Objective Jerk
I use my MIC and my platform as a form of "therapy" or "medicine" for myself.
Objective Jerk
POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS & MEDICATION MAYHEM: Sleep Struggles, Filipino Political Drama, and the Media's Role
What happens when the very thing meant to help you becomes your biggest obstacle? Join me on a candid journey through the ups and downs of managing medication-induced sleep troubles and the struggle to cut back on energy drinks to stay productive, especially during those long days volunteering at my kid's school. Discover how the combination of VA-prescribed medication and a caffeine boost can complicate the quest for a good night's sleep, leading to restless nights and exhausting days. I'll share the steps I'm taking to reclaim restful nights, from tweaking medication routines to embracing natural sleep aids like melatonin.
Shifting gears, I'll navigate the often perplexing world of politics, both from my home in the U.S. and my current residence in the Philippines. Cutting back on U.S. political news has opened up a new focus on local politics here, a landscape filled with unfamiliar names and unique dynamics. The challenge of staying informed in a foreign political environment is real, and I'll unpack what it's like to grapple with these complexities. From concerns over medication management to untangling political webs, this episode intertwines personal reflections with broader societal themes.
As we explore the intricate world of Filipino politics, you'll hear about my firsthand encounters with the aftermath of political upheaval, including the dramatic story of a local political assassination. The conversation doesn't stop there; I'm inviting you to think about the relationship between media and community perceptions, particularly in the Filipino context. This episode is an invitation to engage with the interplay of media, politics, and personal experience, sparking a dialogue that I hope continues well beyond our time together. Your insights and reflections are welcome, adding to this ongoing conversation.
What's going on? Everybody? This is Objective Jerk. How's everyone doing? Hope, everything is good, everybody's doing alright, hope. The? You know conservatives aren't gloating too much and I hope the liberals aren't too upset, but it is what it is, right. Let's see man, not much going on with me, just been still like drinking Monster, that's because it's a little later. Been working on, so I've been volunteering. I think I talked about it last on. So I've been volunteering. I think I talked about it last time. I've been volunteering at my kid's school helping him do some stuff.
Speaker 1:I don't want too many details, but write some policies and various things and stuff like that. So I'm, uh, spending a lot of time on the computer on word and powerpoint and it's like oh so I, I kind of I don't really drink energy drinks anymore, but every once in a while, like now. Oh so I, I kind of I don't really drink energy drinks anymore, but every once in a while, like now, it's when I kind of need a little something, because it's like I don't know, I kind of to help me be productive, I have to be drinking something. Sometimes it's water, but usually it's coffee or an energy drink try not to drink soda or whatever, but it's like I gotta have something to sip on don't want to be alcohol, obviously, but and then plus coffee though man like I can drink a lot of coffee, but it kind of starts to, like you know, desensitize my, my taste buds and I don't know. I just need something like this every once in a while. So, but yeah, so that's kind of what I've been doing.
Speaker 1:I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, but I, um, stayed in bed and slept a little bit, slept in a little, so it helped a lot, I think, though I think it's a um medication that the VA has me on. I've gotten rid of, like most of my meds, which is great, um, but I'm still on one that, god, when I look it up, it's for like so many things you know. People will make, or pharmaceutical companies will make, a prescription for a certain whatever, and during the trials they'll find out it actually does some other things. So they'll either completely change what it's for or they just kind of put it all together, like this one is like to help people quit smoking, I guess, or something. So it's like an antidepressant sort of, but it's also like it's kind of like a like a adderall kind of thing too, I think, or something, because it's you can't take it past three o'clock because it kind of like a, like a Adderall kind of thing too, I think, or something, because it's you can't take it past three o'clock because it kind of, you know, and I, and with with um I can't remember what it's called but with gabapentin, which is what I used to take, it helped me with certain things, but it just really made me kind of like like I was lobotomized, sort of not you know, just a. So I didn't, I didn't like like the lasting effect it had, you know it's like. And so this one, it seems like the lasting effect for this is my it's just ruining my sleep. My sleep just sucks.
