Just collateral damage in his quest for fame and cash.

I've been to both countries and in them a VAST majority of the people endorse knocking them off or locking them up. Most of this derives from the reaction of people who live in poverty. When you live very close to the edge you really can't afford to give the benefit of the doubt to criminals and both of these countries had very serious crime problems.

When I lived in Africa a number of years ago I was standing in line at the cash register of a grocery store. The woman behind me let out a scream and began shouting "LESHODU" which is thief in Sesotho. A young man who had been standing behind her had tried to pickpocket her wallet. He bolted out of the store with a crowd hot on his heels. They quickly nabbed him and began committing a first class beatdown. The laughing joyful crowd (in Lesotho everything is an occasion to laugh) dragged him into the store and awaited the police. On one hand I felt sorry for the guy because he was clearly poor himself. On the other hand if he had succeeded in absconding with her money her children would have had nothing to eat that week. "There's nothing to eat" has a totally different meaning for the 2 billion who live in poverty than it does for a bored American teenager staring at the open refrigerator. Let's hope we don't reach that level of desperation here.

I have several friends who are trying to convince me that PI is a great place to retire. This viewpoint tells me otherwise.

The Philippines is a great place to retire. If you don't participate in the drug trade, you're fine. In addition, the Marcos Jr. administration is far different than Duterte's. Marcos Jr. respects the rule of law, which some Filipinos criticize him for, because they value security over due process.

Duterte has been arrested by the Criminal Court in the Hague and is set to be tried there. That certainly will not be lost on any of his successors. The charges against him are not following the rule of law in his drug crackdown.

I just think society in general, all over the world (including Trumplandia), is not something I'm used to.

this world is not the world I worked so hard to see at this time of my life. I was always decried as the hippie with the rose colored glasses for my ideals and actions... I don't regret anything I did... I only regret that evil seems to triumph over good so many times - at least, in the short run. Of course, I don't consider 69 years to be a short run... but in the world scope of things, I guess it is.

But I do agree that every man has a right to due justice. I just think we can acquit that man without letting those others go free.

which means a corrupt conviction or one without due process.

Any accused criminal who is convicted within the law and who received due process is okay with me and any other person who believes in the rule of law.

That's the meaning of that saying to me.