The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti, Part 2
By Joe America
The Philippine government is overpowering. Dogmatic. Controlling. Threatening. Using police as brutal agents of authority. Wielding a budget loosely, throwing billions at pet accounts like “intelligence funds”.
Do you feel like you are faced off against the power of the law? The power of the gold?
It is not the first time, in history. It won’t be the last.
The tragedy, the shame, is that we have so many leaders in the Philippines who are drawn to the power. To the gold. Not to the the Constitution. Not to Filipinos, as a people.
Sacco and Vanzetti were two organizers of industrial-worker protests in the US in the 1920’s. They were accused of murdering a guard based on testimony later recanted or argued to be false. They were executed in the electric chair in 1927.
I am reminded of Senator De Lima put in jail on what seems to be purchased testimony, and the enduring government hostility that represents ‘justice’ in her case. And the budding cases against Senators Hontiveros and Trillanes, and Chief Justice Sereno. The attempt to wipe out the Commission on Human Rights. Threats against Ombudsman Morales.
The power of the law. The power of the gold.
But these forces can never win, can they? They can only cause suffering and injustice. Power and gold are not the only currencies about. We have the heart and courage of good men and women, and their intellect. The only question is when poorly used power gives way, for it is then that men and women of gold will decide to choose more wisely.
And people of compassionate bearing will return to power.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
“The Ballad Of Sacco And Vanzetti, Part 2”
Transcribed from the letters of Vanzetti and sung by Joan Baez
Father, yes, I am a prisoner
Fear not to relay my crime
The crime is loving the forsaken
Only silence is shame
And now I’ll tell you what’s against us
An art that’s lived for centuries
Go through the years and you will find
What’s blackened all of history
Against us is the law
With its immensity of strength and power
Against us is the law!
Police know how to make a man
A guilty or an innocent
Against us is the power of police!
The shameless lies that men have told
Will ever more be paid in gold
Against us is the power of the gold!
Against us is racial hatred
And the simple fact that we are poor
My father dear, I am a prisoner
Don’t be ashamed to tell my crime
The crime of love and brotherhood
And only silence is shame
With me I have my love, my innocence,
The workers, and the poor
For all of this I’m safe and strong
And hope is mine
Rebellion, revolution don’t need dollars
They need this instead
Imagination, suffering, light and love
And care for every human being
You never steal, you never kill
You are a part of hope and life
The revolution goes from man to man
And heart to heart
And I sense when I look at the stars
That we are children of life
Death is small
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Joan Baez is a top-selling folk artist and was a leader in the protest against the Vietnam Nam War starting in the late 1960’s. She sort of reminds me of Senator Hontiveros but with a voice that is out of this world. She is politically like the Senator, that is. Big heart. Right thinking. Activist in words and deeds. Meaningful.
Baez was also a part of the free living era, bummed around with Bob Dylan, and likely smoked a joint or two along the way. She’d be shot in the Philippines, I suppose, and that is the great tragedy of Duterte’s drug war, isn’t it? Innocent people never get a chance . . . we don’t know what they could have become.
It is not a merciful government.
But let’s not leave it at such an angry, discouraging note. Let’s leave it with a love song, Joan Baez singing about Bob Dylan, now a Nobel prize winner for the literature of his songwriting. “Diamonds and Rust” was written by Baez in 1975, 10 years after she broke up with Dylan.
Love will be here long after tin-horn dictators move on.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I am more afraid now of the forces outside than I was more than a year ago. Crazy government. Good morning Joeam!
Good morning, arlene. Crazy, indeed. So keep love in the air.
Hope your bank account is empty JoeAm………Aguirre is going to check it…
🙂
Filled with hard earned pension money. Just numbers.
Now you have put together artists, song, poetry and the urgent, crying message of the country — a powerful mix that most can understand.
Bob Dylan is the magician of lyrics with powerful messages, but oh what a voice Joan Baez has to bring home messages from a lot of artists and composers.
Thanks for bringing Sacco and Vanzetti to enrich my failing mind data.
Thanks for all the above, Joe.
You are quite welcome. It was refreshing to me to go back to historical days of passion and get centered on optimism that people of heart will not roll over to unfair brutality. I type this as I listen to Sotto and Pacquiao doing opening remarks that essentially try to criminalize those who write behind pseudonyms. Thank goodness Senator Pangilinan is there to provide some balance.
When I think of this singer/song-writer era, that’s always the first song that comes to mind, NH.
Hi LCX!
