Zimbabwe: not quite a coup

The situation in Zimbabwe is vague: the army essentially took over, but denied a coup.

But the backstory seems to be that as the beloved tyrant President Mugabe deteriorated with age, his ambitious wife was planning to take his place.

But unlike Mugabe, who was a revolutionary leader, she was disliked and even has been heckled in public.

So the army, after talking it over with China, who has propped up the reime (after the west imposed sanctions) they okayed the takeover by the army, knowing that if the wife took over there could be civil war.

MOre at my Mugabe Blog.

I always thought the western sanctions were hypocritical. The "white" farms were confiscated, so the Brits got angry and posted sanctions. But I remember when tribal Africans were moved off the farm under the white regime, so that whites could settle in the good farming areas.

After Mugabe took over, many of the white farms abandoned in the war were given to locals under land reform.

But the problem started as the regime descended into corruption, and the remaining farms were confiscated and given to his cronies, who didn't know how to run them. then everything snowballed as foreign investors pulled out knowing they would have to give control of their businesses and mines to locals.

as the economy collapsed, the educated emigrated to other countries, especially South Africa, and Mugabe trained his "green bomber" youth groups to terrorize locals, while using "slum clearance" as an excuse to tear down the houses and businesses of townships that voted against him.
and China stepped in, with long term plans to grab the valuable farm lands and mining rights.

Since then,  (i.e. about the time I moved here to the Philippines) I haven't followed the story, but things did settle down.

The Mashona tend to be pacifistic, and this helps.

but as the local proverb reminds one: Even a small snake has a tooth.

So one hopes things will remain peaceful.

headlines below the fold (that the press is ignoring)

Spengler discusses the "coup" in Saudi, and what it means.

The second big issue is Saudi Arabia, which competed with Iran for decades as the biggest funder of terrorists and religious extremists. After Trump's March 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia, where he read the riot act to assembled Arab leaders, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince has centralized control of the government and seized hundreds of billions of dollars of royal family assets.

The $800 billion of royal family wealth targeted is larger than the national reserves of the kingdom. As I wrote in Asia Times last week, Saudi Arabia has gotten its first real government, as opposed to the family regime that allowed every crazy cousin to write checks to terrorists.

Of course, the kingdom well might get its second, third and fourth real government in short order if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fails. But the de facto coup is a huge blow to Sunni jihadism and a victory for American policy.

most of the comments are anti Israel trolls, but the part about stopping money going to terrorists by rich Saudis is good news for the rest of the world. The problem? They donate to "charities" that do good deeds, including funding schools etc. but often these charities are fronts that support clergy and madrasses that are essentially terrorist recruiting schools.

related item: Austin Bay's take on what is going on. Iran is spinning their attack on Saudi via their minions in Yemen the same way that Iranian supported Hezbollah spins the news on Israel.

Here's the bottom line media ploy and political gambit: "I can shoot at you but you can't prove I did it so if you counter-attack you're the aggressor."
Childish? Welcome to the UN and the world of CNN.

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and the good news for US Catholics? The bishops supported the Christian bishop, not the liberal one.

this has made the usual suspects cry that they are giving the finger to Pope Francis. Well, no. But they are saying that killing babies (and now in some areas, grandmom) is a bit more important than voting for Democrats and saving mother earth by turning off your air conditioning and walking a couple miles in six inches of snow to buy your organic food.

he quotes a First Things  article that noted: as the middle class slide into hedonism, the church will too.

well, maybe the despicables in the US have a couple of bishops who noticed they exist, so maybe this is indeed a "headsup" to the Pope. But don't hold your breath... the pope is busy appointing bishops from the "who am I to judge" part of the church, and the left control the bureaucracy...

and all we have is our rosaries to stop them. Sigh.

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my son reports that Colombia has really improved in recent years.

SP report here notes the same, but also notes that FARC is now taking off their communist mask to reveal they are actually drug cartels supporters wanting money. And the ex leader of FARC will run for president, promising to turn Colombia into a communist paradise similar to Venezuela.

The bad news? Venezuela just defaulted on it's loans and even Russia and China are worried.
 lots of details on that country in the post.

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Xi just became the new Emperor of China.

this report ordering Christians to replace pictures of Jesus with photos of Xi has ominous overtones.

the former archbishop of Hong Kong is worried that the Vatican is pushing to allow the Catholics there be under Xi's control (i.e. to forcibly merge the independent underground illegal church with the "official catholic" church there).

SP reports on Chinese corruption that is the back story of his power grab.

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in the Philippines, President Obama's ban on rifles because Duterte was going after the drug gangs is a gift that keeps on giving for China.

The Manila Bulletin reports a Chinese rifle shot the head of the bad guys in the fight in the south, and now we signed 14 agreements for economic development with them.

true, Duterte has long been leery of America, ever since the CIA got a major criminal out of his jail in Davao, but Obama and his ambassador who had a reputation for political meddling didn't help.

and here is an article about a possible ASEAN trade deal with Russia.

but Trump made a lot of deals too.

 But don't try to find the details, since the press is too busy posting he took a drink of water during his press conference.

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Army coup in Zimbabwe? Mugabe under house arrest? Developing...

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as for US politics: Any man who ever made a move on one of his dates or who gave the "touchy feely" hug of the 1970s to a woman is now guilty of sexual harassment.

The return of Victorian Vapors.

ChickFlick of the week

The classic story of Anne Boleyn:

Lectures of the week

  quick before the copyright cops find it's there... MichaelDrout is an excellent teacher.

You dirty rat

according to Physorg, the brown rat originated in SE Asia and spread theoughout the world via ships.

https://nhm.org/nature/blog/black-rats-brown-rats-and-plague

there are six lineages of black rat, however and they also probably came from Asia, and are most famous for being the rodent behind the spread of the black death:

“Black Rats are carriers of many different human diseases, including plague, typhus and leptospirosis,” says CSIRO mammal expert Dr Ken Aplin, lead author of the study.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2008-02-globetrotting-black-rat-genes-reveal.html#jCp

some attribute the decrease in plague in Europe to the fact that they discplaced the plague carrying black rat... but Wikipedia isn't sure.

