Invest in the Philippines?

there is a lot of stuff going on here: we got a second mall and now we see shops and restaurants  opening (and closing) all the time. 

With the covid epidemic over more people are moving to work overseas. Alas, since I had dengue two years ago, I am essentially home bound (I kept asking the docs to check why I am so weak, and after extensive checking they smiled and pointed out that I am old. Sigh). 

 But I do see development going on: Joy working on a government project to help on the business side of the farmers coop for organic food in Bulacan (she is a trained accountant but took advanced business courses thanks to Goldman sachs 1000 women initiative a few years ago).

we are gradually mechanizing our farm here, which I have written about in previous posts. But cleaning out the irrigation canal means less irrigation water this season but more available in future years. And then there is the plan to put solar panels in our area to supplement electricity to Manila and also locally. And we already have advanced internet connectivity, not to mention Star link is starting to be available (we have two internet connections: One with Globe, the local phone company and one with Huawei. The reason? Partly a back up if the lines break.

this video is about investment in the infrastructure of the Philippines: to us it means instead of what was once a four hour drive to Manila is now two to three hours (in heavy traffic it can take up to five hours), and in the near future shorter, rail lines to replace the slow buses. We still will have to use our trucks to transport the rice to the market, but for meetings and trade fairs, we won't have to use our cars.

they are also tightening up the checking about our OFW, to make sure they aren't getting cheated or exploited. The bad news: my granddaughter has a job that she got through her school connections to teach in Thailand, but since she didn't do paperwork or have a recruiter to do that, she has to do lots of paperwork.

So far she is teaching on line so she still has the job offer, but it is a hassle.

Well, anyway my Youtube connection keeps putting up cheerful videos on how the government is working on infrastucture etc. which will allow businesses to invest here.

The good news? We have an English speaking educated and trained workforce who might prefer to work here instead of overseas. The bad news? corruption of course.

Part of this is to attract business investments from companies who were burned by China and also because Chinese wages are going up. The bad news? Our wages tend to be higher than places like Viet Nam. But if the infrastructure improves it would be cost effective

Marcos was elected because people remember how his father attracted business (ignore that his government devolved by overreacting to the Communist threat and started jailing non communist opposition).

You have to realize that things here are run by your connections: Friends and relatives. This is good, but it does make it hard for outsiders to break into the oligarchy which is mainly Chinese or old families but now includes a lot of Protestant businessmen (joy's business connections often are fellow Protestant Christians)

so the Pope's emphasis on giving to charity ignores that the saying: Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him to fish and he feeds himself.

So here are two videos (advertisements of course) on what is being done:

,,,,this video also discusses the pros and cons of tariffs and how it affects local rice growers and also discusses how the government is pushing development of infrastructure.

one thing not noted: If China goes nuts and invades Taiwan, the Philippines will be involved, not just because China is grabbing the West Philippine sea, but that this would increase China's ability to block the sealanes from the Middle East.

So will they start a war before Trumpieboy takes over and scares them into staying quiet?

And another factor about the WPS: there are extensive natural gas deposits there that China has long offered to "help' the Philippines develop (read steal them). Access to those fields could improve the economies not just of the Philippines but of Viet Nam which is another country trying to attract investments.

another censorship conspiracy theory turns out to be true

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

censoring information and discussion about covid was censored by the government.

but then there is the political bias and pushing lies about Hunter's laptop, which was not about porn and drugs (which was what is usually hinted at in news reports) but about bribery from the Ukraine to Biden.

Sigh.

maybe believe what they say

....so where are the shepherds?

censorship: Yup it happened

 from AP/PBS Newshour:

In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg alleges that the officials, including those from the White House, “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to take down “certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire.”

OH NO: a MEME! Cancel him.

... “I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote in the letter dated Aug. 26 and posted on the committee’s Facebook page and to its account on X.

Heh. Zuckerburg uses Twitter/X.

Dr Campbell, who has been censored, discusses this issue:

Shame on medical journals like Lancet who censored stories on the lab leak theory by publishing an article written by the guy from ecohealth who actually funded the Wuhan gain of function research, and shame to the many journals who dissed possible treatments because they cited studies showing medicines didn't work that ignored the well known fact that anti virals have to be given early, but studies where these medicines were used early did show they worked.

 not to mention ignoring the population studies that suggested they worked (but weren't double blind studies so ignored).

and I won't even go into the censorship of open discussion about vaccine problems 

Sigh.

of course, it wasn't just covid that was censored.

a lot of this political censorship is being done by the various governments too... this was discovered when Elon Musk took over Twitter/X and had a couple of well known lefty but honest reporters check these things.

but the war against free speech continues:

France just arrested the guy behind Telegram because someone posted nasty stuff there and he refuses to give information of who they are, never mind that this practice is shielding human rights advocates from being arrested in a lot of third world countries.

