the Chinese vessels (navy, coast guard, civilian vessels that do the dirty work for that government) have been harasssing Filipino ships (both coast guard and civilian fishermen) for years and it has been getting worse.
At one point, CCG 3104, which was pursuing the Suluan at high speed, executed a dangerous maneuver from the vessel’s starboard quarter, causing it to collide with PLAN Warship No. 164.
The collision left the CCG ship’s forecastle or its forward part heavily damaged and unseaworthy, according to Tarriela.
but of course this is the Philippines: The Philippine Coast Guard offered them aid for anyone who was injured in the incident.
.....
And this being the Philippines, the local wags were busy joking about the incident.
...
China went for the kill, but Philippines scored 2!
An important read from Prof. Netta Barak-Corren in the WSJ.
It isn't just Gaza.
"In every conflict I have studied—Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and Gaza—the same aid trucks double as cash machines for warlords, militias and authoritarian regimes." pic.twitter.com/vhvXDk7ZHR
see previous post about the dilemma of do gooders in a time of civil war.
When I worked in Africa, when the insurgents controlled the roads, we would send a message that we would be fetching supplies on a certain day, and we would get a list of supplies (mainly food and medicine) and where to drop it off during the trip.
But in Gaza, Somalia, and many other areas, the rich war lords rely on naive do gooders not just for supplies but for money. And thanks to Al J and Qatar and European and other leftists, they get away with propaganda to tug at your heart so you don't recognize they are diabolical narcissists manipulating you so you can forget that they started the war and they are prolonging the war and they are endangering the locals with hiding weapons in civilian areas and stealing food aid for their soldiers, not to mention the hostages they keep illegally.
Giving them help will prolong the war and more people will die in the long run of course, but if you need antibiotics and bandages for your clinic, what is your alternative? And if you want to help the starving, do you cooperate with evil to help them?
By the way: This is the dilemma of the Jesuit in the movie and book Silence, where a Jesuit denies Christ and tries to persuade others to deny Christ so they won't be killed in horrible ways.
And this is the dilemma of aid to many war torn areas of the world: Gaza is in the headlines because those in charge are cynically skilled at manipulating the press, but we see this in several African countries, Burma (northern tribes and Rohingye refugees), etc. Even here in the Philippines, we had many do gooders (both foreign and locals) kidnapped by Islamic terrorists for ransom: refusing to pay slowed down this lucrative business, but not all countries and families cooperate with the no ransom rule.
However, that said, when these do gooders deny one of the side effect of their actions is that they are aiding those who are making war on civlians, we have a problem.
And when these do gooders and NGOs even cooperate with the propaganda of thugs who openly admit that mass murder is part of their plan, then we have cooperation with evil.
So my granddaughter is coming home for a visit, and since we as a family watch TV/movies after dinner, there is a discussion on what we should watch.
Her father knows that she likes cooking gourmet food and has his sense of humor so suggests we watch The Bear (miniseries about a restaurant), but her mother is very religious and suggests we watch the Chosen.
Nope, I texted her back: that series was dumb.
Actually since I only watched the first film, I am probably wrong, but when actors think and act as if they were present day Americans, I can only shake my head in despair. For the past was another country, and the way people thought was different.
and most so called "religious" films are cliche ridden and boring.
Yet one does see main line movies that explore themes of religion, either openly or implicitly.
For example, the Lord of the Rings assumes a Christian world view: Fellowship, friendship, self sacrifice, despair, desire for power, and ironically more explicit in the film than the books, the power of prayer (Arwen's prayer heals Frodo and later saves Aragorn, and Galadriel appears to Frodo when he is in despair.
Riverdale is like the monasteries of the middle ages, holding the records of the past, but also centers of prayer that keep hope alive in a darkening world.
But there are some films with religious themes that do ask the questions that echo what we face in today's world.
The Mission is one. Maybe because I have worked in areas where one has to confront such things, the plot questions: What do you do when confronted with evil? Take up your sword and defend the weak, or oppose them with passive resistance and prayer?
And the film brings up other situations that make one think about choices:
Can the unforgivable sin be forgiven? Can you forgive your enemy who has enslaved your family?
Another character, this one from history not fiction, is Romero. His story is told in two films: One Salvador by Oliver Stone from a socialist viewpoint, and one told from the point of view of the Christians who confronted political evil: Romero.
