the joint training often emphasizes humanitarian stuff (e.g. bringing in supplies by the US when a typhoon or other problem hits us, something that happens all the time). But this time, we have had China harassing out fishermen so they are also training for amphibious type stuff.
the usual leftists are saying oy veh this might upset China, but the problem is not that the US will actually do something: The problem is that no one trusts Biden to do anything.
here the US often helps the military with electronic stuff, since it is taboo for outsiders to actually fight against local insurgencies.
Last year, someone (china?) attacked gov't websites here, and of course, the main cable passes south of Taiwan so a major cut in the cable could put us in the dark. Of course, Huawei has their 5G internet here now, (Joy uses it for her teleconferences) background of why this could be a problem LINK.
if war breaks out in Taiwan or China decides to play dirty to punish the Philippines for asserting their legal rights in the West Philippine sea, we could lose our internet.
Or maybe not: From SP: an article discussing communications in the Ukraine war: and how the Russian hackers attacks didn't work because Elon Musk supplied Starlink for their troops.
Sigh.
I know nothing about the Ukraine war because I simply don't trust the propaganda which is manipulating the public to hate conservatives by saying they back Putin. That of course is not true: pointing out provocations to Putin and that Biden's ineptitude might have something to do with the war is a valid criticism, as is the criticism that the elites who want the Great Reset are using this to their advantage. That is not the same as backing a paranoid dictator who for years has expressed the wish to reunite Russia with their lost empire.
But how will it affect us? Famine... Ukraine's wheat crop has been feeding the Middle East, so now hunger might strike. And with the increase in the cost of fertilizer and diesel, the farmers will have more expenses so the price of wheat will go up.
Lots of reports out there that China is hoarding grain. well, as the saying goes: Been there, done that. China knows if famine strikes, people could revolt.
and these problems will affect the price of rice too: Kuya sighs and says that the increased expense might make him stop growing organic veggies etc. and stick to rice only. And even that might not give us much of a profit.
Sigh.
China is having other problems: One reason for their (illegal) premature takeover of HongKong was to get money moved from HK Banks to Shanghai, so that they could manipulate the international money stuff (and probably steal stuff).
But now Shanghai is locked down.
,,,,
So what is going on? Is this covid or is this (as is reported) the Omicron covid, which is not stopped by the weak Chinese vaccine but also is not very lethal.
Omnicron spread in the air and is more infectious that traditional covid so lockdowns and masks don't help much.. heck, recent studies suggest they didn't help much in the original outbreak either, since the cost of the lockdown outweighed the benefits.
In other words, is this over-reaction, or is something else out there that we are not being told about?
in contrast, the official figures in the Philippines show only 25 deaths and 385 cases of covid here.
Here Dr. C notes what a lot of leftist types noted for years about news stories and a lot of docs noticed about Medical journals: Before you believe the data, follow the money.
Usually we docs had journal clubs where we discussed and dissected articles to detect problems, but for lay folk who are repeatedly told to "Trust the Science", it will make them actually distrust science instead of distrusting those who interpreted the science wrong...
Sigh.
the main problem here right now is not Covid, but the heat: it's TagInit, the hot season before the monsoon rains come.
the heat is stressful for the elderly with high blood pressure and/or diabetes, and although there are more aircon now, the poor only have fans to keep them cool....Another neighbor's husband died of a heart attack yesterday and of course in the hot season we also will see children needing IVs for diarrhea dehydration.
Me, I am in the air conditioned bedroom much of the day and it took me two days to recover from heat exhaustion after the brown out a few days ago... my small generator did keep the air con running a bit, enough to keep the room under 85 degrees but not enough to stop heat exhaustion.
and if threats of war, famine, and disease don't worry you: how about a volcanic eruption?
not near us, so we are safe.
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The election is in full swing. The airways and social media are full of ads for Robrero, meaning the money folk (and probably the CIA linked money folk) are behind her, as are the major news papers.
The elites are going full court press to destroy BBMarcos.
However, the people tend to vote for who they want. True, sometimes who they want is the one who pays the best for their vote (they're all crooks, so may as well make money), but if the voters want a populist they will vote for the one they want. Which is how Erap and Duterte won over the candidates of the elite oligarchy that runs the country. In other words, don't trust the social media on this one: BongBong Marcos could win.
The streets are noisy with sound trucks advertizing their candidates, and the local election posters are up all over.
And yes we are open: I still wear a mask outside but it's only required in stores.
and this morning, I heard the music of the local exercize class at dawn. So things are improving.
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