For millions of people in Russia, Telegram’s encryption makes it the last remaining avenue to communicate securely and access information freely — governmental attempts to seize platform data must be rejected. Telegram is challenging the Russian government’s order to block and fine the messaging app for failing to provide information that would enable authorities to decode encrypted messages of six crime suspects. The company argues that, in effect, this means creating a backdoor mechanism for decoding all Telegram communications and threatening privacy and freedom of expression rights of all users. On June 10, 2022, Access Now, ARTICLE 19, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and Reporters Without Borders, filed a joint submission to the European Court of Human Rights.

“Journalists and activists in Ukraine and Russia are fighting to end this war. Platforms like Telegram are often their main source of communication, and they bear disproportionate risks if their identities and messages are revealed to Russian authorities,” said Natalia Krapiva, Tech Legal Counsel at Access Now.

censorship of free speech during the covid epidemic probably led to people dying, and in the long term is leading to a distrust of all vaccines and even routine medicines among the fringe.

but censorship of political discussion has broader implications:

That is why an anti vaxxer like RFK JR is influencing the next US election.

When it comes to political discussion, free speech (and this includes accuracy by the MSM) is important:

Today's #SafeSpace by Anna Cristina Tuazon (Aug. 29, 2024).

Visit https://t.co/TtpNkgGpix for fearless views and more.
Get the Inquirer here: https://t.co/tLGNXII3Jk pic.twitter.com/if9DoBusFU

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 28, 2024

And this makes me worry:

the one who was bullying Facebook just got a job with Harris.

So the White House staffer who demanded Facebook censor information is now Kamala's Deputy Campaign Manager? Interesting... pic.twitter.com/yC4WhR7Zsp

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 28, 2024

sigh

conspiracy theories conspiracy theories vs normal SNAFU

 

my cynical take: since this didn't work, since it didn't work, they decided to push plan B: a non confirmed government lawyer who might not have the authority to indict anyone has indicted Trumpieboy again.

Sigh.

How to win the Free speech Kobayashi Maru test

Elon Musk tweeted a few days ago that Being a free speech advocate these days is increasingly feeling like a Kobayashi Maru problem — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024. 

 As those of us who remember the original StarTrek know: This was an unwinnable dilemma that officer candidates were faced with, and was essentially a psychological test to see how these candidates would react to failure.

Until one uppity undergrad refused to play their game:

By reprogramming the test, James T. Kirk became the only cadet to overcome the Kobayashi Maru simulation. The phrase "Kobayashi Maru" has entered the popular lexicon as a reference to a no-win scenario. The term is also sometimes used to invoke Kirk's decision to "change the conditions of the test."'

but actually, this was not the only time Captain Kirk got out of a similar unwinnable situation: 

In the Corbamite Maneuver, Kirk was again given a choice: Surrender or die. A perfect checkmate, as Spock pointed out. but then Kirk changed the game 

 Capt. Kirk: Not chess, Mr. Spock. Poker! 

 and bluffed his way out of the dilemma by telling them he would blow up the Enterprise and the explosion would kill them too.

the back story of this is that Europe is arresting people for nasty racist tweets, 

and has now arrested the guy behind the Telegram App.   LINK2

A case was opened last month to investigate child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the platform. The app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was detained over the weekend near Paris.

given that it is easy for governments to post such stuff and then point to these posts to use it as a case for your arrest, it does make you wonder. 

All the social media including Facebook is full of similar stuff, And much of it uses code words or pretends that innocent words are used to mask crime (Pizzagate anyone?) one suspects there is more to this than trying to censor crime.

AlJ's take on the story:

I don't know much about the Telegraph APP: I did read that it was beaming Russian propaganda against the Ukraine, so was seen as beaming disinformation, but on the other hand, one of my updates from an African human rights organization was very upset at the prospect that Telegraph could be shut down: Because apparently it not only allowed free speech but was a way for activists to get around government censorship of stores in these countries.

Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has been arrested in France on charges including aiding terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, and money laundering, potentially facing up to 20 years in prison. This action seems to stem from his refusal to censor content on Telegram,…

— Bella (@stockbella) August 24, 2024

.....

Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member,… https://t.co/F83E9GbNHC

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2024

...

it is easy for trolls and government activists to place child porn and other horrid stuff on any web app, but where do you stop? and I do know that censorship about covid by public health physicians who disagreed with the shutdown, or the vaccines, or the denial about the money funding the gain of function research that might have been behind the covid epidemic has resulted in a huge distrust of all vaccines (similar to the distrust here after the Dengue vaccine killed some kids), and even a distrust of modern medicine.

Sigh.

pro death party

the Democrats used to say (under Bill Clinton) that abortion should be rare but safe.

they are now celebrating it as a form of freedom, as a way for women to have career success. or as Oprah puts it: Without reproductive rights there is no American dream.

This assumes the American dream is about making money and being successful in the market place and to do this you have to get rid of things like spouses, families, and children (and old people) who stand in the way of serving the capitalistic system.

but is that true? 

but most women do want families, and this is not addressed: which is why Vance's cat lady quip resulted in so much hatred.