The original carrier for the plague-infected fleas thought to be responsible for the Black Death was the black rat, and it has been hypothesized that the displacement of black rats by brown rats led to the decline of bubonic plague.^[85] This theory has, however, been deprecated, as the dates of these displacements do not match the increases and decreases in plague outbreaks.^[86]

but you can catch other diseases from them: again, Wikipedia.

brown rats may carry a number of pathogens,^[76] which can result in disease, including Weil's disease, rat bite fever, cryptosporidiosis, viral hemorrhagic fever, Q fever and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.  

Weil's disease is also called leptospirosis, and is a major problem here in the Philippines after flooding. People wade through shallow water, but the spirochete can enter through wounds in the skin.

it is treatable with antibiotics, but often in times of major flooding, folks don't get around to getting treatment in time: so the gov't puts out reminders about seeing a clinic or doc if you get a fever.

Musical interlude of the day

LOTR prequel?

Amazon prime says they will release a LOTR prequel.

will draw on “previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings,” set at some point or points preceding The Fellowship of the Ring. Whatever the product turns out to be — Young Isildur, The Good Gandalf, This Is Eru — has already received a multiseason commitment with an option for a potential spinoff. The move is consistent with Amazon’s new and not very nuanced scripted strategy, which — as described in September by since-disgraced and -resigned Amazon Studios head Roy Price — consists of landing the next Game of Thrones, in accordance with Jeff Bezos’s belief that “it takes big shows to move the needle.” Amazon’s answer to Thrones, we now know, is the even more mega-famous fantasy series that preceded and partially inspired it.

The Tolkien estate apparently okayed it.

more HERE. 

and HERE. TORN cautions it might be the stories of what has already been sold to be films, such as in the appendix of the book, not the Simarillion or Lost Tales.

there are a couple fan film prequels on you tube that are not authorized and boring.

and some films based on Tolkien's life are supposed to be in the works too.

So one hopes this will be true to the Tolkien vision, but also interesting.

the bad news: No Amazon prime here, although they eventually wend their way onto Asian channels

Family news

Joy is still at the ASEAN business summit in Manila (the politicians have moved to the Pampanga meeting). She is aiming for overseas orders. Because of the high price of labour here, we can't under sell other countries but we can sell high end organic rice, and are looking for exports.

I was outside yesterday and was talking to the neighbor who just bought a black labrador who lives down the street. They are trying to train her.

If they breed her, we might ask for a puppy.

While I was outside, someone took a shower in the spare bedroom, which is empty, and left the water on (this shower has hot water, unlike the shower in the staff bathroom). Or maybe someone had turned on the outside valve to water the plants, and didn't realize it was connected to the indoor water, and the shower had been left open which someone had turned on trying to shower, but when no water came, didn't bother to turn it off.

So after coming back, I found the hallway full of water: the room was flooded, and the water running full blast... debris had blocked the drain, flooded the hallway and even into my bedroom,

What a mess.

It is now dry, but the bathroom still has water in it: I will ask the maid to clean it up when she comes, and our handiman to clean out the drainpipe...

in our prayers

An earthquake along the Kurdistan/Iran border area has killed several hundred people in Iran. link2

More HERE. highlights another problem: it is winter, and it gets cold in these higher elevations.

and then there is this.

As aftershocks continue to rattle the country, Iran has shut down one of its main gas plants in the west for safety concerns. "This is another problem," said our correspondent. "This is an area that gets very, very cold at night, so that is going to have an impact on people's heating and their ability to cook food. So, a lot of misery is still to come."

this sounds like they use LPG to cook (as we do here in the Philippines: the alternative is wood, which produces smoke and causes deforestation).

But the problem with heating homes with gas has been an ongoing problem in Iran, which also imports a lot of gas from nearby countries. And is one reason that they are persuing nuclear power to generate electricity.

First they came for my OPM file, and now... NSA hack

NYTimes article.

internal leak, or Russia?

Mr. Snowden released code words, while the Shadow Brokers have released the actual code; if he shared what might be described as battle plans, they have loosed the weapons themselves. Created at huge expense to American taxpayers, those cyberweapons have now been picked up by hackers from North Korea to Russia and shot back at the United States and its allies.

Bet on the press blaming Russia, since that can be politicized to destroy Trump.

but I suspect a lot of the hacks have help by black hat kids who agree that the gov't is snooping too much on the average person, and having fun taking them down.

But my OPM file was hacked supposedly by the Chinese, and no one seemed to get too upset back then.

and 15 years ago, our ancient "MSDOS" preWindows computers at our IHS clinic, with patient information, was hacked, and this essentially shut us down computerwise (however, we still had... hand written records. There are some advantages for being behind the times).

More churchy stuff

Virtue on line about the Anglican problem

read the whole thing, which like a lot of stuff is subtle.
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and it could get messy for Catholics if some still push Jesus' words against the trendier than thou pope:

Long rant on this on my bitch blog.

Quote of the day

from Wisdom From LOTR BLOG

There is much that Sam would like to go home to, the gentle beauty of the Shire, good friends and Rosie Cotton. Sam would like to be married, to build a home and raise a family. Simple and good desires....

The twentieth century philosopher and theologian, Paul Tillich, spoke about the need, in our age of anxiety about meaninglessness, to find a courage to be.

In many ways Frodo is a modern man in search of meaning. His restlessness is growing even before he leaves the Shire and when the Ring goes to the Fire he sees no more purpose to his existence. Sam is, by contrast, a pre-modern man, rooted in a sense of place and a stable society and unafflicted by Frodo’s anxiety...

a couple of posts back I criticized the Pope for acting like the isolated modern man was the only one in the world, and pointed out that a lot of cultures still saw meaning in family and friends and the blessings of ordinary life.

Before Vatican II, most Catholics knew that one could serve God in ordinary life.

This was popular back then as the "little way" of St Therese (since we can't do great deeds, we will do small deeds with love to serve God),

Nor is this idea limited to Catholicism: Luther agreed (insisting one could serve God just as well in the family as in the cloister)...and a Hindu saint told a lady who had come to him saying she no longer believed in God so could not pray, told her that her husband was god, her family was god, i.e. in caring for her family, she was serving God.

