and the latest bad news is that the Pope is appointing people who will lack the courage to confront the culture of death, so I am discouraged more than ever. especially since the Trad Catholic seem more worried about the latin mass and the church of what's happening now is more concerned with global warming than with a policy that will eliminate useless eaters: the dirty little secret is that this is supposed to be volunatary but rogue medical and nursing personnel will take it in their hands to eliminate grandmom. This is known in minority communities, which is why so few minorities will sign living wills etc. Yes there is racism and class bigotry in medicine in the USA, and of course those European and Canadians show how this is done.
But we grandmoms have a weapon and can fight back:
I am old enough to remember my mom and her friends would get together once a week and pray the rosary for the conversion of Russia.
And voila, communism fell without a war and without massacres.
Stalin once quipped: How many troops does the Pope have? And the answer is this:
my previous post was about the wonderful K drama when life gives you tangerines. The plot is about a family and much of it is about trying to make a living, starting in poverty and working their way up to a middle class existance.
One of the major subplots in the middle of the drama was the unemployment and hardships suffered by the family due to the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
that lesson should be noticed by the Yanks who are opposing the DOGE cuts and the financial problems in the USA.
..
........
many Asians think that rich people manipulating the stock market for gain either precipitated the crisis or made it worse.
And high on the list of those manipulating the crisis was Soros.
At the combined annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in September 1997, a conflict raged over who was to blame for the nascent financial calamity, and what kind of economic model would emerge after it.
The main protagonists were Mahathir Mohamad, at the zenith of his power as prime minister of Malaysia, and George Soros, the billionaire who made bold bets against the currencies of Thailand and Malaysia in the run-up to the crisis. A few years earlier, Soros had defeated the Bank of England's efforts to prop up the pound. Mahathir, for his part, had presided over high growth rates for much of his 16 years in office that were now at risk of being undone.
With Thailand already subject to the strictures of an IMF-led bailout and Indonesia hurtling down the path toward one, Mahathir feared Malaysia could be next. Soros was portrayed by Mahathir and other nationalists as representing global capital, in all its fickleness — and drew scrutiny (and sometimes praise) for his ability to spot countries and assets that were starting to go awry.
Investopedia also discusses manipulation and interference that made the crisis worse.
The Bottom Line
In 1997, decades of economic policy planning that featured close relationships among government policy planners, regulators, the industries they regulated, and financial institutions came to a head when markets began putting downward pressure on Asian currencies.
italics mine....the markets did it.
This is like those headlines that shout a car drove into a crowd, or an AK47 killed people: as if these things were independent of human intervention.
Which is why the president of Malaysia blamed Soros:
With contagion, the risk of financial crisis to a country is not limited to its own vulnerabilities, but can be a result of market contagion that turns the underlying weaknesses into a crisis. This means, under globalisation, a financial crisis is no longer an isolated individual country problem but a collective problem that needs to be tackled collectively -- through an organised regional or global body whose job it is to prevent and resolve financial crises. so welcome to the New World Order.
italics mine.
So did big shots controlling the world manipulate things so that the ultimate result would be centralized control of the world economy?
are we seeing "markets" manipulating the economies of the world again, this time in the USA under an incompetent Biden, and no one except for conspiracy sites dare to ask the question: What is really going on?
Trump knows business, and knows how to play dirty in business: so right now he is manipulating the world wide financial situation by threats of tariffs: He points out that other countries take advantage of tariffs on the US while the US is not supposed to notice. So since what is good for the goose is good for the gander, he says change or else. Drop the tariffs or else. And saying to companies: Invest in the USA.
Not popular, but a fast way to equalize things to stimulate fair trade.
But China could be the problem: They are calling in the debts from a lot of countries who they sent "AID" but actually what they did was did stuff and it was a loan to be paid back and now the loan is due. And they are threatening war against Taiwan, the Philippines, and India (and if Russia doesn't watch out, Siberia is next on the list of lost Chinese possessions).
which is why Trumpieboy calls Russia crazy for not trying to make peace.
the kerfuffle about Greenland and Canada was actually a headsup that China was expanding their economic control of these countries so they could take over the Arctic trade routes. And this only makes sense if you know that they are also infiltrating Eastern Siberia with a lot of migrant workers.
Well, never mind.
I don't understand economics, but if you read history, you know that economic problems and depressions cause revolutions and wars.
The Chinese curse/blessing goes: May you live in interesting times.
Alas, the trailer, doesn't give you any idea of what the series is about: It is about family and how they support each other through thick and thin.
I see a lot of similarities in our family. The family in the series sells their house to help their daughter get a college education, and we cut corners to get our granddaughter an education including college
I have mentioned Chinese aggression and shenanigans against the Philippines in past posts (building artificial islands, attacking Philippine fishermen and more recentl Coast Guard ships, even within the 200 mile economic zone, the Chinese casinos with many military age men working there, the Chinese mayor who pretended she was Filipino, and all those Chinese students who instead of studying at major universities just happen to be studying in a minor college in the north of Luzon, near to military bases that are protecting the strait between the Philippines and Taiwan).