Because many of these women who follow the trends they are being taught by our culture,  in their hearts do want children, and often lament their abortions in the depth of their heart (an unhealed wound: The left would ridicule them if they admit it, and the right and righteous are seen as condemning them for the decision they often made under duress or done with ignorance that it was killing a child).

ironically, if you read feminist essays you run across this sorrow, where often the women see the dead child as a ghost who comes to them in dreams or daydreams to haunt them. So one wonders if the high rate of depression and drug abuse and suicide in young women is from this unhealed wound.

Sigh.

By the way this is not from the religious right making them regret their decision. When I worked with psychiatrists, we had a Russian patient who was in a deep psychotic depression hallucinating a child that she had aborted. The Russian psychiatrist who was treating her told us that they saw a lot of this when he trained in Russia.

And right now I am reading about the forced abortions in China in a novel by Mo Yan: Frog, (the hint is that the Chinese word for Frog is the sound of a child's cry) that has the guilt of the abortionist and how the women try to stop her, is as part of the plot, 

But when her lover defects, Gugu's own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant. In sharply personal prose, Mo Yan depicts a world of desperate families, illegal surrogates, forced abortions, and the guilt of those who must enforce the policy. At once illuminating and devastating, it shines a light into the heart of communist China."

but you wouldn't know it from the Wikipedia page about the novel, or most of the reviews in the western liberal press.

you see, limiting population to make China prosperous was the goal of the one child policy, and the irony is that as modernity conquers the world, women are voluntarily leaving marriage and children behind in their quest to fulfill their dreams. So most Asian and Western (and even advanced Islamic) countries are facing depopulation in the next fifty years.

Sigh.

The Philippines hasn't reached that point yet, but the modern pied pipers are pushing it here too, via trendy magazines or internet influencers

For example: In the last week, there were two editorials in the Phil Inquirer. One was to tell young girls they didn't have to marry to be happy (never mind that most of the single women, especially in our OFWs, stay single to work and support their families),

 and another that insists the Philippines is wrong to see children as a way to invest in the future, because the government will be doing this (as if the government in poor countries are able to do this).

Today's Inquirer Commentary (Aug. 24, 2024).

Visit https://t.co/TtpNkgGpix for fearless views and more.
Get the Inquirer here: https://t.co/tLGNXII3Jk pic.twitter.com/705atO9oYJ

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 23, 2024

sigh.

You know, there are biological aspects to life and humans have evolved to be imperfect pair bonding beings, and wanting children, like the belief in God, is not something that can be ignored (one can see it as this coming from evolution or part of human beings that God put into our patterns of life).

But either way, it is part of the reality of life. And societies that try to make a utopia that lies about this reality are not going to succeed.

,,,,

Musk to the rescue again?

 yesterday's discussion about the stranded astronauts:

Today's behind the black report :

In a briefing today, NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson announced that Boeing’s Starliner capsule, launched in June on its first manned mission, will return unmanned and that the two astronauts it brought to ISS — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — will return in February 2025 as part of the crew of the next Dragon manned mission, scheduled to launch in late September.

MEME TIME

Jane Austin at Breakfast

 

and if you want recipes, Atlas Obscura has an article that includes recipes that were written down by her friend, and later housekeeper, Martha Lloyd.

 

In 1806, following the death of both Mr. Austen and Mr. Lloyd,...( Martha Lloyd joined Jane, her mother and her sister)...at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, a medium-sized cottage on the grounds of brother Edward Austen’s large manor.

Now home to the Jane Austen museum, Chawton Cottage is where Jane either wrote or revised all six of her published novels.

It’s also where, for decades, Jane’s beloved friend and relative Martha Lloyd created her household book, a record of the family’s favorite recipes gleaned from published cookbooks and friends.

the article is long and includes some of her recipes.

 

here is a video of Chawton Cottage that includes showing the kitchen.

update: Dining with Jane Austen website. has many articles and recipes.

-------------------

how to teach rebellious kids, Somali style

 My granddaughter Ruby was teaching a summer enrichment type camp near NYC, and before coming home, she visited her college classmates in Minneapolis.

One of them, a young man, is teaching a middle school history class there.

So you have to teach a bunch of Somali kids in middle school, at the age when kids are just starting their rebellious teen years, and of course might not respect a non Somali teacher.

What do you do? 

When his Somali kids started acting out and dissing him, instead of sending them to the principal or trying to ignore their behavior, he did several things.

First, he met with their parents. 

Second, He arranged his cellphone to become a cam to stream the classroom to any parent who wants to watch what is going on.

and third, when a kid started acting up, he phoned the parent and had them talk to their son.

American parents probably would be more busy at work and their kids might just ignore them if they told them to settle down, but Somali culture is family oriented and strict, and the kids will obey the parents or else.

(Italics mine).

And it worked.

Building on the strength of the community is part of the job of a good teacher.