This is comforting to me: since I can no longer work as a physician saving lives in poor areas of the world, nevertheless, I can serve God in my daily deeds, which nowadays is mainly feeding the ten feral cats who come here at breakfast time to dine.

Peanut butter post of the day

headsup AnnAltnouse.

Apparently this is "controversial" but makes sense if you have small kids who have trouble spreading peanut butter on their bread, so end up getting it all over themselves, their siblings, the table, the walls, the dog etc.





also for people making lots of sandwiches for a party or outing.

that is why you have "peanut butter and jelly" sold mixed in a jar for you to just spread on the bread.

often Peanut butter is hard if you keep it in the fridge, or you open it and it has separated with oil on top and rock hard on the bottom (so you have to "mix" it first). True, you can buy Skippy or other sugar laden soft brands, but here it is more expensive than the local brands.

and peanut butter has many other uses:




and it's not just for kids and sandwiches: this is a Pampanga recipe

YUM! goat stew!

blame the squirrels

This Medieval CSI suggests an outbreak Leprosy in England during the dark ages might have been because of eating squirrel meat or wearing their pelts.

https://www.logsdirect.co.uk/red-squirrel-donation.html

Apparently, the red squirrel can indeed carry the disease.

In the study, the researchers conducted genetic screening and blood tests on more than 100 red-squirrel cadavers from England, Ireland and Scotland. These red squirrels, of the species Sciurus vulgaris, arefound throughout Eurasia. [6 Strange Facts About Leprosy]

They found that all 25 red squirrels from England's Brownsea Island were infected with the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which is the oldest pathogen associated with leprosy and was responsible for outbreaks of the disease in medieval Europe, according to the findings, published today (Nov. 10) in the journal Science.

of course, in recent years, the red squirrel have been decreasing in number, partly due to habitat loss but mainly being replaced by the imported grey squirrel.

so far there has been no evidence of these grey squirrels carrying the disease.

however, every year a few cases are caught from the lowly armadillo.

Family news

Joy is representing local Agribusiness at the Business summit being held in Manila.

An estimated 1,700 top level executives representing diverse sectors, distinguished thought leaders, champions and leaders from the government, business, academe and research entities from the region, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship mentors and enablers. ABIS expects the ASEAN, its partners, and the world.
The ABIS 2017 three-day conference is designed with movable forum blocks with keynote addresses delivered by State Leaders in between topics. Derivative activities such as plenary workshops, series of informal talks, question-and-answer sessions, facilitated conversations, round tables, and other activities are set to tie in with the summit official agenda.

16 world leaders are planning to attend.

and then he kissed me

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

LINK

The Post also reported that Moore, while in his 30s, had romantic encounters with three other girls - including Deason -- who were all in their teens. According to The Post, Moore provided Deason with Mateus Rose wine while the two were on dates.
Deason said she and Moore dated off and on for several months. Their physical relationship never progressed beyond kissing, she told The Post.

silly me. In my day, we would call this... a date.

in my day, a young man who took a young girl of marriageable age on a date several times would be called... a suitor.

in my day, an young guy who dated a marriage aged girl several times but never did more than give them a kiss would be called... a gentleman.

and in my day, a 16 year old was mature enough to marry (several of my friends married at 16 and 17). And this included friends who married guys in their late 20's and early thirties.

so what's the crime?

there is one serious claim against this bozo was by a woman who claimed she was only 14... but there are holes in her story too, including that she told friends she "was seeing" an older guy (uh, as in a relationship? but again no intercourse) and posting on facebook about being abused by several clergymen.


I remember a story where a lawyer cautioned his younger colleague never to try to smear someone by saying he was a bad man because cheated on his wife, because sure as hell there would be someone on the jury who had cheated on his wife and didn't consider himself a bad guy, and he'd vote to clear the suspect...

Don't expect we ordinary grandmoms who snuck out at 16 to date an older guy (including sipping some forbidden wine at the restaurant) think this is a big crime?

and don't expect Bill Clinton, whose teenaged mom married a 30 plus year old guy, or President Obama, whose teenaged mom married a student in his late 20's, to throw the first stone... especially since in both those cases the relationship went a lot further than a kiss....

CLose the streets: The bigshots are coming

Trump and other world leaders are arriving in Manila for a meeting Sunday and a different meeting in Pampanga on Monday.

Not a lot of details in the news for some reason (security?) But Manila will essentially have all the main roads shut down, and the North Luzon expressway will be closed for a time.

by the way: Such shutdown of roads in Manila happen all the time: sometimes for weather, (Manila floods all the time with heavy rain) sometimes for demonstrations, and sometimes for religious meeting (e.g. the Black Nazarene procession).

The left is getting their demonstrators out as usual. We'll have to see how many come. The leftists are actually nationalists still mad that the USA conquered them stole their country in 1900.

these demonstrations are routine, and people can make ten dollars a day by offering to demonstrate. If enough people are mad, you will see a big crowd. But even here, people will only take the money to demonstrate if they agree with you, so the number of people attending does give you an idea of public opinion.

 (the same thing goes for buying votes: they vote for the highest bidder, figuring they're all crooks, as my husband Lolo used to say. But if they think one person is better, they will only take money from the one they want in office).

But I am surprised that the Democrats abroad hasn't decided we should demonstrate, or maybe I haven't gotten the email yet.

I can go with my "Bernie" sign and my stepson with his MAGA hat.(just joking). No, I won't go in my pussy hat: Sheesh. Hillary is acting like a....spoiled rotten girl having a temper tantrum, not a competent professional. Suck it up, honey...

Duterte met with Putin a day or two ago and announced he will be buying more rifles etc from Russia. Figures. Obama blocked the shipment and this made it hard for the soldiers when Marawi erupted. Better to get decent rifles from Putin, who doesn't care of we kill criminals or jail crooked politicians and won't interfere with our elections like the CIA.

The Pampanga part of Trump's trip will be at the old Clark AirForce base, which is now an international business center. Our lovely ex president Gloria might have been suspected of stealing everything in sight, but she did take care of her home province by building an international airport there, building a decent higway and now putting in high speed rail to there.

and so one report says she will be hosting a supper there for the delegates. She is again in Congress, and is friends with Duterte.


president Aquino is not coming however. He is not friends with Duterte, and he had jailed Arroyo, who is now free... so now he's in trouble with accusations of graft and because of a military raid that was botched under his watch. (and he was considered more honest than usual, but was weak in stopping corruption in the gov't and he mishandled a lot of public emergencies.)

and you thought American politics was full of personal feuds.

but the good news: No typhoons or heavy rain is expected this week.

