of public concern such as the Chinese government’s handling of COVID, and to do so in evocative and forceful language....Describing the disputed comments in this case as “offensive language in reference to people from China” of a piece with “hate crimes directed against the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community [and] racist commentary” inevitably creates the impression that judgment has been rendered in advance and the outcome of the promised review has been predetermined.

so is China encouraging the meme of anti Asian bigotry in order to shut people ups from the suspicion that the Chinese government covered up the Wuhan Flu came from one of their biolabs, and that their response was inadequate because, like in Chernobyl, the minions didn't want to admit what was going on for political reasons, aka to "save face" and pretend they didn't do anything wrong?

and another comment somewhere noted that the many Asian shops burned down by the BLM/Antifa types. These shops were burned because of hatred, and many were owned by local Black entrepeneurs, and immigrants, especially Asians, but never mind. Instead the public was told by the media that these were "peaceful protests". 

I am so old that I remember watching an interview on the Korean TV network we get here in the Philippines where they discussed anti Asian bias in American society. The main complaint? That the cops would not persecute those who stole from them or vandalized their shops, because they were merely Koreans.

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update: A terrible incident of murdering ten innocent people in a Colorado supermarket. Sigh.

This was immediately pushed to promote the meme: Evil white supremicists and we need gun control.

Alas for the meme, the shooter is a Muslim Syrian refugee who seems to have descended into paranoia. So far this is not being promoted as a hate crime or terror attack, which is good for the innocent Muslims who live in the USA. But it leaves one to wonder: he has threatened people, so why didn't anyone stop him from getting a gun?
Angry teenagers can go "amok": I remember when my oldest was having problems, and I took his rifle away. He threatened me (correctly) that he bought it with his money, so I did give it back to him, minus the firing pin, which I promptly "lost". 

(Later, since he was legally an adult, I "encouraged" him to return to Colombia. He has done much better there, since the cultural stresses were a lot less)

So one does wonder about those around him: Didn't anyone notice he was having anger problems? 

sigh.

Destroy the churches is the next Woke crusade.

 The Anglican site VirtueOnLine has a commentary on a bill in the US Senate that would make the gender agenda the law, requiring Churches and church run institutions and devout Christian and Muslims to obey or else.

it goes into detail, and this is not from a "right wing conspiracy" site, so maybe read the whole thing and consider how it would affect you. 

Not only would it require hospitals to do gender affirming surgeries (traditionally the non theraputic removal of an organ is not allowed under Catholic law). But it gets worse: If I live in the USA, it would force me to do abortions

"pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition," laws like the Hyde Amendment that ban taxpayer funding for abortion could be eliminated, as well as conscience protections for health care workers who refuse to perform abortions. This is because the phrase "related medical conditions" has been interpreted by the Third Circuit Court and by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as including abortion. All insurances would have to cover abortion and health care providers could not refuse to offer it as one of their pregnancy services.

Didn't Jordan Peterson predict the danger of a slippery slope a couple years ago when he objected to the Canadian government criminalizing the use (deliberate or accidental use) of the wrong pronoun? 

we now are in danger of a law that will persecute (fire, refuse to hire, fail them in college, remove them from the military or government) anyone who whispers "yet it moves  or it's modern equivalent: there are two genders: it's biology:  or the religious equivalent Male and female he created them"

already we see the "woke" Twittersphere Red Guards and their obedient corporate minions pushing the agenda, so maybe paranoia is the proper response here.

As to the Catholics: Pope Francis has long objected to the radical gender ideology of the west, and especially has objected to western countries pushing this agenda on the Third World: He calls this a type of imperialism that destroys the cultures of the weaker countries.

And he is right: Because in the third world, it is the family who is the first line to help the poor and sick, since governments simply don't have money for welfare. When you encourage sexual liberation and birth control agenda in the high schools, it means teenagers ending up raising their child, or aborting it (and some die, since few local docs are willing to do this, and the hilots, traditional birth attendents, who might do it don't usualy have a good reputation so some of these girls die or end up infertile:( no, legalization won't stop this: like in the USA, ordinary folks won't go to a medical person who kills if they have a choice).

as for the gay agenda: here it means teachers and priests and employers feeling they have the right to sex with those under their care. (don't ask).And since I gave the HIV lectures to my National Guard unit, I have been aghast at how the press ignores the seedier side of the gay "lifestyle". This is not about gays, it is about approving of the radical promiscuity lifestyle, and yes, that includes the present day "extraordinary Popular delusions and the madness of crowds" that is going on in our schools, where vulnerable unhappy children, mainly girls are being persuaded they are transgender, and all their problems will be solved if they change gender.

Here in the Philippines, gay and trans people are considered quaint, but hey, they are part of the family and welcomed as long as they don't preach or seduce the maids/gardners. Our town even has a "Miss Gay Gapan" contest every year.