 

Family news

 Ruby arranged a teaching job in Thailand, but the Philippine government won't let her leave the country until they check out that the job is not a scam.

this is a good law, since a lot of our OFW are scammed into work, and then find the job they are supposed to be doing does not exist, so the are left in limbo and exploited by their so called employer.

And yes, a lot of Filipinos work overseas without proper papers just like a lot of undocmented migrants work in the USA with fake or absent papers.

Essentially she was stopped at the airport when screened and they discovered she was going to a job, not just visiting Thailand. Presumably the international school where she plans to work has given her a working visa for that country, and that is how local screeners discovered this.

She got the job via connections of other teachers in international schools who she knew in the USA, not via a recruiter in the Philippines so was not aware of this law.

So her job is on hold while she gets the paperwork done which should take a week or two.

Sigh.

lecture of the week

mainly posted for later listening. I tend to be a basic Catholic, where personal holiness is found in the unity with Jesus and in the duties of our daily lives, but sometimes I am willing to listen to deeper discussions.

so, this is for my later listening on my tablet/cellphone:

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

and here is an older discussion:

posted for later listening. A lot of stuff out there about religion is gobbly gook, and when even the Pope prefers to preach the religion of global warming with anti Catholic pro abortion millionaires, pushes euthanasia by stealth, and post stuff illustrated with 70s redux style by a known sexual predator, it's nice to know that some people out there are willing to delve into these ideas.

Movie of the week

two signs that the Middle East might explode again

 StrategyPage is worried about what is going on in the Middle East:

but another sign that things might be getting dangerous: The Philippines is telling the OFW working in Lebanon to come home.

and this doesn't include the war in the Ukraine, where the Ukraine invaded Russia, and of course, China threatening the Philippines in the west Philippine sea.

Oh well: Lolo promised me if I moved here I would always have rice to eat. The problem? The gov't decided to drain and dredge out the irrigation canal so no irrigation for our rice fields: it has rained enough to plant two of our fields a month later than usual, so hopefully we won't go broke, but I worry about our small famers (who might decide that they will sell their land to developers planning to put up huge solar farms in our province)...

Sigh.

why all secret service should only hire women who are cat ladies

 

🚨🚨EXCLUSIVE and BREAKING: During a Donald Trump visit to North Carolina yesterday, a woman Secret Service special agent abandoned her post to breastfeed with no permission/warning to the event site agent, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.

Shortly… pic.twitter.com/lkfhhLcA0B

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 15, 2024

LOL

another sign that the Secret Service needs to rethink their DEI policies...

of course, a lot of countries allow a woman who just had a baby paid time off so she can care for the child: but hey that is a socialist idea that costs corporations money. So women are forced to quickly return to work if their family needs her salary. 

But one does have to wonder: why wasn't this lady offered a desk job if she needed to breast feed her child at work? 

now if they only hired single cat ladies, there would have been no problem.

more on voting machine problems here in the Philippines.

 background: Here, votes are counted by teachers.

So today's headline is that teachers are asking that the Smartmatic machines not be used in Philippine elections.

DepEd union calls for removal of Smartmatic from PH elections process https://t.co/iSIKwIoG1s

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 15, 2024

PhilInquirer notes:

“Past experiences with Smartmatic’s VCMs have raised significant concerns, particularly during the 2022 elections where over 1,800 machines malfunctioned, affecting approximately 1.1 million voters. These issues not only caused delays but also undermined public confidence in the electoral process,” DTU added.

the Philippine problems has resulted in the company's executives are being indicted for bribery. 

hmmm... wonder why this story is not in the news section of the LATimes but under their entertainment section: 

latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-08-09/executives-at-voting-machine-company-suing-fox-news-are-indicted

why is this important to you guys in the USA? Well, remember all those lawsuits against reports that they were causing fraud in the US presidential elections?

A federal grand jury in Miami has charged the co-founder of Smartmatic, a voting machine maker that is separately suing Fox News for defamation, with paying $1 million in bribe payments to officials in the Philippines. The indictment announced Thursday by the Justice Department said Smartmatic President Roger Piñate and two other employees allegedly made illegal payments to a former Philippines elections commissioner in order to get its voting machines and services used in the country’s 2016 election. The department said the payments were funded by a slush fund the executives created by inflating the cost of the voting machines. The money was allegedly laundered through bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the U.S.  

 Voting software company sues Newsmax and OAN over false election reporting Nov. 3, 2021 Piñate, a Venezuelan citizen, Smartmatic executive Jorge Vasquez and former executive Elie Moreno are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids corporate bribery abroad. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Smartmatic is currently waging defamation suits against Fox News and its smaller competitor Newsmax. The company said the conservative networks aired false statements about its machines being used to commit voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election, charges that were pushed by former President Trump and his allies.

 oh, if Trumpieboy claimed something, it can't be true, so unlike our intrepid reporters here in the Philippines, no one bothered to look into the claims.

but the company is claiming the problem machines weren't in the areas where the fraudulent voting occurred. So there.

decisions decisions

 

NASA to decide on how to bring home stranded astronauts by end of the month https://t.co/Jq3NV0w3MB

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 15, 2024

from the AJ article:

NASA needs to decide whether to use the Starliner or a spacecraft from SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk. If the space agency chose SpaceX, they could potentially launch their scheduled Crew-9 mission to the ISS on September 24 with just two astronauts rather than the usual four.