Long time! Speaking of both sides, I want to hear your comment on Trump’s drone program. Thanks.
There is an article attached to the commrnt link.
https://joeam.com/2017/09/22/notes-about-a-day-of-protest/#comment-226778
karl !!!!!!!!!!!!!! got it, bud, just replied there.
LCX!!!!! I read it.
Oh, Joe.
I was trying hard to put this Duterte nightmare out of my mind, at least on hold for the time being. So I picked up this book “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande to read. But then after 15 pages, I stopped to check my e-mail and happened to read your blog post.
At least your close made an attempt at optimism, albeit a wistful one.
Wistful, nice word. Exactly what I was feeling. Lost love, like the way a nation becomes brutal and no longer is the same nation I fell in love with.
JoeAm if I may, by virtue of old age. When evil stalks any place on earth, It is not the NATION or its PEOPLE Joe, IT IS THE REGIME, IT IS THE REGIME and no one or nothing else. It is not the jeepney or its driver or its passengers, Joe. It is HUDAS NOT PAY.
A regime is accountable for the nation’s laws and acts, and when the people reflect the leader’s ways by becoming brutal, unlawful, and uncivil , then both pay the price, the loss of love . . . and even investments. Divorce is available to all in the secular world of global travel and investments.
Put another way, I fell in love with a conservative, church-going nation that respected elders and celebrated fiestas as warm, inviting, fun-loving family affairs, not a nation that agrees with shooting drug users and putting drop boxes in the barangays where anyone can accuse anyone of being a druggie.
Welcome to the Dark Side 😦 All countries have this.
We Filipinos are just more expert at faking “goodness”.
I put the blame on colonialism. But for god’s sake, this is 2017! We must really get over thinking of ourselves as slaves and start thinking like free people.
I blame the Spanish, and, yes, the Americans, but more than them, I blame bickering Filipinos who could never convince anyone that they could responsibly control their own destiny. The pudding has been around for 117 years, and it is still not proving much.
Top argument against Capital Punishment.
What if the accused is actually innocent.
Government Intelligence is becoming an Oxymoron
I think that the President and those around him are scared. With good reason.
One of Duterte’s mistakes is his his “need” to win every fight, even those that he can walk away from.
A lawyer in the Bureau of Customs is told to find a job for a young protégé of the Speaker of the House. The young man is useless; he is being gifted a sinecure in exchange for some political favour somewhere else.
The lawyer is, unfortunately for Alvarez, bright, self confident and – horrors – nicely brought up in an upper middle class family. Worse still, she is honest. She is genuinely shocked by the request, refuses to comply, and calls Alvarez an “imbecile” on her Facebook page.
None of which would have mattered if only the President’s trolls had left her alone…
But they didn’t, and out popped the 6.8 billion shabu story…. which brought out Paulo Duterte, and may well bring down the President….
Why did she kiss Paolo Duterte like old friends when he came in the senate hearing room?
Awkward naman kung sampalin nya.
Yung councilor nga na kaibigan ni Polong di pa nakikita hanggang ngayon.
He surfaced and suppose to be mulling a complaint against Trillanes. Said he had doctor’s order for a medical leave. Diabetes. How come Polong took his committee away from him in the Davao Council for absenteeism?
https://www.rappler.com/nation/184210-small-abellera-mulls-ethics-complaint-trillanes
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/933978/davao-city-council-strips-small-abellera-of-committee-positions-davao-council-small-abellera-boc
Di sya nagpakita ng excuse slip sa council.
Too early for an off topic break, but I just want to celebrate, if I may,
THE TRIUMPH OF SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS AND TECHNICAL PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER
Just as, outside of politics, we have man’s inspiring creativity displayed by artists — painters, writers, composers, singers — touched on in the current blog article, we have scientists, engineers and technical people bringing and opening our minds to the ever extending fringes of knowledge.
Einstein’s waves win Nobel Prize in physics
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41476648
I read the court transcripts about Sacco and Vanzetti. 1920’s America. It is clear that they were framed for the murder. They were made to be like they were subversives during cross examination and it was used as their supposedly motivation for the killing. The men were poor immigrants who had iron clad alibis but that did not help them any. All the worldwide protests and the intellectuals outrage did nothing. They were executed via electric chair.
I can see the parallel you are painting as to today’s PH. Guns, goons and gold are not during election periods anymore. It is sad that those who are supposed to uphold the law, breaks it without remorse. It is doubly sad that those who uphold the law are labeled as enemy of the state.