But of course, such tolerance is not allowed in the twittersphre led PC world, as some of our folks have found out.

Well, I remember when Manny Paquiao lost a fight that most folks thought he should have won, and many of us suspected it was because some reporter blind sided him with a question if he approved of gay marriage, and as a Christian he said no, even though Manny has no problem with his gay friends and relatives on a personal level. One of our beauty queens in an international contest similarly probably lost because she gave the wrong answer.

Now, here in the Philippines, as Manny pointed out, we have lots of gays and even tranagenders, and they still keep family ties so no one has a problem with this, unless it means teachers molesting kids in schools (As a priest did to President Duterte as a child) or having gay "tourists" preying on our street kids. 

But this doesn't mean saying it is equal to marriage: And pushing this as a law would not just be opposed by the Catholics, but even more so by the moral middle class, who are  becoming more and more evangelical or pentecostal Christians.

Indeed, the common sense opposition of ordanary poor people who recognize this as an open threat to the family is one reason the Vatican just said that the church cannot approve of gay marriage or approval of gay partnerships. 

but you know, if this bill is passed by the US Congress, the pressure on poorer countries by the US State Dept to legalize the sexual agenda (abortion euthanasia, gay marriage, sex ed normalizing promiscuity and homosexuality as equally moral as marriage relationships) will increase: with the implied threat if the locals don't change their law, they will not get American aid.

The end result will be more anti American sentiment in public opinion, something that Russia (who is positioning herself as the defender of Christianity) and China (who will point out that they don't try to change local customs when they give you aid) will take advantage of and benefit.

Two related articles:

One: Austin Bay on Chinese and Russian disinformation on the vaccines. As I have pointed out in previous essays (and he points out here) this is not new.

In early 2020, Chinese propagandists began blaming the U.S. for the virus. One agit-prop anti-America howler accused a U.S. Army reservist of bringing the disease to China in October 2019. China's 2020 lie mimicked a Cold War-era Soviet KGB lie about the origin of the AIDS virus. Kremlin communists claimed U.S. biological warfare scientists created AIDS in 1973. The KGB lie appeared circa 1983. Over time, the lie mutated, as all sick gossip does. A 1986 version I read in a Southeast Asian paper claimed that the virus was engineered to kill black and brown people. In 2002, while visiting east Africa, I heard this version again.

and read the article on GetReligion on the Vatican daring to reaffirm the biblical and 2000 year ethical rules of the church. The headlines are about gay marriage not being legal in the church, but GR notes that it also applies to people who have been divorced and remarried without annulment of their first marriage, and to people cohabitating outside of wedlock.

Both the right and the left wing of the European/American branches of the church figure that this will remain the rule, but that the activists will manipulate propaganda against the bishops if they dare to defend it. 

But don't worry: a lot of us (cynically) believe Francis will figure out how to get a footnote or make a comment to make people think it is okay to ignore the rule.

and by the way: yes, the bill in the US Congress will allow churches to be pushed into approving the gender agenda, and those who believe otherwise, even if they believe it quietly, could very well lose their jobs or not get hired: Something we already see happening.

Milo, call your office. Michael Voris is hyperventilating again.

I have not listened to this, and usually see Milo and Voris as Alex Jones or C2C type commentators; but hey, I love iconoclasts, and figure since I will probably get in trouble for not being PC, well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Is it news, or is it fake news?

 the computer was being used by the secretary, so I am not surfing the "news" as much as usual.

And then when I read headlines, I figure maybe I should just shrug and say WTF at the headlines.

Let's start with the entertainment field. 

The Grammies had open pornography, and no one objected, leading the  satire site Babylon Bee ("Fake news you can trust") to note: 

In Edgy Grammys Performance, Fully Clothed Woman Sings Beautiful Song March 15th, 2021 

Audiences were shocked at the 63rd Grammy Awards after watching an "audacious", "daring", and "edgy" performance by a fully clothed woman who sang a beautiful song.

... CBS executives have apologized for the "inappropriately decent and appropriate" performance and have promised to add more stripping and profanity to next year's show.

actually, that is not quite true: a couple years ago, Lady Gaga sang a duet while fully dressed with Tony Bennett, but now I guess she has moved on to more civilized songs.

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One of the more absurd stories pushed by the MSM was that Trump was seeking to overthrow Georgia's election by insisting some official "find" (i.e. illegally make up) a couple thousand ballots. 

Most of us who read the censored aka "fake news" sites knew he was taking about fraudulent counting and fraudulently destroyed ballots, but that's not how it was portrayed when they tried to impeach him for the umteenth time.

But now, the esteemed WaPo ("truth dies in darkness") has had to pull the story when a tape of the conversation was found and it proved Trump's side of the story was correct.....