Behind the Black webpage has the story here:

...Third, and most important, the wording of those statements repeatedly indicated they are looking at Dragon return more seriously. For example, NASA’s chief astronaut Joe Acaba suggested strongly that the two astronauts were now well prepared for an eight month mission, rather than coming home in August 2024.

which of course would save face by Nasa/Boeing. 

Other statements by officials suggested they themselves are less confident about returning on Starliner.

Though the data suggests they can return safely, there remains enough uncertainty to make some people uncomfortable. One factor not stated but is certainly controlling the situation now is the upcoming election in November.

italics mine. 

The Democrats who control Washington and the White House will allow nothing to happen that could hurt their election chances. We must therefore assume people in the White House are now in control and are the ones who now intend to make the decision about Starliner’s return.

 the original press releases were insisting they could just stay in space for eight months but as the BBC notes:

A return on their arch-rival’s spacecraft and the astronauts wearing SpaceX suits would be deeply embarrassing for Boeing, but it would not be the end of the line for Starliner, especially if it makes it back to Earth safely in an uncrewed landing. Nasa has repeatedly said that it is committed to developing two independent means to take crew and cargo into space. It is likely that the Space Agency will give Boeing every chance to do that.

Hmm... which would look worse for Biden/Harris? Astronauts left in space even though Dragon could rescue them (which would be viewed by those who are following the story as a political move not to acknowledge Elon Musk could save the day)? Or to let Dragon bring them back and then have their minions in the US mainstream media bury the rescue story so no one hears about it?

SpaceX leads the world in the space race, but he is now an embarrassment to the Biden/Harris administration who seems to value DEI/political correctness over expertise and strict scientific standards.

for example, the US Gov't is doing their best to slow down Space X.

 

..........................................

a movie about the last time when politics was more important than science, and how it was almost covered up until a pushy scientist spoke truth to power.

......

bad reporting and censorship and ignoring future economic issues.

a cyberattack (not glitches) tried to stop it, the EU sent threatening letters, etc.

trying to shut down fringe parties is one thing but failing to report on a major candidate for US President? Uh, what about issues? Much of the talk was of economics (not screening those trying to enter the USA is about economics. I don't agree with Trumpiboy but he is a pragmatist and like Reagan will solve it pragmatically (my daughter in law is a proud US citizen thanks to Reagan's amnesty).

I read in despair the spin of the news about this meeting. Apparently the talking points were out there before the talk started

Here’s what the mainstream media is saying about the #ElonMusk & #DonaldTrump Interview pic.twitter.com/NR1aGF8LdP

— Valuetainment Media (@ValuetainmentTV) August 13, 2024

So do I believe what I saw, or the spin in the papers?

so does Twitter allow hate speech? Well, a lot of Hama propaganda are on my twitter feed, but hey that's because I want to hear both sides of the story.

but why do I worry about the censorships? Because of what happened with the covid policies, which censored problems.

and by the way, while all this smoke and mirrors is happening in the US presidential campaign, we are facing increased Chinese aggression, which  has spread from harassing fishermen and Philippine coast guard vessels to now bullying the airspace.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

remember: this would affect not just the Philippines but the international shipping and now international flights. True, shipping and flights could detour, but that would cost money and raise prices.

Sigh.

on the other hand, one wag noted that if China blocks this shipping route, either in the West Philippine sea or (what they plan later) the straits off of Singapore (with it's large Chinese population, if Taiwan falls, could Singapore be next?), there is an alternative route: Thanks to global warming, the northern shipping route could be an alternative. Trumpieboy is aware of this: remember when he trolled that he would like the US to buy Greenland? That was about bringing attention to China investing in one of their ports and in their mining interests. And the war in the Ukraine is leading Russia to help China in this area.

Trump as an international businessman is aware of these things. Is Harris? She has no expertise in running a business or even in running a state. So except for the press adoring her and pushing her as the joyful candidate, what are her positions on international issues? Will she talk with Musk about these things?

So you see, there is a reason that who becomes president will affect the world.  

it's TEOTWAWKI time again

and the Olympics doubled down on anti religious blasphemy by presenting a diabolic closing ceremoney.

Sigh.

SeaDrones?

 a long informal discussion of various wars.

The part about sea drones could be a game changer for the West Philippine sea if China continues their aggression there, but the bad news is what they note in the beginning of the discussion: The undermining of US society and the loss of the US ability to build stuff including ships.

.......