Powerful statements those, especially after narrating the essential points of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial.
Makes one tear up at the injustice of that event and knowing it’s happening again in our own domain.
Bingo. Ours is to suffer, perhaps, and to prevail, eventually.
(off-track)
JP, just a soft and ‘firm’ suggestion: sana you’ll write a blog-piece for TSOH. I know I will love to read it. 🙂
Here’s how those in the Citizens National Guard (a newly formed group to support Duterte) fit into the conspiracy theory-nut case-cuckoo category, in my opinion:
https://citizennationalguard.com/2017/06/18/a-pledge-to-defend-country-people-and-support-the-president/
Excerpt:
“These threats, whom we pledge to denounce, destroy and eradicate forever, presently defined as, the illegal drug and gambling syndicates and cartels, the local treacherous traitors, who are out to destabilize our country by conniving with the black states of any foreign intelligence agencies and their allies… and their close allies in the banking system, subservient to the machinations and manipulations of the Kazarian bankers, which have imposed a tight leash on our foreign exchange, …”
“Khazarian bankers” is a favorite topic in “Jews and the Rothschilds -will-dominate-the-world-thru-banking conspiracy world.” 🙂
Wow naman. A great effort to sound intellectual that statement. This relates to the interesting use of the phrase Kazarian bankers. The group is titled Citizens National Guard; I hope most of the Citizens referred to have a dictionary or google handy. It cobbles together the items the group wants to counter — but needs a lot of glue to stand together and sound convincing, in my opinion.
Did you see their short list of what they consider the enemies of the state?
1. ISIS-inspired terrorism
2. Communist party of the Philippines-New People’s Army
3. Drug cartels
4. Seditious political opposition (Yellowtards)
5. Foreign intelligence agencies generation international support for regime change
Yes. They spelled out that seditious political opposition are Yellowtards. How very professional and intelligent. Only the best and the brightest could have this creative imagination.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/10/03/1745156/aguirre-acosta-citizen-national-guard-enemies-of-the-state
I tell you, the PH government is now an asylum for every nutcase in the nation to find refuge.
Speaking of nutcase, I believe the American president will visit the Philippines come November for the ASEAN summit. Yep, reality definitely beats any fictions! 🙂
I am reminded of Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.”
In this epoch, “There is a king with murderous tendencies and a queen who is technically a mistress in the throne of the country in the east; and there is a king with treasonous tendencies (having colluded with a foreign kingdom to acquire his position) and a queen who once peddled her sexuality in the throne of the country in the west.”
But hey, things are not settled forever because the French Revolution took place and look how that turned out 🙂
Dickens would find plenty of material in today’s Philippines. I can imagine him taking the life of the child of a drug addict put on the government’s hit list, and the alleyways would be dark and dangerous. Indeed, those who are not killed can pull through hard times and reconstruct civility, and we can hold out hope that Filipinos far and wide will tired of being bludgeoned by people who are using them, and back those wanting a civil and orderly society.
What they want are the heads of “Yellowtards”. They are too yellow, I mean coward, to say so outright.
So they craft some fancy intellectualism around it. How many of their supporters know what the shit they are referring to about Khazarian bankers?
What can one read of this event? DESTABILISATION!!!!! They ought to arrest themselves.
Acosta is so dumb she does’nt know the massa sentiment has shifted against the admin. And so she makes another dumb public posturing to gain future Supreme Court appointee point.
This is terrible. Another casualty by the riding in tandem vigilantes. The victim is a 32 year old welder. Supposed to be a recovering addict. Look at the upper right corner of the first picture. He was killed infront of a grotto enshrining the Santo Nino. Sacrilegious monsters!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4940670/Church-protect-Philippine-officers-talk-drug-killings.html
Based on the affidavit from a resigned cop presented yesterday by Sen.Trillanes, those riding in tandem could actually be cops disguised somehow. Remember also the shout “katropa” from 2 cornered riding in tandem killers. It turned out that the killers are police officers, one of whom received an award before. It takes many forms, this EJKs – via actual police operations, police disguised as riding in tandem vigilantes, and private citizen vigilantes paid to kill. We had a company driver who used to brag that he is a former vigilante paid by local officials from Cavite and elsewhere, said he wanted to go back to his former occupation since at the time, the May election is just around the corner.
The SOJ Sec is now saying that the resigned cop who executed the affidavit was facing charges and that he resigned to avoid facing them. This secretary’s lack of credibility makes me difficult to believe anything he says nowadays, kinda like the boy who cried wolf.