May 24, 2025: In January Filipino security forces arrested about a dozen Chinese and Filipino citizens and charged them all with spying for China. Some of the accused had been caught while using drones, cameras and other electronic instruments to survey Filipino infrastructure and military installations. The alleged Chinese spies were particularly eager to study bases and areas that American forces would use when they regularly visited to train with their Filipino counterparts.
Read the whole thing for more details.
One problem is that there are thousands of Filipinos working in China; Most of them are in Macao or in Hong Kong, not the mainland, and most (including some of our relatives/friends) are caregivers, nurses, teachers, etc. So these people are open to being arrested or used for human hostages if war happens against Taiwan
Please also note what this article says about Chinese spies, and all the Chinese gangsters, many smuggling or in the drug trade:
The Chinese gangs conceal their illegal operations among the legitimate ones. The Philippines has long had a major corruption problem and the Chinese took advantage of that to pay off the right people in areas where they operated. Since none of the victims were Filipino, the Chinese operations were seen has beneficial to the Philippines and Filipinos. It required federal Filipino intervention.
These actions have been more frequent as allies of the Philippines complain that Chinese espionage operations are regularly traced back to the Philippines.
There have been several crackdowns, but the Chinese gangs were prepared for this and sacrificed some portions of their operations while the majority went silent and unseen.. The Chinese government assists the gangs as long as the gangsters provide support for Chinese espionage efforts. This is a problem that has defied numerous efforts to eliminate it. Now you know why...
I wonder if one of the reasons that the internationalist elites and CIA hated Duterte was because he was going after the drug gangs,
Coast guard ships are not usually heavily armed but the Chinese ships are increasingly being seen equipped with water cannons, extra searchlights and equipment for grappling with other ships. These tools are used to interfere with foreign fishing ships and transports that go to parts of the South China Sea that China has declared Chinese territory, even though other nations have a stronger legal claim.
Using water cannons, bright searchlights to blind the crews of other ships and aggressive maneuvering to include grappling with smaller foreign ships and forcibly moving them the foreign ships are persuaded to back off.
The Chinese coast guard vessels also use these tactics against foreign warships and if the foreigners shoot back the Chinese can declare themselves the victims of an unprovoked attack and call in more fire power.
,,,,,
in other words, they are practicing on how to block shipping through the area, which is a vital shipping route from the Indian Ocean to East Asian countries.
and of course control of this sea lane can let them block supplies going to Taiwan.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
in other news, China vs the Catholic church is heating up again.
China used bribes to crooked Cardinals in the Vatican to let them take over the underground Catholic church there.
But the agreement is up for renewal, and everyone is hoping that the new pope will refuse to extend the agreement, especially since of course China has been breaking the agreement.
Pope Leo will have to decide whether to continue renewing the accord. There have been some apparent violations on the Beijing side, with some unilateral appointments that occurred without papal consent.
The issue came to a head just before the conclave that elected Leo, when the Chinese church proceeded with the preliminary election of two bishops, a step that comes before official consecration.
...Relations had long been fraught over China’s insistence on its exclusive right to name bishops as a matter of national sovereignty, while the Vatican insisted on the pope’s exclusive right to name the successors of the original Apostles.
the argument about secular authorities appointing bishops essentially is about if the state controls the church, or is the church separate from the state. This argument goes back to the early church, and came to a head in the early middle ages: Wikipedia article
why is this important? Well, if you remember back to the days of the fall of communism, many of these revolutions were led by or inspired by the churches. Here in the Philippines, the People Power/EDSA revolution against Marcos I was led by our Cardinal.
So the church as an independent institution is dangerous to tyrants.
So maybe Pope Leo is sending a signal that he won't bot to tyrants?
Two nights ago, one of our outside dogs slept in my room instead of outside the door as he usually does, and in the morning he did not get up and when I checked him he was dehydrated and too weak to walk, and refused to eat or drink.
So we took him to the vet for antibiotics and IV fluid.
Today he is his old self, and I have a huge bill for his treatment and he has to stay on antibiotics for a month just in case it was leptospirosis,
He tested negative, but the vet worried it might be an early case...he had a shot to prevent this as a puppy but not in recent years, and we had an unvaccinated dog die of it a couple years ago.
....
Lots of rats in the area, partly because we live near the palenke and the town square, and people discard trash in the street on the way home from socializing in the town square in the evening, and of course we have to watch it because we store rice. We just put out rat poison so at first I thought the dog had eaten that, but the vet said no.
But as I noted, this is one of the outdoor dogs.
we have a large compound and different dogs in different areas...he guards the kitchen (which is outside but next to our dining room) and he is one of the five dogs that guard the living area and garden and the meeting room area, (and there are five dogs in various places in the business side of the compound.) Everyone here has dogs for safety.
this dog usually hangs around with the cook, and even goes with her to shop so might have eaten or drank contaminated water/food in the street...
I took the cook with me to take him home, and both were happy and smiling at the reunion.
And the latest post points out that deliveries to and from the space station are now so routine that this doesn't make the headlines anymore.
For NASA, SpaceX is acting as its UPS delivery truck, bringing back to several tons of experiments. And like all UPS delivery trucks, making a delivery is not considered news.