Actually I can't watch the film, because of the segment where a priest is traveling with civilians and killed. Some of my friends were killed this way when I worked in Africa.
But there is a powerful scene about how does one confront evil?
Liberation theology was popular among some American missionaries in the 1980s: like the DeNiro character in the Mission, they said pick up your sword and fight. Most of them safely got thrown out of the country and left behind chaos...Ah, but how many considered that maybe the ordinary folk just wanted to live in peace.
In contrast to the glitzy ego gratifying activism of the SJWs, another alternative: You do your work to help, and you oppose it with your witness.
There is a scene in the middle of the film where soldiers have taken over a church, and desecrated it. They even threw the Blessed Sacrament (the sacramental bread) on the floor to be trampled on.
Archbishop Romero goes in and quietly asks them to leave and they laugh and throw him out. He then returns and starts to collect the sacrament, and again he is thrown out. He then leaves, and the local people watching quietly look at him in despair.
But then he returns, and he is wearing the signs of being a bishop. And he quietly marches to the church, and the locals follow him... and the soldiers leave and the church is cleansed.
And that is what it means to be a Christian: to wrestle with what God wants you to do.
Those who objected to the VietNam war but didn't object to the atrocities when the communists won, or those who object to Israel's war in Gaza but don't want to face what would happen if you let these terrorists win (even though the 300 thousand dead in the Syrian civil war shows what happens when you let fanatics win).
Similarly, what do you do when, in the name of being a freedom fighter, thugs try to take over the country while the leaders get rich off of kidnapping, murder, and drugs? The story of Colombia trying to settle amnesties with FARC is instructive here. Or you can read the book on how Magsaysay overcame the Huk rebellion.
Letting the communists win results in massacres and concentration camps and ethnic cleansing at worst, or at best the murderous chaos as is now happening in Haiti? Do you support them in the name of human rights, as we saw too many missionaries in Central America do in the 1980s and tried to do here in the Philippines, ignoring what would happen if they won? Or do you support tough love, despite the violence and killing, so that you can make a society where ordinary people can be safe, as in El Salvador or as Duterte partly did here in the Philippines? Or do you cry human rights and let those who chose evil take over society, as the liberals naively are doing in Gaza, because they don't see the propaganda behind the war is about hating western civilization and destroying it?
Don't ask me: I am a physician not a revolutionary.
As a result of his experiences in the Second World War as a whole, Cheshire dedicated his life to peace and justice, defining it as ‘not just the absence of war or armed confrontation...peace is the effect, or consequence, of justice...we move towards peace proportionately as we succeed in removing injustice, particularly the injustice of mass starvation, and deprivation.’
,,,,
This charity is not well known in the USA: ironically I did not read about it in a book on hospice or medical pioeneers, but in Paul Brickhill's book The Dambusters.
and then there is this: again from Wikipedia:
Cheshire's adoption of the Roman Catholic faith (in 1948) had nothing to do with the bombing of Nagasaki:[23] "Many assumed that it was Nagasaki which emptied him; as Cheshire kept pointing out, however, it was the war as a whole. Like Britain herself, he had been fighting or training for fighting since 1939"
Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" following peace talks
Malaysia's leader Anwar Ibrahim said the ceasefire would take effect from midnight local time, adding: "This is a vital first step to a de-escalation and a restoration of peace and security".
... The talks were held after US President Donald Trump asked both nations to agree to a ceasefire as a pre-condition to their respective trade talks with Washington
Trump to host Armenia-Azerbaijan leaders at the White House tomorrow to sign a peace deal granting the US exclusive rights to a new transit corridor, the TRIPP, reshaping the South Caucasus region.
....
--------------------------
and there are rumors... true? False flag?
πΊπΈπ·πΊπ΅π± Trump team’s secret offer to Moscow leaked?
According to Polish outlet Onet, Moscow received a favorable ceasefire proposal from Trump’s circle, allegedly coordinated with European powers.
Since I have had no contact with American medicine since I retired 20 years ago, I have posted this: would this attitude, that doctors should be healers, not SJW, and learn compassion on a person to person basis, help the problems I read about in medicine in the USA?
and could you see how such an attitude could help the clueless bioethicists who are not recognizing this aspect of being a human would go against the present bioethicists who proclaim we should use helpless handicapped humans as a resource to help the powerful, not as our brothers and sisters who should be cared for?
