Headlines: Fiesta time, drug wars, and the cold war in Asia

Tomorrow is the feast of the Three kings: when the Magi (yes I know: rich guys but not kings) came to visit the Christ child.

The main church in our town is Three Kings parish, so there will be a big parade today, with the roads blocked off for safety.

this video is from last year.

hey this is the Philippines, so fiestas and parties are a priority. And after limited parties and parades because of the virus for two years, we are ready to celebrate.

The bad news: The new covid variant is running rampant in China link2, but if you insist on testing travelers from there, you'll make them angry, and hey you don't want to make China angry...

The dept of tranportation wants to test those arriving from China,  but an ex DOH official is kissing China's ass by saying hey no need to test travelers coming from that country and that the Philippines should wait until the WHO and China say it is needed...Right...(this is similar to what the friends of China did in 2020, where they arranged for Trump to be called racist when he stopped flights from China)...

But another official said: Hey maybe we should test those coming in from the USA since they have a new omicron varient there too. Why yes. 

actually one doubts testing travelers will stop the latest strain, which is mild but very infectious, and if money is better spent elsewhere. Maybe they should just check everyone's temperature and keep those with a fever off of the flights, something they did in the past during flu epidemics, and are doing here in the bank and malls.

It's bad when one can't trust the reports thanks to fake news and recognizing how the powerful manipulate the media.

 Especially with all the Twitter information about government being behind censorship there being leaked.

Elon Musk is essentially picking up where Wikileaks stopped: in finding government lies and manipulation. Hope he has good body guards. His son was inside a car that was attacked by a stalker but despite a video showing the attack, we are told nothing to see here, folks just move along 

in other news: China will talk to the Philippines about "sharing"the oil in the Philippine's legally owned area of the West Philippine sea that they took over years ago when Obama persuaded PNoy not to stop them.

while everyone in the US MSM is watching and cheering on the war in the Ukraine, they are ignoring the real danger: China is planning a Taiwan takeover in the near future, partly to distract their folks from the covid and economic debacle, but partly because they can.

What is stopping them? I guess they are waiting until all the US's weapons are used in the Ukraine, and until General Milley completely destroys the US military through incompetence and political correctness.

other stories where damage control is needed:

Another athlete down, and the anti vaxers are going crazy. Yes, there are a few deaths from mRNA related shots causing myocarditis, so maybe young folks should stop getting the repeated boosters that increase their risk. But until people who are trusted are allowed to report on these deaths (including autopsies) the anti vaxers will be able to pretend all the excess deaths of the young and middle age in the US last year were the vaccine, not from covid, obesity, or drugs.

But where are all the voices pointing out problems of Fentanyl, which killed over 100 thousand Yanks last year (sent to you from China via the drug cartels in Mexico)? 

And why the push to legalize marijuana? to sedate people from getting upset? 

although a lot of films and Netflix series still glamourize drug pushers, most do not. And now the literary establishment (/s) is taking note of human trafficking links to drug smuggling, and using bitcoin to hide the profits. Heck, this is even the back story behind the latest Janet Evanovich novel 

I fault the clergy: who are absent in pointing to the reason for these problems: sin.

And faux compassion that coenables the problem by helping the addicted and mentally ill to stay in their dangerous lifestyle and opposing those trying to stop the evil people who make money by encouraging their actions.

Here in the Philippines, Marcos is continuing Duterte's drug war: there is a crackdown on those involved with drugs in the police: they were all asked to resign, preumably to start anew without the long complicated process of trying to find which ones are guilty and trying to remove them one by one.

But the real problem for ordinary people is the high price of onions. Heavy monsoon rains, government cracking down on smuggling, etc.

In other news: The pope is dead. Long live the Pope.

Place conspiracy theory about why he resigned here. link2  Summary: the bad guys shut down the bank, and then there as that 300 page dossier on corruption  that named names and the rule is that when there is a new pope, they all have to submit their resignations without a long process of trying to remove them one by one. Voila. Resign and let your hand picked successor clean up the Augean stables.

It didn't work however, because his chosen successor lost to the one pushed by the St Gallen's mafia.

Voila, a church of nicewhere there is no sin (instead of repent, go and sin no more, we have I'm okay you're okay and god loves you so do what you want) 

and everyone is welcome except those who want the old Latin mass...

Sigh.

in family news:  Ruby and her roommate made it back to Minnesota without problems.

MamaDog had five puppies in a nest in the corner of my bathroom. So far all seem healthy.

Joy is busy as usual with various meetings and inspecting the repair of our  property in Manila that we rent out (it was bought 35 years ago when Kuya went to school there).and I am now well enough to walk the dogs around the town square (about ten minutes). Life is good. 

the netflix films etc. are still either boring or depressing, so I again dug out one of my old DVD's to watch this gem