.........

lots of nearby countries are making visits here hinting they would help the Philippines, including Viet Nam and Japan. 

Drone warfare is changing how wars are fought, but I still read scare articles in the US MSM about how we need to reinstate the draft. Well, yes, but overweight and out of shape folk might have to be put on a diet and exercized to be able to make it. Or of course, let some of those eager migrants join the military as a way to citizenship.... on the other hand, maybe all those kids playing computer games in the basement could be a game changer.

voting machine fraud? Nah, it is about bribes and money laundering

 a couple years ago the Philippines ordered a lot of voting machines to make sure elecctions were not stolen (in the Hello Garci scandal, the phone call was rumored to be about finding enough ballots in the back room).

There were some irregularities with the machines, and technical problems, so they are back to paper ballots.

But the money shennanigans is being investigated and yes there is a Venezuelan link to the scandal.

I sort of remember that Venezuela part being called a conspiracy theory in Arizona  but I didn't keep up with these scandals and will post links later.

But Duterte won with enough votes by ordinary folk tired of the drug gangs terrorizing them and selling drugs to their kids that they could not steal the election (Marion Santiago quipped the election was between the communist and the Yank, a FilAm who lived near CIA headquarters in the USA) but since our president and VicePresident are eleccted separatly, Marcos lost the VP post to Robrero, a lovely lady whose husband was killed in a plane crash and a true populist leader.

But Marcos is now trying to get justice/

 Don't ask me. A lot of this was going on when Lolo was dying. 

LINK

and this video is 14 years old about why a poor country paid a lot of money for the machines:

,,,,,

hmm.. .remember when Smartmatic sued Mayor Guiliami and Fox News?

Nothing to see here folk just move along

who needs freedom of speech?

\\

 I had supported the vaccine and even the shutdown during the height of the covid epidemic but I was not aware of the opposing opinions about the vaccines (including side effects: I had AZ and was aware of blood clots but was not aware of the mRNA problems).

However, as the wall of censorship crumbled it seems that the censorship goes on beyond tweets or medical journals that don't disclose the guy writing the paper saying the covid was not a lab leak was a guy funding gain of function research in that lab.

So now on many fronts, the censors are getting nastier even as the evidence and public opinion is turning against them.

Take Dr. Jordan Peterson: Despite the evidence from the UK that showed the fad of gender surgery and drugs for underage childrean and teens had no medical studies showing it helped, he is now told he has to take a reeducation course to keep his license to practice psychology. 

UPDATE RE CANADA SUPREME COURT

The court has rejected my appeal regarding the decision of the Ontario College of Psychologists to subject me to indefinite re-education@CPBAOntario

Primarily for publicly opposing the butchers and liars subjecting children to sterilization…

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) August 8, 2024

....

then we have people in the UK pushing penalties for free speech. It seems to be a one sided response to the protests. But JFK once reminded us:

as I have written elsewhere, I am old enough to remember when JKF defended the Mother's march for peace, which back then was considered a communist front, and he explained that he needed alternative voices to counter the severe pressure he was under from the Pentagon and anti communist types in the government. This might have been a step too soon, because as I told Kuya, the USSR interpreted it as weakness and the result was the Cuban missile crisis, where the US and USSR almost got into nuclear war. But when you silence all voices, it allows the really crazies to take over the opposition. 

I see this in the mRNA vaccine side effects The US is still pushing the shots even though covid has evolved to be no worse than the flu, but people saw side effects, and since the official stories denied any problem, the result is that some folk stopped believing the official stories. As a result, some got so paranoid that they started refusing vaccines that have been routine for fifty or more years without any problems. (we saw a similar reaction after it was found the experimental Dengue vaccine had killed some kids)/

Sigh.

then there is the censorship in the UK anti immigration protests where some reports are that if you even tweet your opinion against immigrants you can be jailed...at a time when the MSM is not noting that  usual idiots are doing violent counter demonstrations. And given the recent threat against Taylor Swift, one wonders if these terrible murders were also terrorism... no reports on motive yet. Wonder why.

given the history of censorship of all aspects of the covid epidemic,  Dr. C compares this censorship as similar to the overblown censorship about covid.

but it doesn't stop there.

I just read that Tulsi Gabbard is being monitored by air marshalls when she flies because she is on a terrorist watch list.

Tulsi got more votes in the 2020 primaries than Kamala Harris, but as a veteran is a bit anti war, especially in the Ukraine. (wonder what she would do here in Luzon with China breathing down our throats).

But it does make you wonder who is running the show.

But hey, I live in a small town and only blog, so I am safe even if I complain. What could they do to me, right/

Uh Oh; gadfly/satirist Dilbert just got his credit cards cancelled. Guess the censors don't recognize that he often says over the top satire of the news, as a way to provoke his listeners to think about stuff that is ignored because folk are too polite to talk about.

Three separate credit card transactions with three different cards and three different vendors all declined today.

No reason. Cards are all good. Banks approved.