“Do you feel like you are faced off against the power of the law? The power of the gold?
It is not the first time, in history. It won’t be the last.
The tragedy, the shame, is that we have so many leaders in the Philippines who are drawn to the power. To the gold. Not to the the Constitution. Not to Filipinos, as a people.
Sacco and Vanzetti were two organizers of industrial-worker protests in the US in the 1920’s. They were accused of murdering a guard based on testimony later recanted or argued to be false. They were executed in the electric chair in 1927. “
TORA! TORA! TORA! (from a recent re-showing on TV)
The treachery perpetrated by the Japanese in WW2 on that day in Honolulu was justified merely by the morality of victory in pursuit of national gain & need and the capability of might, albeit temporary, to inflict carnage and devastation on an unsuspecting victim. The PH was a co-victim then. The swiftness and cruelty of EJK is reminiscent of that morality and infamy.
In these times of turmoil, we look to any direction that might give us solace and inspiration. Ironically a place we can take lessons from is the Dark Ages of Europe, and leaders exemplified by a saint and king, Louis IX of France.
Excerpts:
“…Many believe that Christendom was a rigid and brutal order. In medieval times, we are told that tyranny ruled, and the Church and the nascent State were constant rivals in the pursuit of dominance. So many modern historians have cynically reduced this period when Christianity prevailed to a time of cultural darkness and violent power struggles. …”
“…A Coherent Vision of the Whole
Our historian’s central thesis is simply stated: “I argue that thirteenth century France was not a world of the secular and religious vying for position and power, but a world in which the material and the spiritual were totally dependent on each other and penetrated one another at every level.”
“… a noble family claimed the right to land they had held for twenty-five years. The local inhabitants contested the right saying it was held by force, and they had long pastured their animals on this land. Parliament ruled in favor of the people. Another case found that a list of complaints by villagers broke the peace and the local noble indeed was justified in his defense of the rights that he and his family had long held.
An even more touching example of the medieval passion for justice to maintain the peace is Saint Louis himself who sent royal enqueteurs (inquirers) throughout the realm to right “any wrongs that he or his ancestors might have done.” They were not only to listen to standing complaints but to actively search out instances of abuse and make restitution.
Such gestures were common in the Middle Ages and not limited to sainted kings. Alas, we cannot say the same about the impersonal governments of our days… “
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/a-brilliant-defense-christendom
The lyrics of the song created by Joan Baez are so appropriate in this crucial time of the Duturd government. Why are we suffering this punishment? What have the Filipinos done to be scourged so much? Brother against brother, families divided, friends alienated.
Only prayers will work and yet the prayers may still not be enough to be heard.
No truer words have been written. Indeed, prayers will work and we have to trust God in all of this. Our concerns will be resolved; our prayers will be answered… in God’s time.
Live right now. Senate Hearing on Fake News. Very interesting.
BAM AQUINO HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR
This is a paraphrase of what I heard during the Senate Hearing on Fake News.
Sen Pangilinan (addressing Nieto of Thinking Pinoy): Since you admitted to being a consultant to a Usec of a sensitive government department, you are aware of the constraint on the personal conduct of one employed in government. You may have to re-think whether you want to continue as a blogger or part of the government.
Sen Bam: Madam Chair (Poe), I think it will be difficult for Nieto to re-think, because his Blog with then be Re-Thinking Pinoy.
Lo and behold, Nieto of Thinking Pinoy is a strategic consultant of a Usec in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Did Nieto and Uson attended UN GA together with DFA Sec?
sorry: Did Nieto and Uson attend
kalakala,
Both of them were in NYC.
As to what the hell are they doing there, that is the thousands of pesos question.
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/182884-mocha-uson-united-nations-general-assembly-new-york
NH,
Nieto said the DFA needs him more than he needs the DFA, because of his meager salary.
His other source of income?
Blogging? He mentioned the number of his followers.
He might be just br a contractor being a consultant, but Mocha is an ASec, she must have no other sources of income.
Bam Aquino is on one of his best performance at a Senate Hearing. This is the portion of the Hearing starting at about 1:30 PM on 2017-10-04.
By the Way, Nieto of Thinking Pilipino and Mocha Unson on display and heard in the Hearing not flatteringly, to say the most.
Scoring big points today were Senators Aquino and Binay, and Trillanes is adding to the whipping of the Duterte propaganda factory.
