What about The Philippines?

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Larry-Lambert

 

 

Bullet Points:

** (Carl Minzner) China is aging and shrinking. The country’s population surged from 540 million in 1949 to a peak of 1.4 billion in 2021 but tipped over into decline in 2022. In the coming decades, it will follow the rest of East Asia into a future marked by low fertility, rapid aging, and a steadily declining population. By the middle of the century, China is projected to have up to 200 million fewer people than it does today. Simultaneously, the median age will steadily climb from 38 years old in 2020 to around 50.

Demography is not destiny. Neither a shrinking nor a graying population necessarily spells doom for China. But the challenges presented by a declining labor force and surging numbers of elderly are significant and will require effective long-term planning and unpopular decisions. Official statements made by the Chinese Communist Party indeed flag the importance of addressing the needs of an aging society, and Chinese officials and scholars have warned about the need to raise unsustainably low retirement ages. But China’s evolving political system under an increasingly autocratic General Secretary Xi Jinping looks particularly unsuited to handling these challenges.

As China pivots back to an era of one-man rule, the country’s decades-long practices of technocratic governance are crumbling. This is making it harder to carry out long-term planning, particularly in rural China. What is more, Xi has prioritized political stability over all else, limiting Beijing’s ability to undertake necessary reforms that might harm the interests of vested urban elites, such as trimming their retirement benefits.

The one (male) child policy will bite China harder in the coming years. The life of a peasant in China is likewise unappealing to the rising generation. Who will raise food for a hungry nation?

** Who is the greater enemy? Who poses the greatest threat? (Sharyl Attkisson) A Rassmussen survey finds that 74% of likely U.S. voters say they are concerned about the US government spying on American citizens.  In a time in history when something as innocent as raising a cow on your property without government oversight is a crime — the 74% have a point.

** Perverts and tranny indoctrination is discussed.

** Product Recommendation:  5.11 Stryke pants. I’ve been wearing 5.11 “tactical” shirts for years because I love the 4-pocket design and enjoy wearing ripstop cotton fabric. I tended to wear jeans because they are rugged and inexpensive.  I’ve worn Crye Precision trousers and a number of “tactical” pants and still do, but lately, I’ve been pulling the Stryke pants out of the drawer more regularly because they’re just so comfortable and have the pockets that I use. They are not inexpensive, but I’ve bought them because I like to wear them.  The self-adjusting tunnel waistband means that whether I’m standing or sitting at home or on an airplane, they’re comfortable and fit. (5.11 makes different styles of trousers but check out the cuts with the tunnel waistband).

** CDRSAL discusses – Back to the Philippines His blog is always worth reading.

 

More on the Philippines

If you’re following geopolitics, watch the Philippines. China thought they had things sewn up there and in Australia but it seems that neither the P.I. nor Australia want to be satraps of China. Imagine that. Last week the US/P.I. Alliance identified On Monday, the allies identified the four new U. S./P.I. base sites as Balabac Island in Palawan; Naval Base Camilo Osias in Santa Ana, Cagayan province; Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan; and Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela. 

Philippine Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Balabac sits on key sea lines of communication in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have competing territorial claims, including over islands where Beijing has built up military fortifications.

The northern sites are not only aimed at a Taiwan contingency, but they also have utility in times of a South China Sea conflict. It’s difficult to imagine that a Taiwan Strait conflict will exclude a South China Sea dimension.

The Bashi Channel in the northern part of the Luzon Strait, closer to Taiwan, is a critical chokepoint, either for Chinese naval forces to break out of home waters and get into the open Pacific to target US military installations on Guam to the east, or for US warships to get into the South China Sea.

The Balabac location is close to the disputed Mischief Reef, an atoll where China has built an artificial island with military facilities. The Balabac site allows for intelligence collection and staging of peacetime air and naval activities in the area, which can put Mischief Reef under closer scrutiny.

The Chinese have sent a small army of spies and operatives to the Philippines to watch the developments there. It’s really an open secret. In that world, almost everyone knows who the spies are.

The US Navy SEAL Teams are training extensively with the Philippine frogmen (Philippines SEALs)

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29 thoughts on “What about The Philippines?”

  1. With China continuing to demonstrate what a bad neighbor they are, will other nations start calling China’s expansion project the Malvoisin Project?
    As for not wanting to grow food, the average age of US farmers is not all that great and I don’t see it as a career path that young people are flocking to.

    1. But our farms are highly mechanized. Theirs aren’t. That’s the issue. 5 ‘farmers’ can do a 1,000 acre farm in the US. 5 Chinese farmers can barely farm 40 acres. Big difference.

      Even our hobby ‘organic’ farms are more productive per acre than a typical ChiCom farm.