The absurd part of this is not about the votes (which is absurd enough) but about how they found a tape of the conversation ...in the trash can. No, not the metal trash can under the desk, but the one that saves your deleted files in case of an "opps".

Thank God that those stealing the election didn't ask their 12 year old grandkid on how to destroy files. 

Instapundit has more on Voter Fraud link link2

if true, it puts the  Hello Garci scandal to shame... 

now, if only the MSM would find what was on Anthony Wiener's computer or on Epstein's videotape collection...both of which presumably have been disappeared by a professional...

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If you are wondering what is going on here in the Philippines, read the entire essay about the Philippines on StrategyPage.

a lot of it is about China's attempt to bully us, but hey, it also notes all the others who are busy bullying the Philippines. Why? Because they can. A dozen dead drug dealers, and voila, human rights SJW get their knickers in a know. A million Uighars in concentration camps, Hong Kong democracy fighters arrested, and the Catholic church there being made a puppet? No problem, because if you diss China, they bite back. But the Philippines? Hey, Dirty Harry is a hated figure by the left, and only beloved by those of us who are now not worried about being shot in a druggie home invasion or kidnapped by gangs for ransom.

SP points out that Duterte is popular here because we are safer, but that the world wide SJW lament the aggression against drug pushers. The SJW include the UN, The Catholic church (who laments cops killing drug pushers but had no problem in giving a fancy burial to the ex mayor behind the hit job that killed our nephew), and of course, the State Dept/CIA (Omidyar, who many believe is a CIA front, who funded the Ukrainian revolution by manipulating their news via money, helped fund Rappler, a website that is very anti Duterte... )

That nonsense has made Duterte more anti American: And this has geopolitical implications, not just for the USA but for Japan and Korea who rely on the open sea lanes in the West Philippine Sea.

and when it comes to the Vaccine, we are very slow in getting the shots even to protect our main line workers:

first the paper work to import the Pfizer vaccine in January wasn't signed so the US was unable to deliver it, and now we see a push to get the lousy (50 percent effective) Chinese vaccine.

Chinese offers to provide the SinoVac covid19 vaccine backfired when it was discovered that China was charging the Philippines three or more times per dose as other customers in east Asia and Africa were paying. Moreover, the SinoVac vaccine appears to much less effective than Western vaccines also available to the Philippines. Worse, all these negotiations and delays in Chinese deliveries have meant that the Philippines will be the last nation in the region to receive enough vaccine to suppress the covid19 threat.

Sigh.

 in the meanwhile, China illegally gave the shot late last year to about 100 thousand local Chinese working here. But hey, don't expect the US State Department to try to get shots to their ex pats here, who are mostly either military veterans, guys married to lovely Pinays, or Balikbayans.

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I am staying out of the vaccine antivax kerfuffle: x number of deaths always in the headlines, but not presented as a tiny percentage of the total number of people who got the shot (2 or 3 per 100 thousand shots).

But those insisting everyone should get the shot are hitting a wall since there is so much anti vax stuff out there (from Chinese and Russian Bots but also from the Democrats when Trump was pushing the vaccine) that trust in the sytem has been lost.

My take as a doc? 

Give the shots to the high risk folks: Caregivers, front line workers, the elderly, the obese, the diabetic, etc.

If a person refuses, well, okay. 

So what about travel restrictions? Well, the "vaccine" passport used to be routine for cholera, small pox and yellow fever, so no big deal.

But it should be given not just to those who completed the vaccine series, but to those who tested positive for antibodies, meaning they are immune and won't spread the disease.

That lasts group could be as high as one third of Americans...

as for here in the Philippines; Yes there is a lot of suspicion of the shot, thanks to the bots on the social media that had been spreading anti American Anti Wesetern vaccine smears, and of course, the failure to get paperwork done by some in government so we didn't get the western vaccine... one suspects China was behind this, so they could get credit for their "help"..... But no one trusts the Chinese vaccine either.

but given a choice between getting the shot so you can work or starving, well, poor folks don't have much choice... now if we can only speed up the vaccination plans.

Remembering heroes

 the remains of Father Kapuan, who was a military chaplain who became a POW in Korea, have been identified.

He was awarded a Medal of honor by President Obama, and and his life is being examined to see if he meets the criteria to be declared a Catholic saint.

Madea to the rescue

Life imitates art.

I just read on the bbc that when a young,  vulnerable and indigent family fled to tbe USA because they were in danger of being attacked by thugs and needed protection, that Medea Found them a safe place to stay.

In their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have revealed that - after they were cut off by the Royal Family - it was US media mogul Tyler Perry who provided Harry and Meghan with a home and security in California in 2020.

yes, there are good people in the world willing to help those in need: 

Hmmm...since they have since then moved out, maybe Madea could allow the mansion to house a few of the 100 thousand refugees fleeing real violence in Central and South America...