And yet, this is a private commercial spacecraft returning from space, after completing a profitable flight for its owners
Four station astronauts worked together throughout their day loading several tons of completed science experiments and station hardware inside Dragon.
NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers kicked off their shift loading and securing a variety of cargo inside the spacecraft ahead of its departure and undocking planned for 12:05 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Toward the end of their shift, they removed portable science freezers containing research samples from station EXPRESS racks and installed them inside Dragon.
my only comment: Why do the lady astronauts let their hair be long and float around? The lose hairs could clog the filters and spread germs. That is why we wore caps in the operating rooms...
OR did it? James Roguski notes this was a partial agreement that they will sign it next year, but is being pushed to make people think it was passed.James Roguski has more here:
The “Pandemic Agreement” has NOT been finalized.
Instead, the WHO has engaged in a theatrical reframing of their failure to truly conclude the negotiations in order to make it look like success.
In a highly unusual step under international law, the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA78) decided to “adopt” the Pandemic Agreement in two parts. Negotiations will continue for an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) System, under Article 12 of the Agreement.
Since the PABS Annex is considered as the integral part of the Pandemic Agreement, States will NOT BE ABLE TO sign the agreement until after conclusion of the negotiations of the Annex and its adoption in the next World Health Assembly.
This should be good news, except that the WHO didn't do their job very well with Covid.
the kerfuffle if Biden knew he had prostate cancer ignores the fact that people with prostate cancer often live for years with it, or can be cured. Mayor Guilliani comes to mind.
There are reasons that the president might conceal such a diagnosis from the public who might in their ignorance think having cancer is the same as being incompetent, and of course allowing his political enemies to use the diagnosis to harm his policies and the nation.
Grover Cleveland comes to mind:
////
notice he lost his first reelection due to the electoral college? Nothing new under the sun.
But he was seen as the one who could reform the country from the powerful who were corrupting the country. So he won the next election.
So why the big argument now if Biden knew he had cancer?
I suspect it is to silence the real question: if President Biden was incompetent and others were running the country.
This was considered a conspiracy theory until Tapper decided to become a whistleblower and release a book documenting President Biden's cognitive disability at times, and also admitting a lot of people were lying about it, or conveniently not seeing what was going on.
and this too has a historical precedent:
......
and some of us are old enough to remember when Eisenhower had a heart attack from which he recovered nicely, but more seriously, in 1957 he had a minor stroke....
The statement emphasized that Eisenhower's ...Vice President Nixon expressed confidence that the president "is fully capable of making" any major decision, although he stated that he didn't expect any major decisions to come up within "the next few days." He made his statement after speaking with Attorney General William P. Rogers, following the latter's conference with White House physicians.
Sections 3 and 4 deal with scenarios where the president may suffer an “inability” or a “disability.”
Starting with George Washington, who had a serious health scare as president, there have been numerous situations where the chief executive may have been “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” For example, Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland had serious health problems while in office before the 25th Amendment went into effect. James Garfield was incapacitated for months after he was shot by an assassin and later died in office. Franklin Pierce, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower also dealt with health issues.
and since that time, President Reagan (after being shot), President Bush (while under anesthesia) and President Trump (When hospitalized with covid) were temporarily unable to work as president, but this was not invoked.
In such cases, the 25th Amendment’s Section 3 allows the president to notify Congress that he has designated the vice president to act as president until the president is able to resume work. This has happened briefly in three instances in modern times when Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush notified Congress before they went under general anesthesia for medical procedures.
so how does this affect President Biden?
One suspects he would have resigned if it was put to him bluntly that his health made him incompetent (as was done after the debates and a health scare in Los Vegas, where Democrats pressured him not to run for reelection).
But the procedure to remove a president is more complicated:
Section 4 is the most controversial part of the 25th Amendment: It allows the vice president and either the Cabinet or a body approved “by law” formed by Congress, to jointly agree that “the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
In theory, this clause was designed to deal with a situation where an incapacitated president couldn’t tell Congress that the vice president needed to act as president. Senator Birch Bayh, who played a critical role in championing the 25th Amendment, explained Section 4 was designed to deal with “an impairment of the President’s faculties, meaning that he is unable either to make or communicate his decisions as to his own competency to execute the powers and duties of his office.”
but this part might explain why the 25th amendment was not invoked: President Biden, and/or those who actually were helping him run the country would have fought such a move, and it would have been messy.
Section 4 also allows the president to protest such a decision, and for two-thirds of Congress to decide in the end if the president is unable to serve due to a condition perceived by the vice president, and either the Cabinet or a body approved by Congress.
so if that was done, one suspects there would have been a fight over the removal of the president against his will and the will of his party.
Of course, if the politicians were honest and more worried about the state of the country rather than politics, they would have arranged Biden to resign, but as I have pointed out earlier, when the only Democrat who was willing to go on record in the NYT editorial that he should not run for reelection was an actor, George Clooney, not an elected official or someone working for the Democratic party, it makes the coverup of Biden's incapacity even more serious.
And that, not the fact that President Biden had cancer is what should be discussed.
Sargent Schultz call your office. Lots of people agree with you:
The new pope is recognizing the voices of the ordinary people outside the affluent west.
