the Papal Posse dares to say the emperor is naked

News stories ignored and conspiracy coverup: you mean the crazies were right?

The rains have kept me inside for most of the last week, so I have been listening to podcasts etc.

Well that will increase your paranoia.

Example one: the Covid coverup is slowly crumbling.

 Covid conspiracy was real??

this is of course an ongoing story and the worse part?? that the major medical journals haven't corrected their misinformation.

Then you have this scandal.

 

so where are the stories about this? Who knows. Probably the same place that ignores the sex trafficking of street kids in poor countries. 

And then you have the ongoing story of the casting couch in Hollywood;

the part of the discussion about seducing a kid you raised is of course about Woody Allen. But it reminded me of Tale of Genji: He kidnaps a young girl and raises her and then "marries her" and it is clear that the girl was raped/traumatized. 

Nothing new under the sun I guess...

   

another story being ignored: That China is being aggressive against the Philippines and Viet Nam in the West Philippine sea.

from StrategyPage

The situation in the South China Sea is becoming more difficult for China because the Philippines has implemented measures to reduce the Chinese threat by curbing corrupt Chinese influence in the country. That is the main reason why the new Filipino government is canceling three Chinese-financed railroad construction projects worth nine billion dollars. ....The cancellation of these projects has been under consideration for over a year due to vague loan terms and China's failure to perform. The Chinese are believed to be using the loan program as a weapon to coerce the Philippines into making concessions in the South China Sea.

A national opinion survey conducted at the end of June found that Filipinos trusted the United States, Australia and Japan the most while trusting China and Russia the least. ... Until China expanded its “lost territory” claims to the South China Sea nearly two decades ago. China was seen as a potential ally of, and investor in, the Philippines.

 

Despite numerous Filipino diplomatic efforts, China refused to compromise on its claims.

at this point, China is seen as the greatest threat to the Philippines, especially since the Chinese appear to have additional claims on Filipino territory and independence as a nation.

They will try to claim Luzon as part of China if not stopped...

however, the country whose risk from Chinese expansion is usually ignored: Russia. China once owned Siberia and has a lot of workers there who could be a fifth column if invaded. Hence China encouraging Russia in the Ukraine probably has more to do with making Russia weak than in hurting NATO...

the USNavy is having problems on on an aircraft carrier and the peace group mothers are making a fuss, which resulted in moving   an aircraft carrier from near VietNam to the Middle East. 

Was the kerfuffle by the peace activists that got an exaggerated scandal on an aircraft carrier that caused the USN to remove it from the middle east influenced by Chinese minions in the peace movement? 

Who knows.

The USNavy has been having problems for years and it will probably take years to fix it, alas.

and on StrategyPage, many of the essays are about drones. Hmmm... I am just too lazy to keep up with the drone news, but it says a lot that the big beautiful ball room that was politicized to criticize Trump was more about drone attacks on meetings in tents outside the WH than about his vanity, not to mention the need to build a new bunker below the WH a la GreenBrier bunker.

So who is behind the hysteria that distort such obvious news stories

AI Frankenvirus or a godsend for reisstant germs?

  

this artificially manufactured virus is a bacteriaphage to eat E Coli. Wapost explains:

or if you don't have the money to get past their wall you can read it at CIDRAP:

 ,,, researchers from Stanford University and the Broad Institute report that the functional bacteriophages they created using artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly destroyed strains of Escherichia coli that had evolved resistance to naturally occurring phages, but experts call for safeguards to prevent the technology from being used for harm.

Bacteriophages are ubiquitous viruses that target, infect, and kill only bacteria. They are found everywhere bacteria live, including the environment and the human gut, and they can be used to treat bacterial infections.

... “Even the simplest genomes are highly complex and can be rendered nonviable by a single mutation,” the authors wrote. “Design at the scale of whole genomes has remained largely beyond reach.”

Urgent biosafety, biosecurity questions

 ....In an accompanying commentary, Thomas Inglesby, MD, and Moritz Hanke, MD, both of Johns Hopkins University, warn that although the finding is promising, “it also raises urgent biosafety and biosecurity questions. The ability to compose viral genomes using generative AI now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not.”

 

They caution that this technology could be used to create non-therapeutic bacteriophages in eukaryotes such as humans, animals, and plants.