The Pope wants to save elite yuppies

The Pope thinks everyone in the world sees the world as described in the modern sociological idea of "Liquid modernity":

“Liquid modernity” represents a change from what Bauman called “solid modernity.” Bauman wrote that the “liquid” modern man values individualism over social ties. He “flows through his own life like a tourist, changing places, jobs, spouses, values and even sexual orientation and gender.”

what is wrong with this?

uh, reality?

but my real objection is basic anthropology.

It describes the mindset of the elite culture of the west with rich, independent individuals who live without ties.

It does not describe the culture of the majority of "deplorable" Americans, nor the culture in most non western European societies where you see yourself not as an isolated individual, but as part of a family and community, with ties of love and obligation to others.

"who am I to judge" to the rich independent westerner means if you are rich, you can schtupp all you want to (and don't forget; if the spouse objects, well she is rigid and judgmental. Yup. we had a party upstairs again last night.)

Sigh.

But the few who dare to point out the problem find they are being silenced, not on theological grounds but because they are harming the unity of the church, so shut up.

longer version on my bitchblog.

Science Magic and religion

religion is not magical manipulation of God (or as CS Lewis put it: Aslan is not a tame lion). And western religion is the basis for science, because both claim God is a logical being, and therefore the world can be understood using our own intellect. Indeed, when scientists find out more about the world and God's creation, they are doing a good thing.

This of course never stopped the clueless or those who hate ordinary people from despising them using religion as a club to ridicule them.

(silly me: I though bullying was taboo... guess I'm wrong).

of course, one reason I avoid Facebook is the constant bullying like this on religion: usually using logical errors and ignorance, but never mind.

Why do I write this?





LINK:

Here’s how these new theologians put it. Keith Olbermann: “ ‘Thoughts and prayers’ again, @realdonaldtrump, idiot? These people were in CHURCH. They WERE praying.” Actress Marina Sirtis: “To all those asking for thoughts and prayers for the victims in #churchshooting, it seems that your direct line to God is not working.” Or MSNBC’s Joy Reid: “Remember when Jesus of Nazareth came upon thousands of hungry people, and rather than feeding them, thought and prayed?”

The smugness is illuminating in three important ways. First and most obvious, progressives simply cannot contain their distaste toward symbols and beliefs important to ordinary Americans.

Until Sunday this columnist thought it impossible to match the obtuseness of millionaire athletes showing disrespect for the national anthem and the fans who pay their salaries. But give credit where it’s due: the thoughts-and-prayers police make the NFL protesters look like Gandhis. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-dare-the-gop-pray-for-texas-1510012040

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UCLA has an excellent course on this:



=================

and fo those who want to "imagine there's no heaven... no religion too", one only has to tell them to look at the 2500 year history of a very secular China, with it's numerous bloody civil wars and oppresion of the peasants.

Or they could look closer to home:

Outlander!

attention ladies who like "bodice ripping" historical adventures:

and a bunch of other best selling authors giving talks at the Library of Congress.

Discrimination against immigrants

AlJ has a report on discrimination against immigrants...

a report on the problems of Hondorans in Mexico, written by a Catalan who is making a film about them:

n Mexico, I came into contact with tough realities. I saw how people were discriminated against based on their place of origin, the colour of their skin, their gender, their language, etc. ...

At the same time, I discovered a strong sense of community. Something that made people look after each other as if they were one big family. I met some people who had a great ability to get by and be deeply connected with family, friends, joy and sadness in the face of structural and direct violence.

 they also have this video report from 2014  about the huge surge of underaged children from Central America into the USA under the Obama administration who essentially said: If you come, it's okay with us but only if you are a kid.

They were fleeing gang violence.

The bad news: the gangs came with them.

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Mexico's drug war has killed 18000 so far this year.

and that doesn't include all the American deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids  that they are sending into the US, link2

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unrelated item from Latin America:

Heavy rain in Colombia has caused landslides and floods.

podcast of the week

BBC history podcast discusses the little known history of the 100 thousand Chinese laborers who helped the Allies in World War I.

they did not fight: They were in "support services", i.e. behind the lines.

Wikipedia article here.

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BBC In Our Times discusses the Picts.

They were fierce warriors, but later sort of disappeared to history: The Scots actually are Irish immigrants who moved there in the Dark Ages.

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History According to Bob has a new website.

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Trump's secret weapon and other news from Asia

Trumpie boy has a secret weapon: His granddaughter.

The eldest child of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner started learning Mandarin from her Chinese nanny when she was just 16 months old, according to earlier reports.

another thing that Trump has in common with Asians: His business is run by his extended family, which is a custom here in Asia.

the American students are all taught making money is evil but here in Asia, a smooth operator and deal maker is respected, and so I suspect that culturally he has a lot more in common with China than the NWO types.

I am awaiting more reports on the trip, but I see the MSM is tweeting about Melania's spike heel. Their priorities are showing as usual.

he goes next to VietNam, where he will also meet with Duterte, and will come here in the Philippines later in the month. My stepson says they are already doing plans to shut down the roads for security. Hope we don't have any rice deliveries scheduled, because it willbe a mess.

what will they discuss? Well, narco terrorism is one bit item.

I don't know if the US news notice, but the seige in Marawi was funded by drug money.

Año compared the drug cartel of the Maute brothers inside Marawi City with “Narcos,” an American crime drama web television series about Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The AFP chief came up with the comparison since the Maute brothers were engaged in a “cartel-style” drug operation in the provinces of Lanao and Misamis.

Rappler had a long interview with McMaster about terrorism problems here: LINK

includes a lot of stuff about Trump's moves last year in the middle East:that were about cutting off the supply of "charity" funds to terrorism (did this result in what is going on in Saudi right now? some say it is).

Note: it is called correctly an "Irreligious ideology" behind the violence.Yeah. It's just like all those loving self proclaimed Marxists who ran the drug cartels in Colombia: it was about power and money, not communism or in this case, about Islam.