So this is good news:
We Filipinos were hoping for our singing Cardinal Tagle to become Pope, but the fact that Pope Leo is appointing Cardinal Sarah so he can inspired people to pray is good news.
Here in the Philippines, religion is everywhere..., but we have fiestas to celebrate our love of the lord, and we worship him as part of our family feasts, but we have many chapels open for silent prayer, aka Eucharistic adoration chapels.
Sarah has a book about the importance of silently praying and listening to the Lord's voice. His book Silence stresses the need for this in a noisy world where action is stressed and noisy arguments keep us distracted from what is really important.
For Catholics, we meet God in the duties of our daily lives, in serving our family, in charitable works, but also in prayer: not just in fiestas and charismatic praise but in the quiet of daily prayer and in silent prayer including at the chapel that is kept open for prayers
In the past, the entire church was kept open, but with crime, most churches are locked but they keep a small side room open for people to pray.
in a world that despises the weak, Andrew Wyeth commemorated a woman who lived her life despite her weakness. Ah but do you know the story behind the picture?
The woman in the painting is Anna Christina Olson (May 3, 1893 – January 27, 1968). Anna had a degenerative muscular disorder, possibly polio or Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, which left her unable to walk.[1] She was firmly against using a wheelchair, so would crawl everywhere. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when he saw her crawling across a field while he was watching from a window in the house
The Dept of Defense funded a grant to Ecohealth to put up labs to investigate germs in wild animals. A sharp eyed leftist in the government saw this was funded by the DoD not the HHS, and got it stopped/
But I check there periodically, but the today the grant money was no longer there, and it said the grant was finished: I presume it reached it's terminal time but maybe it was because it was used?
The EcoHealth Alliance grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for work in the Philippines, specifically aimed at "reducing the threat of viral spillover from wildlife," was awarded in December 2022 with a value of $3 million. According to information from USAspending.gov, this grant was set to run through 2025. However, there is no definitive evidence in the provided references confirming whether this specific grant remains active or has been terminated as of May 18, 2025.
Lots of stuff at that site but it's written in legalese and I am too senile to understand... but it looks like this project was terminated, but other programs are still going on.
why is this important? I give you the questions by Dr Rand Paul to the RFK Jr.
Pope Leo XIV affirms family is based on union between a man and a woman, unborn has inherent dignity
well well well.
The question is: Why should this be a headline? Isn't the Pope Catholic?
the article then questioned about how in the past he condemned the sexual ethic pushed by the media and although in the past he claimed irregular sexual practices outside of marriage were wrong, that all are welcome in the church.
This type of comment assumes that Catholic churches are similar to Protestant churches, where you have to join the church and be perfect or they will throw you out.
No one checks you at the door of a Catholic church, or stops you if you want to visit and pray quietly, or want to attend a mass. We know adulterers, crooked politicians, drug users, and gays are among the worshipers, but hey, they are family.
But the priest might not give you communion if you openly proclaim you support sin, and here in the Philippines, they might ask you to coverup if you dress immodestly.
Is it me, or has suddenly things are improving: Is the tide turning back against the activists pushing woke issues? (the media, the entertainment industry and those NGOs who got US Tax money to do this)?
https://youtu.be/Emq2YbekHMY?si=TeCDOGZTGUxatXIf
Trumpieboy is making peace in the Middle East by telling the Arabs to return to their long tradition of trade not war.
Then I read reports are that young men are returning to church,
so is the culture is reverting to tradition?
Don't ask me: I live in the Philippines, and the elite here are still parroting the woke line, but the ordinary folk just ignore them and worry more about buying rice than these things.
So I asked Grok what would happen if there was a major earthquake
The Manila Trench, west of Luzon, Philippines, is a major subduction zone where the Sunda Plate subducts beneath the Philippine Mobile Belt. Earthquakes along this trench can generate tsunamis, potentially causing significant damage to Luzon’s coastal areas, including Metro Manila.
=......Studies suggest that a large earthquake (magnitude 8.5–9.2) along the Manila Trench could produce tsunamis with waves up to **10 meters** high, impacting over **800 kilometers** of Luzon’s western coastline, including Metro Manila.... ...
In December 2024, PHIVOLCS warned that a magnitude 8.4 earthquake in the trench near Ilocos Sur could produce waves up to **14.7 meters**, reaching northern Luzon’s coast in as little as **2 minutes**.
**Metro Manila**: Low-lying coastal cities like Valenzuela, Navotas, Malabon, Manila, Pasay, Las Piñas, and Parañaque are highly vulnerable to flooding from tsunami waves. The Pasig River could channel waves inland, potentially flooding areas like Malacañang Palace and the Pandacan fuel depot....
**Western Luzon**: Provinces such as Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Zambales, and Bataan face significant risk due to their proximity to the trench.
**Other Regions**: Tsunamis could also affect countries around the South China Sea, including Taiwan, southern China, Vietnam, and Malaysia, though Luzon would bear the brunt.,,,
*Historical Context**:
- Tsunamis in the Philippines are rare but devastating. The 1994 Mindoro tsunami (magnitude 7.1) caused 38 deaths with waves up to **8.5 meters**. The 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami (magnitude 8.1) killed around **8,000 people** with **9-meter waves**, though it was caused by the Cotabato Trench.[],,, -
No major tsunamis from the Manila Trench have been recorded in recent history, but geological evidence suggests past basin-wide tsunami events, possibly from a magnitude 9.0+ earthquake with a rupture up to **1,000 km** long. (https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/19/1565/2019/)
###
Vulnerability Factors
- **Population Density**: Metro Manila’s high population and urban density increase the risk of casualties and economic loss.