Drones anyone?

 China is sneaking into the Philippine economic zone trying to steal a shoal to make an island, meaning that if this is done thcy could say the entire area is owned by the Chinese.

So I keep an eye on what is going on.

Here is one video about drones:

one thing we have in common with the Ukraine is a bunch of kids who love computer games and other high tech stuff.

Hence Pax Silica, to use the local talent.

of course my youtube channel is full of videos by Chinese trolls complaining, and there are local complaints also probably worrying about it.

The worry about China ignores that China is slowly stealing the resources of the West Philippine se and next step, making one of their islands withing the EEZ off of Luzon.

Note: China has lots of trolls to pretend these things are bad, but China is hated.

heh. illegal mining, like all the farmers who are mining for gold etc in their fields since they can't make a profit since the rich guys import cheap rice that depresses the price.

about all those shrine of Mama Mary

 

The church is visited by both Ecuadorian and Colombian pilgrims.

I had visited with my sons 40 years ago. From Pasto we went via bus to Ipialis then hiked over the fields to the northern gorge site. This left us across the gorge from the church, but there is a bridge across the gorge, and on the northern end of the bridge is a small chapel where you can place candles.  

this video is very north American bias and emphasizes the Spanish missionaries.

However my son gave a different story about it: the miracle is about an Indian lady carrying her handicapped daughter along the road along the gorge ridge, and suddenly the daughter cried look at the beautiful lady. And the locals made a shrine there. Only later did the missionaries encourage the formal church. And my sons didn't say anything about the image discussed in the video, only about a spring in the bottom of the gorge where people collect water and consider it holy. They hiked down to the bottom (not me: I am not athletic) to visit the area.

This is the story the locals tell, and the locals see it as Our Lady visiting the local  people, who were looked down on by the establishment Spanish who ran the place. So it is beloved as a sign Mary loved them and visited them, not as a shrine pushed on them by outside Spanish priests.

such visions are common and usually ignored or debunked by the Catholic church, but locals often place shrines at these areas.

I should note that when traveling down the Pan American highway, we saw a shrine on a hill near the road, and my sons said that the Virgin had appeared there.

Here in the Philippines there are a lot of small Lourdes shines in churches and many have one on their garden and families pray the rosary after dinner. Here she is Mama Mary and folk religion is family oriented, not theological: Mama Mary, Kuya Jesus, and God as father.

I am sure there are a lot of visions of Mama Mary here which are known to family and friends but the church tends to shut them down if they get too enthusiastic.

but the big shrine is along the EDSA where the People Power revolution occurred. Left out of most secular articles, the locals believe that Mama Mary appeared and stopped Marcos Sr's soldiers from shooting the demonstrators, who were praying the rosary and singing hymns. 

  in the US, one does hear about visions, often in times of stress or sickness, where our Lady or an angel comes with a word of comfort.

In the USA  it is common for people to place statues of the virgin in the fields or in the front yards . Our next door neighbor in Pennsylvania, a coalminer, had one in his front garden . 

heavy rains and family news

For last 2 days heavy rain and mildly flooded streets.

Not quite a typhoon so no bad winds and we have electricity and city water.

The schools were closed Friday.

The barangay neighborhood patron saint is St Lawrence so fiesta parade later today. and a Miss Gay Gapan contest was scheduled in the plaza for either yesterday evening or today

My arthritis has been bad from the weather so I spent yesterday in bed and didn't attend church in the evening since Catholics have revived the ancient idea that Sunday starts at Sundown.

Howevery arthritis is better today but since l don't have anyone to attend mass with me I will just sit iny room and enjoy the hymns sung by the Baptists who meet in our meeting room each Sunday.

In other news Stella our black dog's 5 puppies are chubby and healthy but their eyes are not open yet so I haven't checked how. many are boys or girls. Their nest is in our closet where I put a flat box for them.

We have another box in my bathroom for Baby our Mama dog but apparently she did not get pregnant last time she was in heat. She is 7 years old so maybe she is too old.

China is pushing war but the US press doesn't seem to notice

China has been attacking Filipino fishermen for years, even though these fishermen have been fishing in the area for several generations.