Speaker 1:Um, I go to bed now I'm an old man, it's like I go to bed between nine and 10. Uh, and I got to take some um, melatonin and um, I'll generally, you know, take some melatonin, that I'm chilling in bed and then for like a half hour, an hour, and I started getting tired and I go to bed, try and put on my CPAP and I'll fall asleep, but, and I'll sleep pretty good, I think, for like a few hours, but then if I get woken up by the dogs barking, or sometimes my wife she wants to cuddle, and so she'll, you know, and it wakes me up, and sometimes it kind of like it's like it, you know, it kind of whoa, not scares me, but you know, when you're in sleep or whatever something happens, you kind of wake up from something else. That kind of shocks you awake, sort of, and then I can't go back to sleep. I sit there and then I go use the bathroom or something, since I'm awake, and then when I go back to bed I can't sleep, and this generally seems to happen around like 2 or 3 in the morning, sometimes 4. And I'll try and sleep for like an hour and I can't sleep, and then I just ended up getting up making some coffee and just starting to do some stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's been kind of my routine lately and it's just kind of, I think, really catching up to me. I think it was just you know cause. I felt like crap this morning. I thought I was like sick. I think it was just you know cause I felt like crap this morning. I thought I was like sick, but it was just like, I think, just lack of good sleep. But I the other day, though I'm I'm kind of cutting down on that one prescription because I read that it does kind of can affect your you know, one of the side effects is can affect your sleep and so and I've noticed, like since I started taking that, just my sleep's just been kind of whacked a little.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna wean myself off of it and then let my you know, let my doctor know, see, if I don't even know if I want to try anything else, it's just kind of like I don't know. It just kind of gets it, gets old and get tired of you know. You know some meds will work at first for a little bit, but then, I don't know, it's it's a crazy thing when you think about it. You know I mean we there's so many prescriptions and so many medications out there. I think they kind of do like a temporary fix, but I think they end up doing more harm than good for people, especially when they take it for long periods of time. Like I think you know it all depends on the, on the doctor and stuff, but people that take some of these, they should not take it for more than like six months. Like after six months they should be weaned off of it and then see where they're at. And then you know what I mean. Like that should be like almost like law, you know, because even though somebody feels like maybe the reason they're taking it is helping them, it's having other lasting effects that end up messing things up and I think it's a huge problem in our society today. But I don't know. Anyway, things up and I think is a huge problem in our society today, but I don't know Anyway, so that's kind of I don't know my life.
Speaker 1:In a nutshell, in the past week, um, so there's lots of stuff going on, uh, you know, politically, kind of like burnt out. Now that you know Trump won and he's doing his thing, I'm kind of like, okay, I feel a little more at ease and I don't have to talk about, you know, that stuff. And and there's still, you know, bs politics going on, but I'm not I'm not watching it kind of as much as I was. So I've been trying to actually, um, every once in a while, try and focus on the Philippines, you know, because that's where I live. So you know, I'll get a newspaper occasionally and read some.
Speaker 1:I like reading the newspaper. I'm kind of old school that way, and then just try and follow along with some things. It's just that you know you have like the three-letter agencies, like in the States. I know what they are, here I'll read something and it'll be something. I don't know what they are. I have to look it up. Plus, you know the names are so kind of I have a hard time tracking. You know, like if you read something and it brings up somebody's name and then it kind of talks and it brings up their name again, you can of follow along, but like when it's a name I don't recognize or whatever, like I'm constantly having to like wait, who is that? Again I gotta go back. Oh, that's right. Okay, you know what I mean. Like it doesn't sink in my brain with the. So it's like it's. It's.