By the way; here, in the local private hospital where our relatives work and where we get our medical care (e.g. when I had dengue or Joy needed surgery), the family stays with the patient and they will send meals for the family. Even during Covid, when isoltion rules meant no visitors, when Joy's father was in ICU in a coma, they allowed a relative to stay with him.
First class medicine is available in Manila, and these resources are moving up to the rural areas. Our mayor is trying to upgrade our rural public hospital but right now is short of 24 hours ER coverage, so you might have to go to a private hospital or to the public (free) hospital in the next town.... And if you need admission for specialized care (either private or public) you have to to the big town 10 miles away.
the other thing not mentioned: A lot of the doctors and midwives are underpaid so expect a gift...
Covid sort of destroyed what was being done in the past: the city had started giving out free rabies shots and medicine for the elderly, but now often I am asked for the ten dollars to pay for the rabies shots if there has been a dog bite.
There will be free shots for dogs in the poorer neighborhood, my maid tells me, but there are a lot of street dogs so the risk remains.'
one more thing: No, medicaid does not pay for my care here. I do have PhilHealth but the rest if out of pocket payment. But the expenses are cheaper than in the USA, even in our Manila hospitals.
hu6 mainstream medicine is embracing hallucinogens and new age techniques yet the comfort of a believer praying has been ignored. What is described is basic Catholic comfort care.
On the Radar
'Housewife superspy' Stella Rimington, 1st female head of MI5 dies at 90
Rimington, who led MI5 from 1992 to 1996, was widely believed to be the inspiration behind the female role of M in the James Bond movies, played by UK star Judi Dench...
"As the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella. broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership," the current MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in a statement.
“On becoming the first female Director General of MI5, did you experience imposter syndrome?”
Dame Stella: “HELL NO! I earned my seat at the table, and if there was something I didn’t know, I bloody well learned it”
but the real news is about Drones. StrategyPage article about this for later reading: LINK
Most American military personnel have experience with video games and the common types of game controllers. As the Ukrainians already did, the Americans are also telling the troops to use their video game skills as they train to use the drones they are now being issued.
so your kid playing video games in the basement may now be the solution to the next war.
Reminds me of how the US military during World War II had an advantage because most of them knew how to drive a truck.
the sacrifices of our overseas workers is often overlooked in a world that strsses money success, ambition, and getting aheard by bullying others.
Our family includes many overseas workers, including my husband who migrated to the usA to support his extended family after his brother died, and the Filipino caregivers and nurses work all over the world. Much of our family have migrated: and live in the USA, Australia, Canada, or the UK where they are now citizens of their new country. Other relatives and neighbors have worked mainly short term contracts in HongKong, Macao, Thailand, the UK, or in Saudi, Kuwait etc. or as sailors on ships. Others work as drivers, electricians, construction workers or factory workers.
Their family supports the extended family here: paying the school fees so the children can go to college or trade school, and to lift their family out of poverty, often including building a decent home.
nor is this limited to FIlipinos: My Mexican American, Colombian are doing the same thing.
So when Trumpieboy says he wants to tax money overseas workers send home, please remind him that they sacrificed to earn this money. Send hom those who illegally entered the USA especially who have criminal or drug conntections, but remember many come to work so they can help their families, not to live off of welfare. Most prefer legal ways to immigrate but when Biden essentially opened the border, many decided to do it more easily (lots of screening and paperwork are needed and also a job offer to migrate legally)..,
I play this all the time. And it has an interesting history... and has similarities to the theme of Jaws? Huh? yup. the da duh da duh da duh at the beginning of the piece.
Dirkdeklein explains why it is so popular among middle level piano students:
Technically, “FΓΌr Elise” is approachable for intermediate pianists, which has contributed to its popularity as a learning piece...
and he explains it's popularity in popular culture;
Beyond the concert hall and practice room, “FΓΌr Elise” has permeated global culture. It is heard in countless films, television shows, advertisements, and even cell phone ringtones. Its familiar melody can evoke a range of emotions, from nostalgia to tranquility, depending on the context in which it appears.
In educational contexts, “FΓΌr Elise” often marks a milestone in a young pianist’s development, representing a transition from beginner to more advanced repertoire.
More in this video: and he discusses how the revised version is more melodic and fancy, yet it is the straightforward original version that remains more popular.