But now after Obama refused to help the Philippines to stop China from destroying the ecosystem (green groups silent of course) and building miltarized artificial islands, they are getting more aggressive in recent weeks.

 

 and also is prolonging the war in Iran:

and infiltrating the US military:

China has been trying to buy retired American flag officers. https://t.co/JaLRF6TI0L

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) August 4, 2026

and notice they are discussing how China  suckered the Pope into signing away the pious Catholics there.

How the original drone made a star

the original drone from WWII 

 from Wikipedia: 

 The Radioplane OQ-2 was the first mass-produced unmanned aerial vehicle or drone in the United States, manufactured by the Radioplane Company. A follow-on version, the OQ-3, became the most widely used target drone in US service, with over 9,400 being built during World War II.

tropical cyclone: Rain rain rain rain

 

translation: Heavy rain all day, but only gusty winds.

medical notes: uh, Dr Fauci was lying

 much of this was cross posted from my medical blog.

the background of the covid epidemic is not just because it came from a lab leak, but that it was a bioengineered virus that was made to be more infectious and more lethal by doing gain of function research.

Gain-of-function research (GoF research or GoFR) is medical research that genetically alters an organism in a way that may enhance the biological functions of gene products. This may include an altered pathogenesis, transmissibility, or host range, i.e., the types of hosts that a microorganism can infect. This research is intended to reveal targets to better predict emerging infectious diseases and to develop vaccines and therapeutics.

and of course it can also be used to bioengineer bioweapons.

the gain of function scandal goes back years.

Here's why they were so desperate to cover up the lab leak:

The 2003 SARS outbreak exposed how outdated WHO's disease rules were, since the old International Health Regulations only covered a few named diseases. In response, the World Health Assembly launched a revision…

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) July 29, 2026

...

,,,

Gain of function research was behind Covid... 

GOF research had been outlawed by Obama but then he allowed it again a few weeks before Trump took office... and it has been outlawed on and off since then... an article last week said Trump outlawed it again, which I wondered about since he had outlawed it already. 

But there are always holes and using money via NGOs... for example, the HHS stopped funding Ecohealth which was behind the covid funding leak, but an Ecohealth biolab proposed for the Philippines was not funded by HHS but the Dept of Defense (the Phil Govt refused so the grant has since expired).

Here is a long discussion of gain of function research and bird flu I wrote in 2024....if you thought Covid was bad, well, birdflu could be a lot worse... I apologize because I am not a good writer.

on my blog I was criticizing an LATImes article on bird flu that defended the need to do gain of function research. I will put the LAT in italics to separate it from my comments

 

Why scientists say we are fighting H5N1 bird flu with one hand tied behind our backs

By Susanne Rust and Karen Kaplan Dec. 24, 2024 3 AM PT

 

 Gain-of-function research became controversial during the COVID-19 pandemic. But without it, “we’re just flying in the dark” when it comes to H5N1, said Felicia Goodrum, a molecular virologist at the University of Arizona....But when, where and how that could come to pass is hard to predict — in part, some researchers say, because of guardrails the federal government has placed around gain-of-function research.

 I commented that bird flu is scary because of the high mortality in the few times it has spread to humans from birds (but no human to human transmission yet)... but as I point out, what is not known is how many people got it and never saw a doctor because they weren't sick enough to do so. CDC report on 71 human cases showed 2 deaths.

Many of the known bird flu deaths were in rural third world countries where people are in close contact with the free range chickens, or what I suspect was actually from what we in the Philippines call double dead meat, i.e. instead of killing sick animals, the owner sells them to local markets...   (the protocol insists you kill and destroy infected chickens for this reason).

To some, the timing couldn’t be worse. At least 65 people in the U.S. have been infected with H5N1 since it arrived in North America in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 65 cases in four years. Got it. Most of the cases have involved workers on dairy and poultry farms, and their symptoms — including conjunctivitis and upper respiratory irritation — have tended to be mild. But in two cases, people have become severely ill, including a person in Louisiana and a teenager in Canada.

 so two very sick people in four years but no deaths. Out of 65 cases in four years. But how many people got the disease and never sought medical care or were diagnosed?

well, anyway if you don't do such research you might not be able to develop a vaccine (China released Sinovax quite quickly because they knew the genome. How did the know the genome so fast? Duh).