Summary of the hearing: As long as you put a ? mark at your sentence you can write whatever you want.
Sen Trillanes nailed it on the head. The malicious insinuations of TP are sickening. They may not be illegal but personal decency dictates that he should know where to draw the line.
Pardon my French but TP is a Toilet Paper.
Mocha’s right to self discrimination gave us the right to discriminate her, because she does it to herself.
TP is an as_ wipe because he said that he would give no apology because hr was glad that Senator Delima got jailed amongst other disgusting things he said.
http://www.thinkingpinoy.net/2017/09/cocoygate-senator-sotto-heres-guy-youre.html
This is so DFA stuff.
TP just accused the following personalities without thinking of his right to self discrimination, that is where Mocha one ups him.
He just told us how he earns money, so that the DFA needs him more than he needs the DFA.
A veritable masterpiece. This’ll go down in history just like how Joe McCarthy got burned by Joe Welch.
1. Joe, or any other contributor here,you have to blog on that humdinger of a Senate hearing on fake news purveyors.
2. Definition of Mocha’s “right to self-discrimination”: when you are so discombobulated by the truth and light and you have to run look for a dark space to hide 🙂 🙂 🙂
I may summarize, but not analyze, the discussion in Monday’s article. I particularly want to address pseudonyms.
I’ll discuss anonymity and a few general ideas from the hearing, but not in much detail. Monday’s article. The hearing was a huge smack-down of the Administration’s fake news program, and disparagements of the opposition.
What a coincidence, just reading “One Summer: America, 1927” from Bill Bryson (read only 1/4, 350p still to go). He just mentioned the execution of Sacco And Vanzetti. Amazing the parallels with today, the start of tabloids, one with only fake news! (note, no radio or TV or internet yes, but 1.4 newspapers per family). Focus changing daily, the press needing every day a new sensational story to sell. New heroes dominating the news, e.g Lindbergh… Kukluxclan and identity politics. But what to learn? How to avoids ending up in dictators trying to rule the world?
Will continue reading and report back later.
Thanks. Look forward to it.
Gems of wisdom in that Senate hearing on fake news purveyors:
1. There’s a huge difference between false info made by netizens and false info made by govt officials.
2. Sen Poe, Sotto and others DO NOT KNOW the DISTINCTION between opinion,criticism and lies peddled as news.
What they are so incensed about is OPINION and CRITICISM, not fake news. It is Mocha, Nieto et al who are peddling fake news while occupying official positions in govt. Opinion and criticism are guaranteed freedoms under free speech. Inventing stories, false accusations made by Duterte’s trolls are not.
I can’t believe Poe said this, a former presidential candidate:
Poe to Nieto: If there’s anything, you do excellent research. That’s the truth. Sometimes against us, sometimes for us.
Excellent research from a fake news purveyor?
Hahaha! Poe, Sotto and Zubiri to the rescue of Nieto — of Thinking Pinoy — who, by the fact of being a consultant to the Usec of DFA, is essentially a mouthpiece of the Administration.
Sen Bam wants the anonymity to be over for bloggers on both sides of the divide. That is fine for the pro-Duterte but in the present situation in PH, dangerous for anti-Duterte bloggers. Will the Senate provide armed bodyguards for those who are afraid that they will lose their lives if they shed their anonymity?
Good question, Juana. Actually, I will write an article to that point for publication Monday because the matter is not so simple to suggest that anonymous bloggers are inherently deceitful.
*******
1. Well, I’ll be damned. Diamonds and rust. I haven’t listened to that song for more than a decade. Thanks.
2. It certainly brings back memories. Not of innocence, but of vagabondage. At thirty-something. Half man, half beast, lurching away from the fall, heading straight for destinations unknown.
3. It’s funny how we resort to song and poetry when prose fails.
4. There is something in the beat of music and in the cadence of words that soothes the storms in our breast and the turmoil in our minds.
5. We rage against the crazed men of power. They do not know that they do not bring diamonds.
6. I watched part of the fake news hearing. It is clear that some men have no moral sense, no moral compunction. They think what is not defined in law is permissible.
7. Or worse: what I am capable of thinking is permissible. And no one can stop me because I am President or close to the President.
8. I wanted to end this on a positive note… but it’s so hard. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.
*****
Hey, it was positive to me if it caused you to drift back to those days long lost, but never gone, that amuse or cause wistful reflections. The song has so many meanings for me that I find a peculiar happiness about the richness of my life as I listen to it. Have I told you about my New York rocker girlfriend who was friends with Bob Dylan? Well . . . perhaps we have to find that bar to walk into . . . 🙂
*******
🙂 To memories.