-
**Low-Lying Areas**: Many coastal areas have elevations below 4 meters, making them prone to flooding....
**Infrastructure**: Poorly built structures and soft sediment in areas like Pampanga amplify damage from ground shaking and tsunamis.[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Luzon_earthquake)
-
**Proximity to Trench**: The Manila Trench is only ~100–200 km from Luzon’s coast, leaving little time for evacuation....
Recent Events
- On **January 20, 2025**, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck offshore between Mindoro and Luzon, felt in Metro Manila, but caused **no significant damage** or tsunami. This event highlights the region’s seismic activity but was too small to generate a tsunami.[]....
Conclusion
A major Manila Trench earthquake could trigger a catastrophic tsunami, with waves up to 10–14.7 meters flooding Luzon’s western coast, particularly Metro Manila and northern provinces. Damage could range from hundreds of destroyed buildings and casualties in a moderate scenario to widespread devastation in a worst-case magnitude 9.0+ event. While no such tsunami has occurred recently, the region’s tectonic setting and historical evidence underscore the need for preparedness. For more details on tsunami risks, visit [PHIVOLCS](https://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Trench)
a lot of the damage in the recent Burma earthquake was from shoddy workmanship and substandard rebars and concrete.
We are required to reinforce all our construction with rebars, so if the concrete shatters, the metal rods will keep the blocks in place. But with corruption, there is no guarantee that all the buildings will have proper construction and of course in a major earthquake, or with a major tsunami, buildings could collapse or be flooded.
one of the scandals in the recent Burmese earthquake was a new building that collapsed due to shoddy materials, and they are blaming the Chinese company that did the construction.
I can believe it. Ten years ago, the mayor covered our drainage ditches with concrete plates, and they are all deteriorating/crumbling, and in two areas heavy trucks have collapsed into the drainage ditches because the coverings gave way, and had to be towed out.
So anyway, China is still destroying the sea beds in the West Philippine sea and presumably is using their wonderful tofu concrete to do so. So what would happen if the Manila plate off the west coast had an earthquake?
I asked Grok and they said the islands would probably survive the shaking but not the secondary tsunami.
Full answer below:
would an earthquake here destroy China's artificial islands in the west Philippine sea? Grok answers:
An earthquake along the Manila Trench could potentially impact China's artificial islands in the South China Sea, but whether it would "destroy" them depends on several factors, including the earthquake's magnitude, depth, location, and the structural integrity of the islands....
in other words, good construction might survive, but maybe not tofu buildings.
... Manila Trench and Earthquake Potential
The Manila Trench is an active subduction zone west of the Philippines, where the Sunda Plate subducts beneath the Philippine Mobile Belt. It is capable of generating significant earthquakes, with studies suggesting potential magnitudes ranging from Mw 8.5 to Mw 9.2, and in extreme scenarios, up to Mw 9.35. Such events could trigger tsunamis, which pose a greater threat to low-lying artificial islands than the earthquake's ground shaking alone, given the distance between the trench and the islands.
China's Artificial Islands
China has constructed artificial islands in the South China Sea, primarily in the Spratly and Paracel Islands, by dredging and reclaiming land on coral reefs. These islands, such as Mischief Reef, Subi Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef, host military infrastructure, including airstrips, radar stations, and missile emplacements.
They are built on shallow reefs, making them vulnerable to sea-level changes, erosion, and extreme oceanic events like tsunamis.
The islands cover approximately 3,200 acres across seven Spratly features, created between 2013 and 2017.
Potential Impact of an Earthquake
Ground Shaking: The artificial islands are located hundreds of kilometers from the Manila Trench (e.g., Mischief Reef is roughly 200 nautical miles west of Manila). At this distance, the ground shaking from even a large earthquake (e.g., Mw 9.0) would likely be attenuated, causing minimal direct structural damage to the islands. However, the loose, unconsolidated sediment used in reclamation could amplify local shaking or lead to liquefaction, potentially destabilizing structures.
Liquification is where tremors cause clay beneath the buildings to liquify, and was a major problem in the Japanese 1995 Kobe earthquake.
Tsunami Risk: The greater threat comes from a potential tsunami triggered by a megathrust earthquake. Studies indicate that a Mw 9.0+ earthquake along the Manila Trench could generate tsunami waves up to 10 meters high, impacting coastlines and islands in the South China Sea, including the Spratlys. ...
Inundation: A tsunami could flood the artificial islands, damaging infrastructure like runways, barracks, and radar installations...
Historical Precedent: Geological evidence from ~1000 years ago (circa 1000–1064 CE) indicates a basin-wide tsunami in the South China Sea, likely caused by a Manila Trench megathrust event, with deposits found on islands like the Xisha (Paracel) and Badoc. This suggests that the Spratly Islands could also be affected.