McMasters puts the whole thing into perspective:

And then, of course, you have this terrible threat of these terrorist organizations who use an irreligious ideology to foment hatred and use that hatred to justify violence against innocent people.

When the President met with leaders of over 50 Muslim majority nations in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia early this year, he emphasized 3 things that he will continue to emphasize when he works with the leadership in the Philippines as well as across the region.

The first of these is, we must deny them safe havens and support bases. The very courageous Philippine soldiers and armed forces in Marawi, they demonstrated the Filipino determination to deny them safe havens and support bases. (

The seond is to cut off financing – their ability to generate funds and mobilize resources.

And the third is to combat their ideology. There are leaders in each of these areas across the Indo-Pacific region. Singapore, for example, is very good at financial actions and helping understand better how to cut off these financial transactions. Malaysia has also taken a lead over the years on countering the ideology. This is an opportunity for the leaders to have discussion around all of these security issues you mentioned. I think what they’ll do is to look at this positively and identify opportunities to improve security across all these areas.

And here, Mc Master mentions the multinational effort to help the Philippines in the liberation of Marawi.

as for the headlines in the MSM that Trump will ignore "human rights", ( because he is not going to imitate President Obama and use the drug war here an excuse to abandon the Philippines), well all I can say is that the "drug war" is more about hitting the crooked businessmen and crooked politicians.

Maute was the cartel leaders in his area, and if the ISIS clones could have pushed an independent state under his fiefdom, then you could see how this could destablize the nearby countries.

But our politicians in the north are mainly just taking bribes and kickbacks, and worried about being shamed in public for doing so.

I say "Shamed" because a person known as a "walang Hiya" is a big thing here, and hey, no one really thinks many of them will ever get put in jail.

The most egregious example? Our lovely ex president's case. She was a classmate of Bill, so voila, George Clooney's wife intervened to get Gloria out of jail:poor dear! her human rights were violated! yup. just ignore the millions she stole, or rather that were given as gifts and kickbacks to her directly or via her husband.) This Inquirer article from 2011 has a list of some of her scams,

Arroyos were allegedly into all kinds of money-making ventures: From telecommunications (NBN-ZTE); railroad (North and South rails); selling second-hand choppers and passing them off as new; intelligence funds of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office; fertilizer and all kinds of products that government distributed supposedly to help the citizenry; real estate (Alpha Land, a real estate development company, is reportedly Mike’s but under a dummy’s name); taking over closed banks; smuggling. Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/64131/arroyo-the-most-corrupt-president#ixzz4xvZQkNHr Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

So excuse me if I am cynical about those who (to paraphrase an irritating Jewish Carpenter) strain out a gnat but swallow a camel...

and speaking of politicians: Our mayor really cleaned up the place and won an award for doing so. I can only surmise he is spending city funding on... the city (!). What a refreshing idea.

But there must be an election soon, because our cook reported someone shot at the house of the ex mayor down the street from us. She, or someone in her clan, will probably run against him. This ex mayor is the daughter of the mayor who ordered the hit against the present mayor's family over one of their relatives running against him.(our nephew was killed in the crossfire). Think clan feuds, since there were several other "hits" over the last 10 years, including a few killed in a second hit a few years later... and of course none of which went to trial.

My stepson said no one was hurt in the latest shooting, so I guess it was a preemptive strike, a warning that if something happens to him, maybe someone could get hurt.

Family news

We were at court yesterday still trying to get the will probated.

Long story.  It is so bad that every time we go to court, the judge jokes about it.  But we now will meet in December to mediate the problem.

headlines below the fold

Austin Bay has a summary of what is going on in Yemen, and why it matters (it is a Saudi/Iranian proxy war that could evolve into a nuclear war if Iran gets the bomb).

backstory: Iran Iraq war in 1988 killed hundreds of thousands.
and one reason Saddam was not taken out in 1980 was that the Saudis knew that only Sadam stood in the way of Iran taking over the area.

On the other hand, Iranians remember the Persian empire and think Darius had a good idea.LINK
And then there is the problem of Turkey...mp3link

and remember: This goes beyond the danger to the Saudis: A million Pinoy OWF live there.

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Evil Empire redux: Trump reminds the South Koreans of the evils and dangers of the NoKoran regime. LINK

Most significantly, Trump spelled out in detail how the Kim family regime maintains its totalitarian control to the north of that line. He talked about the children stunted by malnutrition, and the system of political apartheid that doles out favors on the basis of loyalty, and leaves those deemed least loyal to starve. He spoke up about the famine of the 1990s, in which more than one million North Koreans died. He talked about how a single infraction against the regime, "such as accidentally staining a picture of the tyrant printed in a discarded newspaper," can wreck the lives of entire families for decades. He noted that today "an estimated 100,000 North Koreans suffer in gulags, toiling in forced labor, and enduring torture, starvation, rape, and murder on a constant basis."

There are a lot of leftists in South Korea and many in the universities there who pretend the north is fine, that only the evil west stopped them from being unified, and the present government pushes cooperation with the north and Trumpieboy corrects them with blunt language... a "carrot and the stick" speech.

and I wonder what the real story is behind the "bad weather" that stopped Trump from visiting the DMZ...

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and now we see Trump in China... as Drudge says: developing.

the Inquirer editorial reminds him of China's aggressive move on Philippine territory, and indeed they continue to push us around.

So the greens in the NYT always praise China for being "green" but ignore the destruction of the ecosystem in the West Philippine sea when they dredge up the sea floor to build artificial islands, chase our fishermen from their traditional fishing grounds, and allow their fishing boats to overfish and even remove endangered species from the area...

but now they have opposition: Indonesia is using their Navy to stop the illegal fishing by Chinese boats... unlike the Philippines, who were warned by Obama not to fight back,

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speaking of China: Trump is personally popular there because he is a businessman who made money.

The movie Nine Lives was  "French/Chinese" production. (1916 film). duh.

and guess who plays the Trump like businessman?



Ha.

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Remember that typhoon the decimated the Visayas a couple years ago? Well there are delays in building houses there... Rappler also notes problems with the houses that had been built.

we have a strict libel law here, so read between the lines
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Argentine church is dying, and it happened under Francis' watch

want to know why the Pope thinks changing the laws on marriage is the way to go?