*****
I agree 100 percent it is difficult watching that Hearing and not ruin the day except when one tries very hard to be positive.
One positive about it is that it shows that there are still a few good men and women out there against a sea of bad apples. And I do not mean only Uson, Nieto, the PCOO rationalizers, but also the bunch who call themselves Senators.
Last positive item for the day: being reminded of songs sang by the likes of Joan Baez. There was a time a few years ago I collected some of my favorite Baez’ songs and played it over and over till the wife patted me and said — I know you love JB songs and so do I, but can you kindly change that, at least for the day. 🙂
My dorm roommate in college was a full blooded Indian off the reservation in Oklahoma who was in school on a basketball scholarship. The only things he owned were his clothes, an old portable record player, and six Ray Charles albums, that we would listen to at bed time. Sorry, I feel your wife’s pain. ahahaha But, I now LOVE Ray Charles for his character and music, and even saw him perform once live at the Hollywood Bowl in LA.
PS, there were a number of positives at the hearing. The gist of the hearing, rather than being a mob hanging of blogger Cocoy, was a public whacking of the Admin fake news dispensers. Plus, Bam Aquino clearly has joined the ranks of the outspoken. He is also a very funny guy . . . Having listened to that character Nieto for too long, he suggested to Poe as an aside that they not invite such flakes to Senate hearings . . . well, he said it differently, but that was the idea. Poe, who equivocated just about everything to mush, justified the troll’s being there. Aquino also bounced off Pangilinan’s remark that Nieto should rethink what he is writing, saying that would be hard because then he would become “Re-thinking Pinoy”. Another positive was Nancy Binay’s flat out telling Uson that the law said she had to decide if she was a government worker or a private opinion maker, because she could not be both. I think Senator Nancy has some redeeming qualities, and when the middle ground people switch sides, it would not surprise me to see her join the minority.
Yes about Nancy Binay. When I first watched the program, I did not have my glasses. A woman was then talking. And since she was being addressed as Senator I was wondering who she was. With my glasses on, I was very nicely surprised the speaker was she. Her demeanor has changed along with her hair and dress. Nancy has definitely morphed for the good.
Agree.
She did morph for the good.
The bloggers who are now now infamous government officials must pick a profession.
https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/10/04/mocha-asked-are-you-a-blogger-or-official/
Being a babe-in-the-woods at the time I paid attention to Bob Dylan & Joan Baez, coming stateside in ’69, the first song of Dylan I heard & liked was LAY LADY LAY. I said to my “romantic myself” then: I do like this guy. (Turns out he is from Minnesota, my first US destination)
One of the most relevant statements expressed in the hearing was from Ellen Tordesillas when she said that the real problem with fake news are those coming from the mouths of the public officials. And she was so right.
Yes, indeed. She was a hero for being the first to put the big elephant on the table for dissection: Government deceits. Definite kudos to her.
> 3. It’s funny how we resort to song and poetry when prose fails.
As Edith Piaf sang, “I regret nothing.”
Song and poetry induces prose, I think.
I just remembered what Pope Francis had to say about fake news purveyors:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pope-fake-news-francis-sexual-arousal-coprophilia-coprophagia-a7461331.html
Writing fake news and stories about scandals is like being sexually aroused by excrement, Pope Francis has said.
One more item from me before I turned in early for the night.
Pareto’s 20-80 numbers still hold true in the PH. Twenty percent good apples versus eighty percent rotten ones — most of the latter led only by circumstances by fewer, and currently by social media, the many in the 80 percent not knowing any better.
In the Philippines we have plenty of Saccos and Vanzettis … they got accused … person besmirched … nobody recanted … they are just exonerated by the justice system that Filipinos do not believe they were innocent.
Hmmm … wonder how many are languishing in jail just because they were accused by typewritten affidavits without forensic evidences and the accuser never recanted.
Filipinos have president that accused Trillanes of trump up bank account and closing-account-on-line when I have to stand-in-line just to withdraw money … and Trillanes have Snooky that can worm his/her way in in ANY BANKS IN THE WORLD …
Plenty of bizarre incredible stories in the Philippines. It depends how it is being DESCARTEed.
Talking about DESCARTE, no dummy, not DESCARTE with a silent “S”, DESCARTE pronounced like it is written.
I just wonder how it became part of Filipino language. Who started it? When? Why? How?