Structural Vulnerabilities: The artificial islands are built on reclaimed coral reefs, which lack the geological stability of natural landmasses. The unconsolidated sediment and shallow foundations make them susceptible to erosion, subsidence, and wave damage.
Environmentalists have noted that dredging has already damaged coral ecosystems, potentially weakening the islands' natural barriers against waves. A tsunami could exacerbate this, washing away loose material and undermining structures....
and the ones who should have invoked the constitutional amendment to remove an incapacitated president remained silent: and it was George Clooney, not a Democratic party leader, who saw how the debate exposed Biden's incompetence, and who ended up writing the editorial saying Biden shouldn't run because of his mental problems.
And Clooney took a lot of flack for it
But the question is why didn't Pelosi or Shumer or Kamela or Clinton do this? Instead the establishment and press gaslighted the public about what was going on.
And we still don't know if Jill Biden or Obama minions were the one running the country
But you know this wasn't the only cover up of incompetence.
Why was the incompetence and problems of Pope Francis covered up?
They breathed not a word about the man, who subjected the Catholic Church to 12 years of brutal tyranny, blatant material heresy, vindictive psychopathy, and rampant predator protection. Only now, the truth emerges from his collaborators that Bergoglio is safely and securely entombed.
,,,Deep censorship existed in the religious and secular media outlets about the widespread unpopularity and instability of Jorge Bergoglio. Those of us who criticized his bizarre actions and troubling statements were branded as fringe outcasts, unmerciful and uncharitable malcontents. Some were even excommunicated-daring to speak the truth about the reality of Bergoglio...
Yup. And now we will be gaslighted as if this never happened.
As for the new Pope, Yore's article quotes Bishop Ganswein:
Now a new phase opens. I sense some widespread relief. The season of arbitrariness is over. We can begin to rely on a papacy that can guarantee stability and rely on existing structures, without overturning and upsetting them.”
So it is a full court press of loving this new pope except for the radical trads who hate everyone to the left of Pius IX
But maybe there is hope: the modern Jeremiah, Ann Barnhardt, has some questions but she admits that her grassroots sources in Rome say that the average cynical easy going Roman citizens are happy with this pope and happy to see the end of Pope Francis being in charge.
And that is good news for the church.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest,
Thou hast permitted Pope Leo XIV to ascend the Chair of Peter at a time of great confusion and suffering for Thy flock.
We place him into Thy Sacred Heart, praying that he may be conformed ever more deeply to Thee, governed not by the… pic.twitter.com/3ouseVaK1D
— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) May 11, 2025
So only Trumpieboy can make nice with the ex terrorists who are running Syria (and maybe make peace in exchange for a Trump Tower?
Devloping..
I will say this:
For all my criticisms of Trump this week, if there is ONE man who can somehow make Syria change from a pariah regime to a functioning country, it's him.
I really want to be hopeful this is the start of something new. Not holding my breath, but still. pic.twitter.com/CntE37uDIj
RFK Jr wants to ban herbicides, which some think are associated with health problems.
The problem? herbicides increase the ability to grow cheap abundant food... so if this is done, the result will not be just healthier food but starvation of people who can't afford to buy food.
We grow organic rice, so my idea is to encourage organic food for the growing middle class, while allowing cheap chemical grown food for the poor people who prefer to take the risk of disease at age 70 than dying of infection from malnutirtion at age 30 or their kids dying at age three.
This is what we do in the Philippines, where the government encourages organic farming but allows the import of cheap rice to keep the price down (subsidized rice for the poor is 20 peso/kg, but regular rice is 60 peso/kg).
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Lots of stuff out there saying there is a link between "the vaccine" and infertility.
But my question: Is this only with the mRNA vaccines? The vaccines that used older technologies like the AZ and Sputnik vaccine? How about the Sinovax (that didn't work very well) that used traditional vaccine techology?
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Trumpieboy allowing the white South African farmers to enter the USA as refugees is being spun in many ways.
However, the Zulus who run that government entered South Africa about the same time as the ancestors of the Boers. And as Zimbabwe showed, the result will be economic collapse.
Not mentioned: Is this revenge against the Boers, or are they going to revenge against the other white tribe (i.e. those who entered the country in the last 150 years from the UK)? How about revenge against the descendents of the Indian immigrants who run most of the low end stores etc? What about against the non Zulu Tribes?
I have an African blog so will probably look into this later today.
However, by making the Boer refugees legal, it is showing the racism of both sides of the immigration kerfuffle.
If the Boers are in danger, well, so are the Haitians and Afghans and Somalis (but not the Venezuelans, who can flee to other countries nearby like Brazil and Colombia).
But when the refugee loving NGOs refuse to help resettle them it shows their prejudice too.
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are all vote counting machines problematic? The Philippines got rid of their Smartmatic machines due to problems but now are having problems with the Korean built Miru machines.
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The same reporters who insisted that Biden had no mental deterioration are now selling books about how they were fooled by his staff. DUH.
the irony? If Biden had said he would not run for reelection, there would have been a primary held to chose the next candidate, and Kamela Harris (or maybe Hillary) might have gotten the nomination and then won the election.
Sigh.