Well as a doc, I worry about this because the paranoia over this scandal will result  in people refusing known vaccines that have been around for decades and known to save lives, and people will die of these diseases.

Yes, I have seen children in Africa die of measles, whooping cough, tetanus. And my husband was old enough to remember smallpox when he worked in the southern Philippines.

all of these vaccines have a very low but real problem with side effects, mainly sore arm but also more serious problems like brain damage.

when the risk is low, lives are saved. And yes everything has a risk: I often pointed out to my patients that even driving their car to the clinic was risky.

Covid killed several of our neighbors who were young (elders die all the time so may not have had covid). But none of the various vaccines worked very good: Not the Sinovax, not the Sputnik, not tne AZ and not the mRNA vaccine.

Ironically, it was God who stopped the high death rate by having covid morph into the omicron varient that had a low death rate.

so follow the money and shut it down might work?

All I read in the MSM is how Trumpieboy is losing in Iran and how this is making him unpopular. 

then I read that Hamas has promised to disarm and let the board of peace take over Gaza, and another deal with Iranian leaders (who alas don't control the crazies).

Of course, all the negative press coverage repeating talking points has nothing to do with this. And the background is missing or again talking points that have to do with party politics. Well, duh.

However, Sundance at Conservative Treehouse links to a video discussing how the Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas network is being starved of funds.

“From Camp David, President Trump framed a reported Hamas disarmament agreement as a breakthrough enabled by pressure on Iran, arguing the regional strategic terrain has shifted. The episode highlights two developments presented as unprecedented: Hamas agreeing to disarm and Israel and Lebanon resuming talks after three decades, both attributed to cutting off Iranian funding for proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. Kokinda claims the decisive “weapon” was Treasury action under Secretary Scott Bessent—sanctions, OFAC tools, anti–money laundering measures—described as “economic fury,” including designating over 1,000 Iranian-linked individuals, ships, and companies and disrupting routes through shipping, insurance, and offshore finance.

 

The script also points to the February 19, 2026 launch of the multinational “Board of Peace,” tasked with rebuilding Gaza, as a preplanned institutional blueprint that helped secure the Hamas agreement.”

one comment puts this attack into perspective:

 Will August 1, 2026 7:36 pm Makes even more sense why Bessent was an assassination target at the very onset of his tenure.

 and also: unlike the crazies on the left and right, Trump recognizes that most Muslims and Muslim countries have a long history of commerce and trade, so would willingly chose peace since the crazy terrorist movements kill more pious Muslims than gentiles.

Organic vs reality

 

we are involved in the organic food industry here in the Philippines and this is correct.

But when other countries can produce rice cheaper using chemicals and three crops a year, we have filled the niche with gourmet organic food for the middle class

The problem? The government subsidizes this type of farming while ordinary farmers can't make a living so are selling their fields to the nearby solar farm organization, or (worse) digging up under the topsoil to pan for gold.

The farmers got their land where they worked for others including our family with land reform, but their kids are now educated and don't want to work hard and stay poor.

Since it is limited by law on how much land a single person can own, it means no big agri company is buying up the farm to plant using modern technology and displacing the small farmers to grow high yield crops for a profit.

and there is actually a shortage of farm workers: Many of our fields are farmed by people from Joy's village in the Visayas, for example. 

And many farm fields are being sold to people from Manila for second homes, or to Balikbayan, overseas workers who have returned home and want to live outside the cities and hire peple to work the farm land they have invested in for retirement income.

So although we support organic farming, the dirty little secret is that Clarkson is right: It is more expensive and lower yield. And indeed, a country that imposed organic farming on their farmers resulted in an economic crisis and famine.

yup. The slippery slope is coming for you.

ignore that social pressure and in the USA where there is no universal medical insurance, meaning that surrogates could pressure people the sick and elderly into killing oneself so their relatives don't end up with medical bills.

And don't forget: The recent articles in medical journals saying hey we can even take their organs, meaning another way to pressure the depressed to end their own lives.

There was a big scandal of a young depressed woman killed in Spain and whose organs were taken from her: WHy did she chose death? Depression after a gang rape in a government facility for troubled teenagers.