Speaker 1:It's almost like if I were to read, like if I was to read some sort of article on I don't know anything, some little short political article that happened in the States, I could read it once and I'd be good. But here I got to read it like two to three times to kind of cover anything, just to make sure that I I understand everything that's talking about. So it's kind of a little, a little bit more labor intensive really. Um, but anyway, I just I thought maybe I'd share some stuff that's kind of going on here so people can kind of see as crazy you know. I mean, politics is crazy wherever you go, you know, and it's crazy here too. Just different, um, like case in point, the vice president, who is the daughter? She's either the daughter or the sister, I think the sister of the former president, derte Derte. I don't know, I don't think I say it right, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:With the names. I don't. I have a hard time following along. Sometimes. It's kind of like everybody here has. What's funny is like lot of Filipinos here have like an English or American type name. Okay, like I have a cousin-in-law, right, his name is Justin, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But everybody calls him Den Den. So everybody has these nicknames of these words that I don't know what the hell it is. You know what I mean. So my wife will be like oh, you know, I was talking to Den Den, and then I'm like who's Den Den? Who's that again what I mean. I know who Den Den is now because I've, you know, been here for a while.
Speaker 1:But when she talks about people I don't know, and everybody has this like nickname whatever, and so she'll be talking about them and then what I've learned is like, okay, what's their actual name? And she'll be like, oh, it's Sarah. I'm like, well, why doesn't? Okay? Well, I can understand Sarah, I can follow along. Who said you know what I mean? It's like I just this nickname thing.
Speaker 1:It's hard for me to keep track of who's who and what's what and everything. What's what and everything. Anyway, so the vice president of the Philippines right now, who is? Yeah, dierte president, let's see. So, but she's so hold on trying to see if it says it on here. Crap, I can't. I don't know if she's the daughter or the sister. I want to say the sister, but so she was in politics doing some other stuff. But it's kind of weird the way they do their vice president and president thing. They don't do it the same as we do it in the states. Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's not, I don't know, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So there's a thing that's in the headlines or in the news right now that she made a threatening comment or a video, apparently saying to the effect that she has already hired and designated an assassin to take out the president if she was to ever be killed. You know what I mean. Take out the president, if she was to ever be killed. You know what I mean. Kind of like a, so if I get killed, you have someone kill me. I already got something lined up for you to be taken out, or whatever you know, like an insurance policy sort of thing, which is crazy, you know. Could you imagine if, like who? Like Pence, you know if Pence said something like that to Biden? You know what I mean. Or like if, now, harris says something like that to Trump? You know what I mean. Coming up, so it's just, it's kind of crazy, you know.
Speaker 1:So when I I was like you know what? Okay, I'm going to look in this load Cause I've heard some stuff, I've heard my wife talk about it and some stuff. So the thing is is like when I hear something, or it's like you know, you can find news articles that oh, so-and-so said this and blah, blah, blah. So it's like I'm looking for like the quotes, like what she actually said, verbatim, or the video, right, so apparently there's a video of her, like it looks like she. I mean the screenshot, um, of her yelling into her. You know, like me, like my webcam saying it, and then that it was see, the NBI, cybercrime investigators. I don't know what NBI is national Bureau of investigation, maybe, I don't know. So that's one thing. These three letter words, I don't. I don't know. Here I got to, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So they said they found the video clip to be authentic. It's not deep, fake or ai. So I'm like, okay, well, where's this clip? I want to see the actual clip for myself. You know, I want to see what it looks like, what she says and all that kind of stuff. And you can't find it anywhere. Like it's. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:You know what, though I didn't try twitter, I did not try twitter and I got my twitter closed up, dang it. I didn't even think about that. I wonder if it's on Twitter. Uh, it might be, but anyway. So it's just kind of a strange whatever.
Speaker 1:And you're thinking like man, what's? You know? They're talking about getting killed and this and that. Oh wait, I'm watching the video right here. Hold on, let's see, hold on, let's see. Well, it's showing the video. I'm watching like a little video. I thought it was the actual video, but it was just showing the clip of it. Like, I want to see the actual video, but it's probably not in English anyway, so I'm not going to be able to understand it, but you know subtitles right anyway. So that's kind of going on right. And then it made me think about um. A couple months ago there was was, let's see. So this is kind of crazy. So okay, yeah, so a couple months ago there was basically assassination of what they call a village chief. He's like part of um, the president of the Association of Barangay Captains of San Nicolas.