      1. Their farms are not typically mechanized unless it’s a “show farm”. It’s all sweat labor.

      3. We’ve already reached a point where a very few, highly mechanized farmers are producing a lot of food. So what happens when those very few (and old) farmers are no longer farming? Will robots be ready to take their place?

        1. If the goddamn Commies (the local ones) don’t interfere, what’ll happen is that food prices will go up, farming might actually become profitable, and then people will be drawn to it because they can make money, instead of just being kicked in the balls 24/7/365.

          Or MegaAgriBusiness will snuggle up closer to the Swamp, and one more American necessity of life will be 100% controlled by the “government”.

          I suppose I can hope… but mostly I’m hoping that I don’t live too long and see how bad it gets.

          -Kle.

  2. I wear the most fashionable attire of the smokey mtns I ware overalls pointer brand made in Bristol Tn why wear a torniqieht around your waste?

  3. “Mischief Reef, an atoll where China has built an artificial island with military facilities.”
    You would think two could play that game, especially with Joe being at the sand castle stage of mental cognizance. Which atol close to China would make them go ballistic first?

    1. The Philippines decision to invite the US to build 4 bases was like kicking a Chinese Beehive. The bases support Taiwan and project power into the South China Sea.

    2. We don’t need artificial islands if we can get basing privileges back in the Philippines. And we have bases in South Korea, Japan, we can stop off in Taiwan, we can probably encourage Singapore to give us some space and we can work with Australia.

      Until recently, like, say, 2021, we had nations that were very friendly with us we could work with. Now? Even with Xiden in charge, there are nations like the Philippines who are getting desperate for help.

      1. China was treating both Australia and Philippines like they were already Chinese sovereign soil. Australia is leasing US Nuclear submarines and is buying their own fleet. When is the last time that Australia said, we want nuclear powerplants in our harbors? They had a dose of reality. The Japanese have seen it coming and the ROKs have been on a war footing since the Korean War. Even Vietnam wants to play in the anti-Chinese alliance.

        1. Viet Nam? I can see that. Funny world having the US & Viet Nam (sorta) allies over China…

          2. The Vietnamese have good and sufficient reasons to detest the Chinese going back a couple millennia. It might as well be a part of their DNA by now.

          3. The Vietnamese have kicked ChiCom ass more than once. Including a full-scale invasion by the ChiComs, which is how the ChiComs got to take a picture of a knocked-out Viet tank.

            The Viets used the ChiComs. They were never friends. The ChiComs thought they controlled the Viets and found that they were very very wrong.

          4. The Chinese attacked, had their asses handed to them by the Vietnamese, declared victory, and retreated back into China to lick their wounds.

  5. Of interest is that the US involvement in the PI is now spread out, not concentrated at Olongapo and Angeles City. And the Soviets/Chinese/North Vietnamese have ALWAYS had spies in the PI going back to the 50s… sigh

    1. I think that the difference now is that I know them by name, who they meet, etc.

  6. 5.11 is good gear.

    Me…Wranglers (gotta in ranch country), Kuhl Rydr’s (wear like iron but comfortable for working around the place and they have a lined Winter version). Our newest latched-onto: Revolution Race (Swedish, even tho MrsPaulM is Danish…great gear, and less expensive than Fjallraven which is also excellent). Have a bunch of specific Helly Hansen fleeces and jackets to round out the gear selection…buy it once and it lasts forever (have an HH Winter powder coat I use for everything, 22 years old and washed looks like new).

    For the past decade we’ve been buying better gear, last longer so less expensive in the long run.

  7. I started wearing 5.11’s quite some time ago. Great fit, comfortable, durable, lots of pockets, and BIG belt loops so I could wear my belt, holster, and mag pouches without the weight yanking my pants down ghetto-style.

  8. Everyday wear at my place is usually a pair of Wranglers. I do have a couple of pairs of no name jeans that I use when painting the house or working on the tractor. I tend to over grease is what I have been told. My son bought me a pair of Kuhls for Christmas and they are very comfortable and clean up well but are pretty expensive as far as I am concerned. They are now my slightly dressy go to town and travel pants.

    Definitely agree with buying better gear. If you select carefully it does last longer.

  9. magine that. Last week the US/P.I. Alliance identified On Monday, the allies identified the four new U. S./P.I. base sites

    How defensible are these sites? Will there be the willingness to defend them? Just a tripwire?

    1. I expect that the US will be operating advanced (portable) radar and other ELINT/SIGINT systems from these bases and will install countermeasures including SAMs and sufficient ground troops to secure them. I also expect that F-35B (VTOL) aircraft will be present in sufficient numbers to interdict an enemy.

      1. Thank you for the information. My remaining question will the Biden Criminal Enterprises have the will to employ them?

        Cynic me says, “No”.

        1. The democrats love wars. They love them a lot because it feeds the swamp.

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