What’s going on?

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) August 8, 2024

fetal fentanyl syndrome

 

I wrote about this the other day on my medical blog.

I am old enough to have had experience with heroin withdrawal in babies, low birth weight babies in heavy cigarette smokers, and with fetal defects from fetal alcohol syndrome and illicit drugs

and of course, another underreported story is the fetal damage in those smoking a lot of marijuana.

Scidaily article. and I wrote about it here.

CNN report here notes that it is worse in the first three months of pregnancy, leading to underweight babies who are at risk for all sorts of problems

“Our study drills down to look very specifically at a specific time point in pregnancy — the first trimester. We found a significant decrease in birth weight of 154 grams. In terms of pounds, it’s about a third of a pound,” she said. While one-third of a pound may not seem to be much, such slight decreases in weight have been linked to health problems as children grow, Bailey said. “Low birth weight is one of the strongest predictors of a child’s health and development long-term,” she said. “These kids are more prone to developmental delays, higher rates of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), learning disabilities, and have higher rates of emotional problems.”

full government report here. 

but like most reports, the problems tend to be vague since they lump together a parent smoking a joint or two on weekends with a parent constantly high and often imbibing other drugs including alcohol.

and of course, abuse and neglect of such children often lead to relatives or friends caring for them outside of official channels, so are probably underrerpoted.

JDVance call your office. We got problems.

psychodelics. another fad soon to be debunked?

UK MAIL has an article about using a psychodelic for psychiatric treatment.

We were in FDA's trial for MDMA - here's why it should NOT be approved to treat PTSD

Trials looking at the health benefits of MDMA ignored patients' worsening suicidal tendencies, according to multiple people involved in the studies. Three volunteers with PTSD said they felt more depressed weeks into the trial and for weeks after it ended, an effect of taking the psychoactive drug, also known as ‘molly’. Lykos Therapeutics, the company masterminding the push to legalize MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, is accused of bias in reporting trial results to show a positive effect on people's PTSD symptoms, pressuring people to report positive effects, and ignoring those who said their symptoms got worse. The ongoing trials have been plagued with allegations of sexual misconduct and of doctors overseeing the study of holding ‘underground’ MDMA sessions not sanctioned by the trial using the drugs illegally.

the on the street report about British riots

Why is England rioting? pic.twitter.com/QYbEvK5TFu

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) August 4, 2024

so is it the extreme nationalist British bigots behind the white riots, or the locals who see these outsiders as freeloaders? How many of the rioters are the same guys who as football fans have started fights after games?

And when a lot of the immigrants are from Eastern Europe, the West Indies, Africa, the Philippines and other Christian lands, not to mention the Hindu Indians, why is the spotlight on just the Muslims, who have been aggressive in trying to bully locals into accepting sharia?

Our family is in the middle of this: We have relatives there who are caregivers. They are now patriotic Brits, and I have to laugh at their accents when their kids, who grew up in England, are more British than Filipino. 

So are all immigrants being attacked, or just  the outsiders who refuse to assimilate, and/or the more recent immigrants who are seen as freeloaders? 

These are supposed to be refugees, but many paid a lot of money to get to Europe from the hellholes of Africa and the Middle East, meaning they are rich enough to pay coyotes (and exploit the UN and NGOs) to move them to an area where they can be safe? 

the assimilation of immigrants in Europe is a problem, because of excess nationalism. 

In contrast, in the USA, we all are of mixed background.

so why is there a problem? Racism? Or is it envy because immigrants will work and get jobs by those who want to hire hard workers, not drug taking locals?

I ask this partly in view of the Governor of Minnesota being selected to be a possible US VP. 

You see, the dirty little secret is that there is a lot of tension in high schools in the Minneapolis area, including between Somalis and the local black population.   (long history of Somali vs Bantu and the BantuSomalis who are many of those resettled in the USA is the cultural background for this).

I have a blogpost with references on this here.

They also have other minorities in Minneapolis who are invisible to the US MSM and never get quoted (the large Hmong population, and the Native Americans who are now living off the res in the city to get jobs). 

Yes, Minneapolis is diverse, but run by the white liberal elites, and this ignores not only the minorities but the large Scandinavian farm population. So no I don't know what is going on in the UK, or even in the USA, but the dispossessed are now being encouraged to fight each other (which is a long standing tactic to control the masses and of course making those who spread drugs or take bribes not to stop the gangs spreading them), and of course, the open drug use makes things worse.

Notice I don't mention the group that in the US is the cause of a lot of resentment: The large Hispanic population who often settle in a Hispanic area and find jobs and assimilate as what Teddy Roosevelt called "hyphenated Americans" but who in a generation or two will be just ordinary Yanks, like the Russian Jews or the Irish or the Italians or the Polish immigrants.