Stuff around the internet

 So if Elon pays someone to make another version of the Odyssey, which one would you watch?

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

Someone on line mentioned the movie Quigley down under, which I had never watched, and so I found it on Internet archives and while checking it out found a lot of louis L''Amour type westerns there too.

ah, remember when movies had people you liked trying to do the right thing and the films actually had a plot?

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

big meeting of Gov Shapiro and Trumpieboy et al to announce investments in the Pennsylvania industries including reopening the Philadelphia Naval yard. However it doesn't seem to have gotten a lot of publicity for some reason.

gee, wonder why.

but if you do a search on youtube for the Phila shipyard you will get lots of videos for the hoax Philadelphia experiment.

Which says a lot about what Youtube thinks I am interested in.

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

Rubio is in Manila for a big ASEAN meeting and has this pithy answer to the never ever biased MSM:

QUESTION: Have you made any progress on Ukraine today? Is Russia serious about peace this time? SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, you think we settled the war in Ukraine in our 30 minutes here in Asia?

 there   is a  big push for technology in the Pax Silica plan, ere is a including an AI site, using the old Clark AFB site, so the usual environmentalists who never complain about China destroying fishing in the west Phil sea are complaining about it in the SCMP> which used to be a good news source before China took over Hong Kong and it's media.

The state of the nation address will give more information and I probably should post more about this, but it is to the west of our area: Our area is more famous for the huge solar energy farm to supply electricity to Manila.

In the meanwhile, because Rubio is here, China decided to attack another Philippine vessel in the West Philippine Sea, just to show they can cause trouble.

Sigh.

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

Finally, there seemed to be a big astroturfed series of attacks against JD Vance, including one report in a major US MSM complaining he missed a meeting (luckily X added a content explanation: He wife was having a baby).

In addition one of his SSA was leaking information on his location to one of the MSM news sites. Even I am aware he had to move to a military housing for protection.

But anyway, I was wondering WTF was causing the hysterical and coordinated attacks at this time. Maybe because as a  veteran he has questions about the war in Iran pointing out that people there do not think like Americans.  

Then my automatic feed that I was listening to (I run discussions and podcasts in background when I sleep)  sent me to his interview on Joe Rogan. I awoke to this part with a discussion on unions HERE. About unions and the minimum wage and how Europe pays new employees below minimum wage as apprentices, but it is illegal in the USA. 

Imagine a discussion without empty rhetoric. 

And he is also on other non MSM podcasts discussion his latest book in which he goes into losing and then finding his religion. 

the MSM is absolutely hating it of course.

but the alternative media is out there now so we can learn what it is about:

No I haven't read it yet, but will keep an eye out if it gets posted on Scribd//Everand in the near future.

The discussions about the Odyssey means it is now a meme

 The actress with a masters degree who plays Helen of Troy in the new movie apparently never read the book. DUH.

But one good side effect? Lots of discussion about the movie, both pro and con, and also by experts in archeology, history and literature, mean that the clueless are now aware of the story.

The best thing that has happened to Greek literature since Percy Jackson

Here is a discussion at EWTN to give you an idea of how the movie is getting a discussion of various ideas that it brings up.

I haven't seen the movie although it is at the local mall. I'll wait til it's on Netflix.

//

but in the meanwhile, bring in the clowns:

Okay, that’s pretty funny. pic.twitter.com/sbj0mIyMlG

— Tim Hamilton (@TSHamiltonAstro) July 21, 2026

 

the victims of Hamas that the western crybabies ignore

The constant propaganda out of Gaza is always ignoring the dirty little secret: 

That the war was started by Hamas. 

That Hamas stole aid supposed to go to civilians to build tunnels and buy weapons and rockets. 

That if Hamas had arrested those behind the attack and given them to either Israel or a neutral third country, the war would never have gone on. 

And of course the leftists who hate Israel are parroting the propaganda without examining if the news reports put out by Hamas are true.

But what is worse is that conservative Catholic sites are busy parroting the same line. A remnant of anti Semitism of Belloc or Father Coughlin? Who knows.