Because Catholicism has tanked in Argentina on his watch, and he doesn't see it's partly his fault, and wants the church to conform to the modern world's hedonism, not the lessons of thousands of years of human experience found in Judeo Christian (and Muslim and Confucian) ethics.

and i have to laugh:  because he is behind the times: Even Hollywood is rejecting the promiscuity of the elite: and people are daring to suggest traditional values might work to help the poor not be poor, and be good for children.

He is stuck in the 1970's. Or as Father Greeley used to quip: When the Catholics drop something, it is taken up by someone else. In this case, self control in sexual matters and faithfulness in marriage are popping their heads up in society, and (alas) not by pastors but by secular leaders.

GetReligion has an article link to the NYT on the failure of Argentinians to bother to marry.

Real weddings have been on the decline in Buenos Aires — less than half of what they were about 20 years ago — as couples are simply living together or waiting longer to marry. When they do, they do not necessarily want a traditional church ceremony. In 2014, a Pew Research survey found only 20 percent of Argentines went to church regularly, one of the lowest figures in the region.

more details in the Buenas Aires Herald (2014)

Significantly, the changes have occurred in a lifetime, with the reduction in Catholicism being described both by gains in the Protestant population and the tranche of the population who has elected to not participate in organized religion. Furthermore, in every single one of the 18 countries surveyed by Pew, Catholic populations shrank and Protestant and unaffiliated communities expanded. For Argentina and in terms of net change, the size of the Catholic population fell by 15 percent, the Protestant community increased by eight percent and those without any any affiliation rose by six percent.

one sees a similar trend in Hispanics migrating to the USA, in Mexico, and  here in the Philippines.

Too many who need a church that is more than a feel good society tend to migrate over to a Protestant church, and those who don't care just leave.

Vatican II did a lot of good things, but alas too many of the "middle Magagement" (to use Father Greeley's term) have used it to destroy the church and implement what they wanted: a church of social work that ignores the problem of evil, suffering, and now to serve the Lord in the duties of our daily lives.

relationship to Jesus? Not stressed. Alas, the traditional ways that Catholics had that relationship, i.e. in the Eucharist, are also being watered down as a feel good symbol, not a reality.

what is going on in Argentina is important: Because if the morality of the west collapses, and the Christians go along with it, then something else will take it's place: New age Green ideas are one religion, but tend to push individual enlightenment and global wonderfulness, not the importance of family and caring for one's neighbor.

But Islam is there to fill the bill, as are the Pentecostal Christians and Mormons.

ah, but the press and the elite love Francis.

But the deplorables? Most ignore him and drift away from religion, and those who care about God are either asking "WTF" and cheering on those few bishops who ask WTF is going on, or quietly going to another church.

Catholic update

lecture by a Vatican journalist about what is going on.

Koigate? Where is news of Saudi and Xi?

While the MSM and internet trolls are upset about koigate, a lot of stuff is going on.

Saudi is purging their radicals, and is part of the moderates in the Middle East trying to take over.

And the leader of Turkey is making noises that he wants to be the next Caliphate leader (as in Ottoman Empire).

No telling what is going on in Iran, who also wants to take over the Caliphate from the Arabs. That missile from Yemen that tried to hit the Saudi capital is being seen as an act of war since it was an Iranian missile.

(and they also have sent lots of these missiles into the hands of the radicals in Gaza and Lebanon and Syria to hit Israel).

If there is a war here, it could be messy. The US is probably independent, since most of it's oil comes from the US or Mexico or Canada. But Europe and China could hurt.

Hence China is trying to take over the oil in the west Philippine sea, Taiwan, and  their newspapers discuss they eventually plan to take back Luzon...

Xi is becoming the "new emperor", partly to try to rid that country of corruption, but also because China has a 2000 year history of emperors. This gives them stability, but also leads to lots of civil wars and slows down development: the bureaucrats rule, and businessmen are discouraged, so much of China's much touted "inventions" were utilized by the west or the Arabs.

Speaking of civil wars: A lot of the anti western elites blame religion for wars, and/or say China was always more peaceful, and all I can do is roll my eyes... they obviously don't know Chinese history. Not to mention the peasants are kept in line, unlike the USA...

but the anti western conspiracy types tend to ignore everything but the Marxist talking points.

They should pay attention and read history: Persian empire, Ottoman empire, Russian expansion into Siberia (that China wants to own), Korea's links with China and dislike of Japan, etc.

update: StrategyPage on rearranging the chess pieces for the next war.

Koigate?

It says a lot that when Trumpieboy copies Abe and feeds the koi, that the MSM take it the photo out of context to ridicule him.

yes, I know: Rich yuppies who don't own koi love to relate how they "feed" the fish out of their hand. Presumably pieces of bread? Because the koi food is small pellets, too small to hold in one's fingers.

We have koi, in our fountain (we have them there mainly to eat mosquito larvae that would breed there if we didn't).

We feed them fish food by dumping in a handful or two. How much do you feed them? We give enough food for them to eat in five to ten minutes. If you feed them too much (or they are sick,) the food just floats there. If you feed them rice, it will go down to the bottom and they will eat it later. True, you can overfeed them but one episode of overfeeding won't kill koi: They are not that fragile.

What kills our koi is when we lose electricity and the pump is off and the oxygen level goes down, or in the hot season where the water evaporates and gets old, and we have to replace it.

we had a die off once, and had to replace 2/3 of the water. we removed the fish to do this, and lost five of them. (which we later salted and ate: They are carp after all).

We have given some of them away also: right now we have seven adults and lots of babies, who rarely survive to grow up. I used to help the kids "fish" them and take them home. The kids loved to do this. But now the kids grew up, so we just give away the excess larger koi to keep the population down.

oh no not my coffee

Coffee rust and the history of the coffee crop of Colombia.

fighting rust by cross breeding plants.

And includes this factoid:

Historians suggest that this is part of the reason why Britons prefer tea nowadays. “Sri Lanka moved over to tea production” since coffee was no longer profitable, explains Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Luckily for Asian producers, Britain was eager to switch its taste when their coffee supply vanished.