So what is the answer? Revolution as in France, or a religious revival as in the UK when such as when the Methodists reformed people in the slums while also working for social betterment.

the problem of those with the Islamic faith might be a problem, especially in Europe where prejudice is worse. But ironically in the USA, the ordinary Muslim has more in common with the working class Republicans as social conservatives, and history suggests that the immigrant cycle of living in ethnic neighborhoods and attending ethnic churches, the second generation slowly moving out to the main community, and the third generation becoming full blooded Americans will continue to work to assimilate them.

musical interlude of the day

Local cops refuse to be made the scapegoat

more here.

CNN version here.

and did anyone ask about that investor group who the day before the shooting, just happened to short stocks associated with Trump's businesses, that would have made them millions if he had been shot? 

Oh, it was filed in error. No problem here, folk, just move along...

 “No client of APW holds, or has ever held, a put on DJT in the quantity initially reported. The correct holding amount was 12 contracts, or 1200 shares — not 12 million shares, as was filed in error. In submitting the required report for the second quarter of 2024, a multiplier was applied by a third-party vendor that increased the number of the shares by a multiple of 10,000 for all options contracts (not just DJT). We did not catch the error before approving the filing.”

and hey, if you believe this innocent error suggested a conspiracy ,you are a conspiracy theorist....

So how about the Crowdstrike stock shenanigans? Was that an innocent error too? 

this one needs to be looked into because Crowdstrike leader has links to a previous McAfee problem and of course there is a whole industry out there about Crowdstrike and the funny money in the Ukraine...

or as the WAPO put it;

Friday’s debacle has brought the cybersecurity company’s role in probing the 2015 DNC hack and in Trump’s first impeachment into renewed focus among some backers of the Republican nominee.

the church in China

the oligarchy running the US

....................

update:

The Deep State: remembering when Democrats opposed it

 

from Bill Moyers on PBS, back in 2014

/////

Ebook the Deep State can be downloaded from here.

I post this because right now, it is the Trumpite right that is pushing this (not the country club Republicans aka never Trumpers).

and the longer the government powers try to ignore the Trump shooting and blame it on the local cops, the more I wonder if the conspiracy types might be right.

Celebrate depopulation and loneliness

 

Celebrating those who embrace a different path and live life on their own terms. Your choices are valid, your life is fulfilling, and your journey is uniquely yours. 💫 pic.twitter.com/PhjKjzrVdp

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 1, 2024

...

the irony? Notice this is a young lady urged not to have children. Half the population is men. But women are more vulnerable to the social media fads.

There are a lot of single Philippine women, not because they chose a "child free" lifestyle, but because they are working (usually overseas) to help their families survive.

Lolo's single aunt helped pay his school fees to become a doctor. Lolo migrated to the USA instead of marrying his finace to support his dead brother's family. Multiply this by thousands and you see the problem: No local jobs.

But the Philippines is still above replacement level so the international elites want to encourage childlessness.

So the Inquirer has a lot of articles about relationships, but also a lot discussing pets as if they are children...

Reminds me of the K Drama we are watching right now: Two people were frozen for twenty years and come back to the modern day. And in one scene, the girl is looking aghast at people carrying dogs in diapers and dogs in baby carriages.

I love dogs but they are not children.

and yes, I have cats, but am not a childless cat lady: I am a grandmother who lives with an extended family.

There is a reason for the (now hated) cat woman meme: because they are seen as rejecting the family. '

I recently saw a tweet by a "happy 40 year old" who didn't need kids and was dancing like a teenager to celebrate her freedom and ability to travel and be free to do things she enjoys.

And I wonder: What will she do when she is 70?

The dirty little secret is that a lot of this type of tweeting is by immature people who obey what society wants them to be. 

Reminds me of the clueless girls when I was in college who just wanted to marry and not learn anything to support themselves if they needed a job, because before women's lib that was what society was brainwashing them to do. 

So they married, and then when things got rough, divorced the SOB because being single was the thing to do after women's lib became the in thing.

Today the propaganda is the opposite: career is everything and you don't need family. 

Never mentioned: Women work for less money than men, so those needing cheap labor encourage women to work full time (and import cheap immigrant labor of course). 

And alas, the Democrats who used to recognize this as a capitalist plan no longer see the problem of how women have to work full time and then try to care for her family... and so the propaganda ignores that being single and exploited for cheap labor benefits the elites of globalism...

the myth of the happy single lady is true for those of us who had careers in service and family and friends.

But those rejoicing in their freedom to be single are often just pretending.

 Most never found a decent guy who met their standards and now it's too late. I always wonder why they didn't just consider marrying their best girl friend as an alternative to start a family, or adopting as a single mom but hey, that's just me.

Ironically, some people do recognize this is the dirty little secret of today's women: in their secret hearts many of these women love Hallmark films showing affluent career women in their thirties finding perfect handsome men who will love them.

well, worked for me. But ironically I wasn't looking for a husband (and Lolo was not looking for a wife) but that's another story...

the forgotten Muslim refugees

 

but like the terrible wars in the Sudan, the world doesn't care because they can't blame Israel.