How was Descarte embedded in Filipino language? Descarte coined the phrase, IF I THINK, THEREFORE, I AM (something to that effect). Descarte proved there must be God. Aha! Since Filipinos are intelligently religious, the last remaining vestiges of colonization, that must be the reason why.
I think when Magellan landed in the shores of Samar he did not come with a sword and a cross … HE WAS ARMED WITH DESCARTE
I was dizzy when I first read the title, I read it as “The Ballad of Sabtang Basco”.
Hahahaha! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Filipinos love stories, like sisters and brothers of Marilou Danley the live-in partner of the Vegas shooter. Her sisters can unlock the mind of Vegas shooters with their stories. OMG! INCREDIBLE !!! I bet if Vegas shooting happened in the Philippines what the sisters had said would make the case closed-and-shut.
That is why the Hong-Kong Chinese CSI flew to the Philippines in violation of Philippine independence to do forensic studies of bus massacre of Chinese tourists, else, it would end up in just another bizarre incredible stories: stamped, signed, sealed and delivered
I just hope nobody make stories of me in Basco.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-stephen-paddock-girlfriend-marilou-danley/
Just like OJ Simpson case. The glove was made in Baguio. The maker of the glove offered to testify about the glove: DENIED
The Filipina househelp of the neighbor of Simpsons was interviewed by LAPD: DISCOUNTED TOO INCREDIBLE TO BE TRUE
Unfortunately for them they never had that 5-minute of flame.
For a guy who claims not to be Filipino, you sure love gossiping.
The Iris glove that made-or-broke OJ Simpson case was made in the Philippines: “… Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman were killed, he slipped into the new pair, sent overnight from a factory in the Philippines, flexing his fingers freely.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/22/us/new-gloves-a-snug-fit-for-simpson.html
Guarin, Josephine “Gigi”
Simpson estate housekeeper. Mentioned very rarely in the context of the case
A FILIPINA
http://www.cnn.com/US/OJ/players/A-G/index.html
Josephine Guarin struggled with English
“Then, when Guarin – a Filipina – struggled with the word “prayer,” one of the juror alternates blurted it out so the whole courtroom could hear. ”
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/429245/SIMPSON-TRIAL-TO-TAKE-BREAK-DEFENSE-SUFFERS-SETBACKS.html
Three links gets sent to moderation. Sorry for the delay.
Thanks for the links Sabtang Basco.
Just wanted to stop by to send everyone here some faith, hope and love. Most of all love 🙂
Sorry to be nega, but if they impeach the ombudsman and the SC chief justice, the vicious cycle will just continue till kingdom come.
http://www.manilatimes.net/duterte-impeach-morales-sereno/354631/
Duterte is going to be impeached before ombuds and SC Chief … if he does that he ends up like Nixon after the “Saturday night massacre” when he fired Archibald Cox.
Duterte is spiraling and descending into madness, bizarre abnormal, here, Karl read this : http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/935586/duterte-trillanes-mistress-bank-account-abad-amlc-anti-money-laundering-council
Duterte is desperate … his lies and unvetted accusations are worthy of article of impeachment … BUT …. BUT … if Donald Trump is not impeached of his outlandish lies in public Duterte cannot be … NOT UNTIL DONALD TRUMP IS IMPEACHED BECAUSE FILIPINOS JUST LOVE TO COPY …
Remember when Clinton was impeached? Impeachment went en vogue in the Philippines, too !
Copy.
The Ombudsman has the power to investigate the EJKs and prosecute PRD and his enablers.
“The Constitution, laws, and jurisprudence empower Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to investigate and prosecute President Rodrigo Duterte and the most guilty parties for the mass murder of civilians being perpetrated by the Philippine National Police on a grand scale.
The Ombudsman can investigate and prosecute them for “Other Crimes Against Humanity” in the form of “willful killing,” pursuant to Section 6[a] of Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.”
https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/184112-ombudsman-power-probe-president-duterte-mass-murders
THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IS NOW HITTING THE MIDDLE/UPPER MIDDLE CLASS
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/935707/cop-pointed-gun-at-kim-atienza-says-solon-dad
That’s Kim Atienza and his fellow bikers (most of whom come from the Dasma-Forbes-BGC area). That’s Kuya Kim the TV broadcaster, son of Congressman and former Manila mayor Lito Atienza.
“’Yun kung sakaling binaril sila Kim, lalagyan lang sila ng mga droga (If Kim and his friends got killed, they would just be planted with drugs), sachet of shabu, and say they are all drug suspects. These things will happen,” he added.