I'm not sure that is true (uh, they drank beer and ale back then, not coffee). Indeed, a few medical history articles I read relate how the death rate went down in both Japan and later in England with tea drinking, although I suspect the reason was fewer deaths from water bourne illnesses.

BBC article on tea drinking there.

tea was expensive and used medicinally until Charles II's Portuguese wife introduced it as a routine pick me up.

“When the queen does something, everyone wants to follow suit, so very, very gradually by the end of the 17th Century, the aristocracy had started sipping small amounts of tea,” Pettrigrew said. Of course, the upper class didn’t invent the ritual of tea-drinking themselves – they were imitators too. As Pettigrew recounted, “Until tea arrived with the Dutch, we [the English] didn’t know anything about tea. No sugar spoons, no cups, no tea kettles (only kitchen kettles), so we did what always happens: we copied the entire ritual from China. We imported [Chinese] tiny porcelain tea bowls, the saucers, the dishes for sugar, the small teapots.”

wikipedia article on the tea service (i.e. cups and tea pots).

here is an example at a British porcelain company:

a full British "high tea" is a meal of delight, but the average Yank just plops a tea bag in a cup of very hot water, or nowadays, adds a teaspoon of powdered instant ice tea to the hot water.

Lolo always drank his with sugar and calamansi (a small lime like fruit that grows on a bush in our front yard).

when I worked in Africa, the tea was black and strong, brought to us in a pot covered with a "tea cosy" to keep it warm, and we added cream and sugar as desired.

Here in the Philippines, they do have various teas, and serve ice tea in restaurants. Milk tea is also in vogue right now: But I dislike it beause it is very weak tea. They also sell ice tea in bottles, both green and regular, with various fruit joices added.

We "Brew" tea in our coffeemate, but I usually just use the powdered drink with my water for meals, although now that we switched from city water which was highly chlorinated and tasted terrible, back to our deep well water, I am back to drinking water with my meals.

Thou shalt not steal part two

The latest corruption scandal is the Paradise papers.

full article at the BBC reviews the scam to avoid paying taxes.
video

this is the 5th major leak of papers exposing corruption in the past 4 years, according to the BBC. history of leaks here.

uh, thou shalt not steal

If the Vatican stopped being pc, maybe they would try preaching "thou shalt not steal".

China and Saudi have started to clean house of corruption, and everyone here in the Philippines know that the drug war behind the headlines is about stopping our good catholic politicians from stealing government funding supposed to help the poor and taking bribes from drug dealers.

but ig goes deeper than that: To get anything done, you are required to give a gift.

StrategyPage on Mexico shows only one country as an example.

not only do they mention 

The new study estimated that in 2014 criminal activity in Mexico generated $58.5 billion. Narcotics trafficking contributed to that figure but so did tax fraud and illicit monetary transactions (money laundering be one of them). The study relied on data supplied by the Bank of Mexico as well as major government agencies. $58 to $60 billion is just about seven percent of Mexico's GDP.

butt this part is how it hurts ordinary folks:

  That study concluded 51 percent of Mexican citizens must pay kickbacks to state sector employees in order to receive basic services within the education system, court system and medical (hospital) system. Policemen also demand kickbacks in return for routine police services. The Transparency International report documents complaints Mexican citizens have been making for decades. Last year another study estimated nine out of ten crimes in the country go unreported because the people don't trust the police. (Austin Bay)

this is the real reason behind why so many Mexicans try to emigrate to the USA: because this corruption keeps people poor.

And of course, Mexico is not the worst example, but they are close enough to the USA to get a valid investigation of what is going on.

Sigh.

Factoid of the day

You might have read a snippet in the Japan news coverage about all those North Koreans living in Japan.

The backstory: They are pre WWII immigrants/ forced laborers who didn't go back, and were forced to chose which country they wanted to belong to, and many chose the North when given the choice in the 1950's since propaganda pushed by the north insisted that the UN forces were just another evil outsider seeking to take over Korea, whereas the communist North was really Korea.

.JapanTimes has backstory.

but leaves out that Korea was a colony of Korea before WWII, and that one reason their kids don't chose to become Japanese citizens is the prejudice against them.

so you have second and third generation Korean ethics who are not granted citizenship, and don't feel welcome.

something for the US to remember: both the bigots who think Muslims/Hispanics will never become "True 'Mericans" and the left, who push "multiculturalism" to make them believe they are stuck in their culture and only their culture, so don't dare try to change.

more atWikipedia/Koreans_in_Japan

I ran into a novel about the problem: Pachinko. Book review.

Family news

Still raining on and off here.

Chano and I are watching Strange Things 2. Lots of LOTR, and other 1980s references. And all the characters (even the stupid jock in season one) decide to fight it on various levels.

Imagine a film with people who chose to do the right thing? Of course this is in the 1980's so I guess they haven't learned the "ME Me ME" of the 1980s and 1990's yet.

Myself, I am sick and tired of films showing beautiful cookie cutter actors and actresses playing cliche romances and having angst about life, while the ordinary "Despicable" are portrayed as hypocrites or worse.

It is so bad I can't even watch the PG Hallmark channel films, because the characters are beautiful cliches. What, no one in these films are overweight or have crooked teeth, or are nerdy (except for the now PC "asperger" characters, who are also cliches.).

And thy wonder why the Marvel universe are the only movies making money? (Thor was shown here before it opened in the US but I did't see it: Action films are always popular overseas and make money).

In other news: Windows is doing an update, so my computer is slow....very slow.

It's done the same update four times so far and didn't manage to do it. I "fixed" the problem in troubleshooter, and then it didn't dow load again twice.

So I have mainly been reading the news on my tablet, and I can't blog from there.

in other news:

A post on my medical blog about plague, Marburg and Hepatitis A.

medieval biohazard suit anyone?

Stranger things

The emperor has no clothes

The Pope is confusing people, but if you dare to tell him you get into trouble.