Speaker 1:So San Nicolas is like the you know the town a little north from where I live. So San Nicolas is like the town a little north from where I live, and a barangay is basically a neighborhood and each neighborhood or barangay has like a little bit of like elected kind of help. You know the neighborhoods maintain, you know their streets and their, you know their infrastructure basically for the neighborhoods. You know and kind of get the neighborhood involved and doing stuff and this and that. But then there's also a lot of corruption and money laundering and skimming and stuff like that. But it's kind of like the gateway into getting into politics. You start off as a barangay council and then the captain, and then maybe you can be the mayor of a small town or whatever. You know what I mean, Something like that. So that's basically kind of what, in a nutshell, what? A barangay captain or the barangays, that's what they do, so, anyway.
Speaker 1:So this happened when this happened. This doesn't say on here when's the date on. Okay, so this is the end of October, so just before Halloween. Um, so I remember I was driving with, I think, my whole family my wife was there. We were going up north to somewhere, probably the mall or something, I can't remember. But so we're driving down this road and it was just really slow going, you know, just taking forever. And as we get close, my wife sees the police and sees a car on the side and she's like, oh my gosh, that's where it happened. So you know cause? She's able to track what's going on in the news and everything better than I am, and I'm like, well, what happened? She's like, uh, barangay captain technically it wasn't a captain, though he was president of the association or whatever. But she's like you know, he got, he got killed, he got assassinated. I was like what? And then, as we drive by, you can see the suv just riddled with bullet holes. There's blood inside on the windshield and everything you know, and it was like damn. And so this comes like. This is like a month after a very similar situation happened somewhat in the same area not exactly the same, but so it's kind of crazy some of the stuff going on, right. So I'm just going to read this. Oh wait, maybe not. That's pretty short. Oh no, here we go read more. Okay, so I'm going to read this. It's pretty short anyway.
Speaker 1:Luwak city because that's the biggest city that's close by the president of the association of barangay captains of san nicholas town, was gunned down early saturday by still unidentified attackers in barangay 22. San gulo, mero. Oh, like the director, I think. A report reaching the locos norte police said, according to witnesses, mark adrian barba, 39, village chief of barangay 6. San juan batista. So there's names here. I'm recognizing gilmero. That sounds like that director. And then you got batista. I think it's spelled a little different though.
Speaker 1:Was on board a great toyota innova which is like a minivan type thing with a plate number whatever, along with two other individuals supposedly one was like a security bodyguard type individual when they were ambushed at about 3 am along the the highway on their way home from a nearby cock arena so they have like a big cock arena. It looks like a coliseum, like a miniature coliseum for cock fights and stuff. It's actually pretty cool. I've been in there, I've talked about it before, but so yeah. So they were hit and shot at. People left. The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital, but Barbara was pronounced dead by the intending physician. Meanwhile his companions, who were wounded in the attack, remain in critical condition. Responding police recovered multiple empty shells of m16 armor light rifle from the ambush site and they're on like mopeds too. So it's like they're driving on a motorcycle or a moped and you got the guy in the back with their rifle. It's kind of crazy. Police investigators are still determining the identity of the attackers and the possible motive of the killing, so I think I know one other individual ended up dying in the hospital.
Speaker 1:I can't remember if one survived, but so this article the one I just read came out October 26. Now here it is December, right, and there is nothing recent about this. There's a bunch of articles basically with all that same information, maybe a few little differences or whatever. Some were like maybe a day later or whatever, and where it talks about, that's how I knew about the guy, uh, you know the other guy not surviving, but there's nothing like right now you think there would be. You know, here it is over a month later and there's no kind of updates. You know, oh, you know sources of claim, blah, blah, blah. You know this person, whatever, this is nothing, there's like nothing.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of crazy, you know, kind of makes you wonder why. Why is no reporters grilling? You know, the police, hey, what's what's going on? Uh, I mean the police, hey, what's what's going on? I mean there should be something. I don't know, maybe it's just, I don't know it. Just, it seems kind of crazy to me that there's no new, nothing like I put in there. There's a like I said, there's a bunch of articles at the time, but there's nothing recently like any kind of updates or anything. So I just I kind of find that a little strange. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Here's another one. So this is the newspaper that I read, the Daily Tribune. So I was going to read this one too. So this was. So the one I just read was the second shooting. So I think this one talks a little bit about the first one. So violence continues to escalate in San Nicolas ahead of the 2025 midterm polls. So this one's kind of talking a little bit more about, or maybe kind of referring to, what it could possibly be about.