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the tariff war with China is a big story but since I have no expertise I will just leave the discussion to others.
The outcome of the tariff war between the U.S. and China, I agree, will define this era. That means we had better win it. https://t.co/9dSUpe7rMD
both sides ae claiming to win, but both sides suffered loses too... and the ceasefire is fragile.
But this part caught my eye:
Then, as the world braced for total war between the nuclear-armed neighbours, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, which he claimed had been mediated by the United States.
Pakistan express gratitude to the US, even as India insisted the decision to halt fighting was made solely by the two neighbours without any third-party intervention.
....On Monday, senior military officials in India and Pakistan spoke by phone, pledging to uphold the ceasefire in the coming days.
Dr Angie and the family were over at his house celebrating last night...the opposition was the family whose late mayor was behind the hit that killed our nephew, and who were behind the hit that tried to kill the next mayor on the way home from our nephew's funeral several years later.
the clans run the place, so when the murderous mayor couldn't run, he ran his daughter, and the opposition won, but when he went to Congress, his sister is running the place now.
The idea is that even if they are incompetent, their relatives will help them run the place.
As I said: Politics here is a blood sport, and our province is known as the wild west of the Philippines (not as bad as the Muslim areas, but violence alas is still part of the system).
I think I wrote about this incident before but it gives you an idea of how things work.
After our nephew and the family of the opposing candidate was shot, that mayor won the election, so during the fiesta he sat in the front of church during the fiesta mass, which was said by the local bishop.
Here, they collect money but the custom is that larger amounts be put in an envelope and taken to the front of the church to put the offering in the basket there ...
so when our cousin Chona was taking up her offering, she had to pass the mayor behind the murder of her brother, and it was too much for her (she lives in Chicago after all)...so in passing the mayor she shook her fist at him and said "You, YOU!"
The bishop must have noticed because he held a mass and had all the local politicians come and pledge they would do no violence during the election cycle.
And voila, no violence: the next shooting was a few days after the election.
It took ten years to get the mayor indicted for murder, but he died before trial, and of course he had a full Catholic funeral including a KofC bodyguard.
So anyway, the streets were quiet when I went to the bank: Just a regular level of security.
Pope Leo XIV appeals for 'no more war' in first Sunday message,,,Tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square and on the Via della Conciliazione leading to the Vatican broke into applause at the call for peace on what was a joyous occasion despite Leo's solemn message
yup. Reminds me of this:
.... one of the things Pope Francis did that annoyed the Trads was his outreach to moderate Muslim leaders. Trumpiboy is doing the same thing with his Abraham accords, including his recent moves to delink American policy from the aggressive Israeli war e.g. telling the Houthis he wouldn't bomb them since they agreed not to bomb ships... (alas they bombed Israel instead, and whoops: FAFO...)
So Gracie is right: You need law and order to stop the bad guys before you pretend wishing for world peace will work.
LOOK: Regular voting hours have begun. Sen. Koko Pimentel, who is running to be Marikina City 1st District representative, has just cast his vote at the Leodegario Victorino Elementary School. #VotePH2025 | @jasonsigalesINQ
the voting is the midterm election, meaning we are voting for the mayor and local officials.
Joy went to her parent's farm's area to vote, and Kuya will go to our farm's location to vote also. Both had registered before they married and moved into Lolo's house in the main town (which is now the business compound plus house). Myself, as a US citizen I cannot vote, but will stay off the streets since sometimes fights break out.
The maid said there was a lot of security in town, including army patrols.
Kuya said there was a lot of illegal vote buying, the price was money plus rice. The maid, who is involved with the political group Gabriela, denied the money part, but admitted that a sack of rice was being given out by some politicians, but that you had to be careful in toting it home because of all the security.
I am homebound so can't confirm any of these rumors.
I was happy at the election of a missionary from Peru as the next pope until I watched a video from a liberal catholic newspaper where the priest being interviewed gushed about how quickly he was elected by a bunch of Cardinals who didn't know much about him, implying the speed of his election was due to the Holy Spirit.
And I immediately thought: Holy Spirit? or manipulation by the modernists similar to how they pressured Benedict to resign and got in Pope Francis?
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then I was reading about the India Pakistan mini war, and saw that defense sites were watching it closely to see how the modern weapons worked, especially Chinese vs western weapons.
So was someone manipulating India to respond forcefully?
In the days when the self proclaimed liturgists were pushing poorly written hymns on the American church, I used to have a criteria if a hymn was good: If you heard the drunks singing it on the way home from the bar, it was a good hymn.
so can anyone sing along with this music if they were drunk? How about if they were sober?
But the elites who push bad art, bad architecture, and badly written books on you are giving this lady a Pulitzer prize.
And since she is a FilAm, it is being lauded in our local news papers.
here is a video from a few years ago about her music:
So why did she get the Pulitzer prize for this atonal music with no melody, and no rhythm, sort of like a poor imitation of Stravinski (i.e. not original) that no one except the elitist can or world listen to?
The explanation under the YOUTUBE video explains:
June 17, 2021 — Asia Society Triennial artist, composer, and percussionist Susie Ibarra's Fragility Etudes are studies into a world of sound that reflect humanity's interdependence and mutual existence alongside the natural environment. Ibarra’s dynamic score explores this interconnectedness through polyrhythms and concepts from the physics of glass.