When I got my first driver's license, a friend warned me not to elect to be an organ donor. "Dude, they're going to try to declare you dead before you are to harvest your organs." I thought that was the stupidest, most paranoid conspiracy theory I'd ever heard.
I have worked in war zones, and this angers me because it is distorting what is going on to stay in power,
and the more they get their useful idiots (to use Stalin's term) to parrot the propaganda to get allies to their side (they support Hamas out of compassion because they believe the propaganda), the less they will be willing to negotiate an end to this war, and the more people will die.
This reminds me of the propaganda about Viet Nam, where the lies ignored both the corruption of the south's government and the open atrocities of the North Vietnamese soldiers who were fighting to impose communism. The naive were manipulated and pressured the US withdrawal thinking the result would be peace, but where as soon as the war ended, the MSM and the public looked the other way while millions were killed, died fleeing, or put into concentration camps by the communists.
Indeed, with the Europeans now not only condemn Israel for non existant genocide, they are saying they want a Palestinian state by those very same murderers who started the war and stole aid money to buy weapons to go to war.
The Europeans, unlike the other Arab countries are not stating who should run it. But what is worse, by playing into their cynical manipulation/psychological warfare, they essentially are encouraging, Hamas to leave the negotiations for peace last week, and hence prolong the war and suffering of their people. Because hey, they are essentially outsiders who are puppets of Iran's plans to take over the Islamic world, and don't care for their people.
98% of global outlets use the death toll figures provided by Hamas.
And Hamas would never lie, would they?
Even then, Hamas’s numbers — under 60,000 fatalities, three quarters of them are men between 13 and 55 — do not satisfy the anti-Zionist true believers.
In other words, most of the dead are militry age men, or soldiers, not civilians. But of course this is ignored by the True believers.
In a manner reminiscent of the unstoppable global warming hype, a group of activists took it upon themselves to extrapolate from projections.
italics mine.
Last summer, the British magazine Lancet published a statement speculating that the total number of fatalities could be as high as 186,000.
Lancet is not merely a British magazine, but used to be an esteemed medical journal, and traditionally medical journals are supposed to be scientifically accurate. But in the last 30 years, these journals (Lancet, BMJ, NEJM, JAMA9 have allowed activists to publish politically biased articles to manipulate the public not just here but in the Gulf war and Covid.
The author Martin McKee soon admitted that the figure is “purely illustrative.”
translation: Made up.
His piece was not an article, but a non-peer reviewed letter.
In other words, no one checked his data. And no one bothered to point this out as his opinion was pushed as fact by the MSM.
Nonetheless, it made headlines and gave Anti-Zionists an opening to say that, according to the most prestigious medical journal in the world, the number of casualties in Gaza is much higher than reported....
this is not the only time that the "most prestigious medical journal in the world", i.e. Lancet was behind a hoax to push a psyop for the powers that be.
Lancet publishing a letter that Covid was not a lab leak? How dare you suggest maybe Chinese lab was careless (even though there had been other known lab leads in China in recent years).
Place Fauci and Big Pharma conspiracy theory here. In the past it was the Democrats who would have noticed and investigated this, and lucky for the USA, RFK Jr., a Democrat, is willing to do this for Trump, an ex Democrat...
Nor is this scandal an isolated case:: even science Magazine noted the biased ar icles against drugs that could treat covid.
The same here, and the same thing happened in reviewing using medicines to treat covid: Bad data, but hey Trump pointed out that maybe these medicines should be used, so the journals decided to itnore science becuse orange man bad.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
and another hoax that is being trumpeted is against the US/Israel food distribution.
The other NGOs are mad because this was started because they cooperated with Hamas, i.e. let them smuggle in weapons with the food, and also let them steal the food and sell it for a profit.
A good reporter would notice this, but hey most of AlJ's reporters and the NGO reporters are Hamas patsies.
again from LI:
In late May, Hamas began alleging that the Israeli Defense Forces were firing on Gazans congregating near GHF distribution points, killing hundreds.
I believe the source of this hoax was some deaths shooting rioters who were attacking the food distribution center. So there is a splinter of truth.
But of course like the civilian deaths, it is being distorted out of context and with exaggerated numbers.
Despite the fact that every Gazan has a cell phone, no such event has been documented. Pallywood didn’t bother to fake videos of the diseased or stage funeral processions.