But there are even claims that Israelis dancing at a festival never happened, or if it did happen it was okay because all Israelis were enemies so it was okay to kill them

ah but what about the Asians who were targeted by Hamas?  Did a Filipina who refused to leave her bed bound elderly patient deserve to die.

and then farther away from that party, there were  Asian casualties who had nothing to do with the war but were killed. And these farmworkers are rarely part of the discussion. 

Why were they killed? Envy. 

Local farmers are hiring Asians to help with the harvest.

This displaces jobs that could be done by local non Israeli Palestinians who no longer were hired for fear of terrorist attacks.

What has not gotten much attention is how the west uses   third world farm workers, from Mexicans picking tomatoes in the USA to Indians working in northern Italy.

So the story no one in the west wants to remember is that Hamas didn't just kill the Israelis, but these workers.

From PIME Asia News, a Catholic news site:

Some 46 Thai migrants were killed when Hamas attacked on 7 October. Another 31 were abducted, with three dying in captivity in Gaza. In northern Israel, five were killed by Hezbollah rockets. Despite this, most chose to stay and continue to provide an essential service to Israeli agriculture.

so why were they there? Because instead of accepting the negotiated peace agreement in 2000, their leaders decided to restart the terrorism, 

so farmers no longer wanted to risk their lives hiring locals

Thai workers constitute the largest contingent of foreign migrants currently in Israel. The first began arriving in 1993, when the Israeli government started issuing temporary work visas to reduce Israel's dependence on Palestinian agricultural workers for security reasons, in the wake of the first intifada, which broke out in 1987.

no it did not spontaneously break out. It was a decision by their leaders, who weaponized hatred while stealing aid money and getting rich, but of course no one bothers to follow the money stolen in this or many other so called foreign aid help from richer countries.

when I searched for a video discussing the story of the kidnapped Thai farmworkers, I found a few videos from eight or more years ago complaining Israel was mistreating these workers, and a dozen recent videos complaining about Israeli tourists in Thailand.

But I found exactly one video from Australia about one of the hostages.

which says a lot about the zeal of the human rights activists who only condemn Israel.

OR as one sardonic Jewish carpenter quipped: You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

violence that the MSM ignores

 

....

Scientist testified vs China is now dead

 From Rappler:

American biologist who testified for PH in South China Sea arbitration killed

  (1st UPDATE) Dr. Kent Carpenter provided expert written records on the environmental harms of China’s reclamation and destructive fishing practices in the West Philippine Sea

a robbery or a hit job?

remember COMA? Yup. They are using coma patients as guinea pigs.

Slay Magazine reports that Arthur Caplan has discussed how they are using "Grain dead" patients to use for experiments.

Professor Caplan revealed that NYU Langone Health operates a research ward using the bodies of neurologically injured patients for experimentation. Caplan referred to the patients as “neomorts” and the experimental facilities as “bioemporia.”

since I am not familiar with the site, I will post the podcast from Youtube.

remember this movie?

the next step in killing: Persuade you to kill yourself then kill you by taking your organs

 The NEJM published a dozen pro euthanasia articles in the early 1990s, and as a result I quite the Mass Medical society in protest since that magazine was sponsored by the MMS.

But apparently they are still pushing murder as medicine.

This from 2008    

Voluntary Euthanasia — Implications for Organ Donation | NEJM Sep 5, 2018 ·

 Canada now permits physicians to hasten the death of a patient by means of physician-assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia. This development creates a new pathway for,,,

 

 and this one last week: 

Contextualizing the Dead Donor Rule in an Era of Voluntary ...

Growing acceptance of voluntary euthanasia, which opens the door to death by organ donation, warrants a recontextualization of the dead donor rule and assessment of the ethical principles involved.

Even NPR is worried. 

A new proposal for organ donation sparks concern

Ya think? 

the bad news is that this is already being done in Canada (and probably in Europe)....and as Canada shows a move to helping depressed people kill themselves, you can see how easily they can be persuaded choosing death will benefit someone whereas if they stay alive their lives have no meaning.

I will have to figure out full links later of course. But my point is that this is not a popular opinion but one being pushed by those in charge of medicine.

this means the entire Hippocratic Oath has been destroyed by the woke in charge of medicine, yet for some reason it hasn't gotten a lot of publicity, even in my medical reading.

And where the hell are all the bishops and the Pope?

Busy throwing the pious Trads under the bus