Another priest, a theologian for the US Catholic bishops, sent the Pope a letter, and has "resigned".

yes. according to this pope, dogma is not important, ethical behavior is rigidity, and "who am I to judge" covers all sexual sins, (Uh, including those of Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton?)

and one suspects things will get worse, if this is true:

Third, faithful Catholics can only be disconcerted by your choice of some bishops, men who seem not merely open to those who hold views counter to Christian belief but who support and even defend them.  What scandalizes believers, and even some fellow bishops, is not only your having appointed such men to be shepherds of the Church, but that you also seem silent in the face of their teaching and pastoral practice.  This weakens the zeal of the many women and men who have championed authentic Catholic teaching over long periods of time, often at the risk of their own reputations and well-being.  As a result, many of the faithful, who embody the “sensus fidelium,” are losing confidence in their supreme shepherd.

Sigh. In my prayers.

But this is big news, because there is a slow schism going on in the Catholic church, and the MSM and the Catholic press is pushing the Pope to make the church into Episcopal lite church, and letting the NWO-Mother Gaia loving types take over all those schools, hospitals, colleges etc.

and that would have both societal and political ramifications.

The way the Pope is heading, he is pushing actual believers into either supporting the "official" politically obedient church, or going underground: a scenario which is what is going on in China today.



And here in the corner: just a few bishops and we lay people (including EWTN, run by lay folks) quietly serving God in the duties of our daily life, and trying to live an ethical and prayerful life in a world where we are considered "despicable".

family news

Te sun is out and the floods have passed.

Time to do the wash (and hopefully hang it out in the sunshine instead of in the living room).

I'd comment on the news, but it is nothing new, except the "fake news" at the fakenews sites now is turning out to have some truth in it.

Sigh.

here, the "lay group of  Catholics", on instruction from the bishops (lead by Cardinal Tagle, who is running for pope), are protesting "extra judicial killings".

Well, that is the equivalent of saying you are for world peace: a meaningless feel good exercize.



so why don't the bishops order their minions to protest politicians who take bribes?

how about Bishops refusing to give big Catholic funerals to crooked politician under indictment for ordering a hit on his rival that killed five people including our nephew?


It's the equivalent of Hollywood pretending they didn't know about their perverts: Everyone knows, but pretends they don't.

One bishop in the US is in tweettrouble for refusing to give a Catholic burial to non repentant people, including those in gay marriages. But even in the US it is okay to give a huge catholic burial to pro abortion, unrepentant philanderer Ted Kennedy.

yes, I am feeling snarky today.

yes there are abuses and even crooked cops here (/sarcasm) but when there are torture hazing deaths at a Catholic university scandal, one does think the bishops need to teach Thou shalt not kill to their own before they join the deep state types whose real aim is to remove Duterte before he arrests more crooked politicians

yes I am still a Catholic: we catholic figure the twelve apostles included a traitor who took bribes, and eleven who ran away when things got rough, so we don't expect a lot from our bishops...
our sacraments don't depend on the holiness of the priests and biships: it is not subjective but an objective reality: sort of like medicine: Penicillin still works even though the doctor is schtupping all the nurses and overbilling.

Family news

We've had rain on and off, and yesterday it was quite heavy. Last ight the people living near the river had to evacuate due to flooding, says our cook, whose family lives near the river. Our family home and much of our family still live in that area... we'll have to check if they are okay.

not a typhoon, merely a "cyclone" or tropical depression... meaning not a lot of wind, merely rain.

And we are downstream from the mountains...

 LINK  LINK2

Family news

my stepdaughter Robin is a textile artist who teaches class on crafts all over the world.

her latest trip:

Doing jobs no locals want to do

So the terrorist behind the attack in NYC seems to be from... New Jersey?

The victims are in our prayers... several seem to be from Argentina.


and not an Arab....with links to Tampa, Florida?
anyone know which mosque he attended in the Tampa area? 

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The Philippines worries about similar attacks during the Undas Holiday.
VIDEO

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Plague is spreading from Madagascar to mainland Africa.

and two thirds of the cases are pneumonic, which is highly infectious and deadly.

HOW DID THE OUTBREAK BEGIN? ]

• Health officials are unsure how this year’s outbreak began. However, bubonic plague which is endemic in rural parts of Madagascar can turn into the pneumonic form if left untreated.

• pneumonic plague, which is more virulent than other forms, can then be passed on through the air.

• The bubonic form is spread from fleas that carry the Yersinia pestis bacteria which then bite humans.

• it is believed they contract the bacteria from rats fleeing forest fires and striking rural communities. The first death this year occurred on August 28 when a passenger died in a public taxi en route to a town on the east coast. Two others who came into contact with the passenger also died.

Sigh. In our prayers.

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DRCongo hundreds of thousands of refugees facing starvation. Tribal fighting again.

this isn't getting much publicity of course, partly because it's such a mess that no outsider wants to go in and stop the killing (because they will be shot by both sides). and aid workers have been kidnapped and killed also.

Sigh.

again, in our prayers.

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in politics, the most unreported story is that the IRS discriminated against public groups, mainly but not just those associated with the "tea party", and the press is now ignoring the headline that the Justice Dept is settling the lawsuit over this discrimination.

And they just settled the lawsuit over the discrimination:

this report notes it was 31 groups and the court case settled for "millions". But the case is sealed, and the ones behind the illegal action will probably not be prosecuted:

The actual screening of those groups took place at IRS offices in downtown Cincinnati with oversight coming from several Washington officials. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose agency led the legal defense of the IRS and the settlement talks, said Thursday that "there was no excuse for this conduct." He said that the practices were conducted "during the last Administration" and that steps had been taken to make sure it didn't happen again. 

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there are some reports that the tunnels used to test nuclear weapons in North Korea have collapsed, and there is a worry that a major radiation leak will occur.

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and the really really big news of the day: Anthony Boudain has been banned from Azerbaijan

but don't worry: if he wants to sample Azerbani cooking, there is a good restaurant serving it in Korea:

Haloween stuff

from Brian Sibley: Remembering the Great Pumpkin (and other Haloween stuff).

and this is via Instapundit:

Family news

On Sunday, we cleaned up the grave and yesterday Joy bought flowers and decorated Lolo's grave.

In the Philippines, Undas, All Saints day, is the day we celebrate those who died before us by going to the grave, fixing it up, and then having a small meal there with relatives.

The cemetaries are usually packed, and there are vendors to sell you snacks, candles, flowers, and toys for kids who are bored. (also beer, although it is forbidden).

The cops have to direct traffic because of the crowds, and the country is essentially shut down on Oct 31 and Nov 1.


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