Speaker 1:Right, as a municipality reported a second shooting incident since the start of the election season. The latest attack targeted the individual I talked about already and two unidentified individuals. Okay, the guy had reportedly been at San Nicolas Cockpit Arena shortly before the ambush. Concerned citizen alerted in the San Nicolas Municipal Police Station, prompting an immediate police response. That says 2.45 am. That that happened, prompting an immediate police response led by somebody who arrived on the scene 2 48 am, but the other article said like three. They're not very diligent with their information, are they? Well, it says at about 3 am. Okay, I mean, that's pretty close, I guess. But anyway, preliminary investigators investigations reveal that the individual and his companions were traveling. I already talked about that. The victims were immediately transported to a hospital where they were declared dead on. Also, they all did die. Then, though, the locust norway police, san nicholas, have yet to issue an official statement.
Speaker 1:Sources within the disclosed that five, five, six rounds which is like m16, the armor light which we talked about indicating high powered firearms were used in the attack. Approximately 45 rounds were fired at the scene. Uh, intensifying safety concerns in the region. So one thing too that they do here in the philippines is, right around elections time, like you cannot buy a gun. Like because you can. You know people have guns. You can buy guns. You know that you have to be um citizen, you know they do, you know the background check and all that kind of stuff. But you are not allowed to buy or purchase a firearm during elections, around election season or election times or whatever like that. You know, because of stuff like this, you know somebody maybe will just suddenly, oh I'm going to go, whatever, but then you know they'd have to already own a weapon. I guess I don't know. But I digress, right, okay.
Speaker 1:This attack follows the killing of Barangay Chairman Francisco on the 20th of September. So he was 45. He was ambushed outside his home, killed by an unidentified assailant. The scene of the crime recovered .45 caliber there. No arrests have been made. With two attacks on local officials and quick secession, san Nicolas residents are calling on authorities to act swiftly to prevent further violence. Local leaders and residents alike are urging law enforcement agencies for transparency and decisive measures to restore public confidence and ensure safety during this critical election
Speaker 1:period. So here's what I'll say. I've said it before but the law enforcement, here they suck. They just do. Not all of them, but from what I can tell, based on my observations and my personal dealings with law enforcement for various things, you know anything from stupid whatever to you know, going to the police station and making reports or whatever. You know anything from stupid whatever to you know, going to the police station and making reports or whatever. You know, there's lots of different stuff, um, but they just kind of seem like they don't want to do their job. They just want to wear the uniform and be respected as police officers, but then they don't want to actually do
Speaker 1:anything. That's, that's the, uh, the impression that I get, you know, and it kind of sucks because, you know, I, I was military police, there was a federal police, and so, you know, I kind of I can empathize with them a little bit, but it's like it just seems it's a little crazy, a little different here. I don't know. I mean, again, it's not everybody you know, but it does seem kind of weird that so now, so you have two officials who were taken out and there's nothing, there's absolutely nothing. You know what I mean. So it just kind of makes you think that, like everybody was like well, don't care, or we're like happy that it actually happened, like it was somebody they didn't like or whatever. So the police are just kind of like, yeah, okay, and then they're just going to forget about
Speaker 1:it. Same with, like the media, I guess, I don't know. It's just kind of crazy. I don't know, it's one of those things. But uh, if you're Filipino, let me know what you think, if not, let me know what you think. But that's about it. Thanks for hanging out, thanks for listening, god bless, and I'll see you guys next time. All right, bye.