Atienza said the “the culture of death will punish and affect all of us eventually.”
In the USA if you are covering the White House you are called Senior White House correspondent and are in your fifties/sixties, well educated and be able to reply spreading fake news ( Sean Spicer and Anthony Scaramucci did not last long against the professionals from the press corp.)
In the Philippines it is like an on the job training to cover the Presidential press conferences. They are in the twenties, just graduated and afraid to ask or not capable yet that’s why a Abella is still announcing and defending lies. How can you watch TV and hear the words from a Presidents mouth and believe an explanation later from a spokesperson and write that one in your newspapers?
Only OJT journalists are capable of doing that..
My personal opinion po.
A perfectly accurate opinion, in my judgment. The press corps here is indeed young and timid.
Chuckle! Chuckle! Chuckle! Good observation. White House Senior Correspondents have brains in overdrive. They just do not sit there and parrot what spokesperson says, THEY ASK QUESTIONS !!!
In the Philippines, they do not ask questions or ask for clarification or rebut based on past pronouncements IT BECOMES “Itutuloi sa bukas umaga”. Newspapers have become a comic magazine like Marvel “….to be continued …”
That is why Philippine news for me is just entertainment like reading Marvel comics. And these Filipinos look at them as “INTELLIGENT” ! Nope, Virginia, they are not. THEY ARE PARROTS.
What the Philipine fake newspapers has to do is FIRE ALL OF THESE SOSs have the editorial staff send out questionaires to newsmakers and voila and their answers becomes news for tomorrow.
… firiing these useless pekeng-peryodistas (if I may borrow the word) will save them tons of money hoping to make newspapers accessible to fish vendors to wrap their fish for their customers.
Here are members of White House Press Corp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_press_corps
These are the journalists from China Global Television Network, Shanghai Media Group, Press Trust of India to Al Jazeera. Their alma mater are proud of them and the journalists are worthy of their alma mater. OF COURSE, Malacanang Fresh Corps are graduates from University of the Philippines but U.P. is not big boys school it just a so-so in comparison to Thailand.
Thailand has 8 best Global Universities according to U.S. News and World Report: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/search?country=thailand®ion=asia
Philippines = None. Not even University of the Philippines. BUT THEIR ENGLISH IS GOOD, that is why I am here in the remotest northern islands of the Philippines than in Thailand.
Offtopic: meanwhile, there is a man here who has the best job in the world:
Subtle way of claiming that they even got the military by the orbs.
can’t help but noticed. WHY ARE the VIPs sitting on the chairs covered with white cloth against dust as if taken from a ghost house long vacated by its owners. The dark green things on the table look like dangerous poisonous reptiles. the photo looks portentous and scary.
They don’t want to get the seats dirty.
Maybe they will sell it. I dunno.
From Pinoy Ako Blog – (Cocoy) Eto pala ang sagot ni Mar Roxas. Sana mademanda ka. Para sabay kayo ni Mocha makulong . Resibo. The response of Mar Roxas to Thinkinking Pinoy
Cocoy denies that he is PAB.
https://propinoy.net/2017/09/26/hey-sassquatch/
He deleted it.
On my previous post on the VEGAS CARNAGE, I wrote:
That there’s a fluke side to hind sights of well-meaning men (and women) who says in disbelief [about other heinous crimes]: the wrong doer is kind, honest, generous, loving and harmless person as they knew him. When a man is declared to have murdered 58 and wounded or injured 527 other people, IN ONE GO. And conjectures are wrong if not puzzling. GOD may be, IS SENDING A MESSAGE.
This aftermath story could be one of God’s Messages:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/shot-in-the-heart-saved-by-her-sweetheart-in-las-vegas/ar-AAsVfof?ocid=spartandhp
Offtopic: Looks like Poe just made a slip of logic.
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/184317-grace-poe-thinking-pinoy-excellent-research
What is this Nieto all about? I followed the link and the reporting is just absolutely not to my liking, convolutedly confusing, that I stopped reading the whole mishmash of supposedly facts. I know Joeam’s contributors can make sense of it all in one short blog. WHAT THE HECK IS NIETO ALL ABOUT?
As far as I can tell, the man is nuts, very angry, and . . . like Senator Aquino . . . I’d want to keep him way far away from the Senate or anyplace else where the sane reside. It would take a professional many weeks to diagnose him, so I won’t try.
The dangers of putting quack doctors in high places.