Israel’s own footage confirmed that no bullets were fired at the crowd at the time of alleged massacres.
Yet plenty of recordings of Hamas stealing aid and abusing Gazans are flooding social media. Hundreds of trucks worth of aid are left undistributed.
In the meanwhile, the aid supposed to be given out by the UN and the NGOs is just sitting there. Why?
Although the IDF found no signs of it, some observers believe that the terror group is trying to engineer a famine in the areas it controls in order to create diplomatic pressure on their neighbor.,,
and here it the way the heirs of Walter Duranty are imitating their hero:
Western media today is increasingly allied with Qatar’s Al Jazeera on the question of Jews.
Media malpractice is nothing new, but when people are being lied to like that, it’s usually because they are being prepped for a genocide.
not just of Israel but of Jews world wide. One only has to look at what happened in universities against students because of their Jewish ancestry.
And alas even the Catholics are in on spreading the hatred: The Pope accepted the lies of Israel destroying a church (which didn't happen: a photo shop showed smoke from a nearby fire and focused the photo as if the church was burning). Well, I know from experience that the Catholic church is full of leftist idieologues who want to take over the church. But here, unlike the Latin mass and pedophile controversies, the Trads are also full of anti Semites who seem to believe long debunked conspiracy theories about the Jewish community.
Ruby is teaching in Thailand and worried about the border skermish between Thailand and Cambodia.
I don't trust the US media on this because of their blind spot for deep history and religious history, ditto I distrust of Chinese influenced media, so here is an Indian news story:
Instead of googling this I asked Grok, who can scan all sort of news sites, what is going on. The Answer:
There is no ongoing war between Cambodia and Thailand as of July 25, 2025. However, recent deadly border clashes have escalated tensions, rooted in a century-long dispute over a shared 508-mile (817 km) border, particularly around ancient temples like Preah Vihear and Prasat Ta Muen Thom.
The conflict stems from differing interpretations of colonial-era maps drawn by the French in 1907, which placed key sites like Preah Vihear in Cambodia, a ruling upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1962, though Thailand contests surrounding areas.[](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/24/why-thailand-cambodia-border-clash-conflict)[](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/24/thailand-cambodia-border-conflict-explained/)[](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/24/world/thailand-cambodia-border-clash)
Tensions flared in May 2025 when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a skirmish, followed by tit-for-tat measures like Cambodia banning Thai imports and Thailand restricting border crossings.
On July 24, 2025, fighting erupted near Ta Muen Thom, with both sides accusing the other of firing first. Thailand reported 14-20 civilian deaths and one soldier, while Cambodia confirmed at least one civilian and one soldier killed. Thailand deployed F-16 jets, and Cambodia fired artillery, with allegations of war crimes on both sides, including damage to a hospital and Preah Vihear Temple.[](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/24/why-thailand-cambodia-border-clash-conflict)[](https://apnews.com/article/thailand-cambodia-border-conflict-explainer-0eb99510a4ea16ee769a5934e0c07383)[](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/24/thailand-cambodia-border-conflict-explained/)
Domestic politics and nationalism exacerbate the conflict. In Thailand, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s leaked call with Cambodia’s Hun Sen, where she appeared deferential and criticized her military, led to her suspension, fueling nationalist outrage. In Cambodia, Hun Sen, the de facto leader, may be using the conflict to bolster his son’s leadership.
Some X posts suggest Thailand’s crackdown on online scam operations, a significant part of Cambodia’s economy, may also be a factor, though this is unverified.[](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1gdgy2pyo)[](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/asia/cambodia-thailand-conflict-timeline.html)[](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/24/why-are-thailand-and-cambodia-going-to-war/)
Both nations face economic pressures, including potential 36% US tariffs, which may amplify nationalist distractions. China, a major economic partner, has offered mediation, while ASEAN and the UN are urged to intervene. Despite the severity, the conflict remains localized, with no formal declaration of war, and past clashes (e.g., 2008-2011) have de-escalated quickly.[](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/24/why-thailand-cambodia-border-clash-conflict)[](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/24/what-we-know-about-clashes-on-the-thai-cambodian-border)[](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/thailand-cambodia-border-dispute-07-24-25-intl-hnk)
Mainly posted for later reading in case I have to dig into this later.