Whatever.
but can anyone listen to it?
compare and contrast: the hot hits here:
Yes I know: I am a Philistine, and actually prefer Glen Miller to the Red hot chili peppers.
« God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail ! We are all in God's hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward. » pic.twitter.com/AkHijYfYdK
the new Pope is a Chicago guy who worked in Peru as a missionary (and I believe is a citizen of that country).
Being an ex missionary, this means a lot of the culture war stuff will not work.
In Peru, the Shining path rebels killed a lot of innocent peasants, so maybe liberation theology might not be popular. On the other hand, seeing corruption, atrocities by both the insurgents and the government military, including government overreach of arrests, and the wide gulf between the rich and the poor makes one a bit less sympathetic to Trumpieboy's push for big business and his plan to deport a lot of people who are just wanting to live in a peaceful land and work hard to support their families.
sigh.
But the really important question for Yanks is: Is the new Pope a Cubs fan?
Yes, Pope Leo XIV, previously Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is reportedly a Chicago Cubs fan. Born in Chicago, his support for the Cubs has been noted by sources like ABC News and has sparked enthusiastic reactions among fans on social media.
But according to USATODAY, his brother claims he is a WhiteSox fan.
Historically, food has presented a potential risk: a cardinal's ravioli might be stuffed with an illicit message from the kitchen staff; or a cardinal could sneak a vote update to the outside world with a dirty napkin.
....The code of conclave secrecy goes back to 1274, when Pope Gregory X established the regulations that still partly dictate how papal elections are run today. As with the coronation of many popes, his was controversial. It also had the distinction of being by far the longest, taking almost three years (1268-1271) to reach the majority consensus required to appoint a new pope. According to Italian canonist Henricus de Segusio, who served in that conclave, local residents threatened to restrict the cardinals' food to hasten a resolution.
....
Gambero Rosso has an article discussing the actual menu of what will be eaten.
The Conclave menu is based on a simple but essential principle: provide energy without heaviness, as advised by nutritionist Giorgio Calabrese to Adnkronos. It’s a formula not far removed from the meals typically served in the Santa Marta canteen—when the residence functions as a simple guesthouse—with dishes expected to be replicated for this occasion. The aim is clear: to ensure a strict and balanced diet, capable of sustaining a body and mind engaged in a crucial task, while fully respecting individual dietary needs and medical conditions such as diabetes, common among the 133 cardinals present....Pasta or rice with light sauces, white meat, oven-baked fish, seasonal vegetables directly from the Vatican gardens, salads, and fresh fruit. This is the selection for the main meal— foods that are minimally processed but rich in vitamins and minerals.
Robert Royal, best known as a commenter in EWTN's Papal Posse, on the Catholic Thing discusses the idea that everything is falling apart, and the worry that many Catholic have right now that the anti Pope faction will take over the church at the next conclave and make the church into an NGO to serve the NWO/Reset of the puppet masters and destroy the holiness aspect of the church, morphing it into activism as the reason to be.
note: I am an ex missionary and support this activism, but it ignores that people serve God in the mundane duties of their daily lives and that all of us, even those who work in the trenches need the nourishment of God's grace.
By making the church into a mere NGO to do good stuff results in a church that starves the soul by removing the sacraments and idea of holiness that give us the strength to do this work in the face of seeing hardships and tragedies every day
It is like removing sex out of marriage: Yes, marriage needs work and cooperation, but without the spark of love, it is a barren thing without roots.
This futurechurch was (ironically) foretold in Brian Moore's TV film Catholics where the liberation theology priest has orders to shut down a small monastery celebrating the Latin mass.
Wikipedia summary. Hmm... sounds like what Francis was tiptoeing and letting his minions do but not quite destroying the church. But lots of believing Catholics worry that the next Pope will not be so timid...
But then Royal reminds us:
Because freedom with fidelity, justice tempered by mercy, and above all truth may seem to have perished under the cold snows of sin and evil, but they never die. They’re at worst in hibernation until circumstances and our efforts enable them to put forth green shoots and produce their proper fruits once again.
If we truly believe that the Lord of Creation is also the Lord of History – a sacred history that the world does not acknowledge but has, nevertheless changed everything – then the current crisis takes on a different appearance....*(it is) the spirit of hope we must maintain in the coming days – a supreme confidence in the seed beneath the snow – and let Divine Providence take care of the rest.
this reminded me of this scene that was not included in the final cut of the Hobbit: and ironically is not in Tolkien but is pure Peter Jackson: That the acorn carried by Bilbo is a sign of hope for the future.
but it is, of course, an example of Tolkien's theme of hope: not the hope of short term success, but the hope that in the long run good will prevail. As this Tolkienology essay insists:
Estel... is hope without evidence. It’s rooted not in optimism, but in trust—trust in the goodness that is deeper than the shadow.
Estel says, even if everything fails, I still believe there is meaning. I still choose to walk....
Estel does not mean “I know it will get better.”
It means: I will walk anyway.
Even here.
Even now.
Even in the ruins.
This is not about ignoring the darkness.
It’s about refusing to let it define you.
