Was just listening to the now notorious clip of Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte’s rant about Obama. First time I’d heard him speak. Very thick accent–I think that is Visayan? I know he is from Davao City in Mindanao. Anyway, he was off on some macho Pinoy riff–the dudes are always so tough, but the women run the show–about how he is the president of a sovereign country and not a colony and I was waiting for him to call Obama a sonofabitch when he slipped into Tagalog and oops, he didn’t say sonofabitch. SOB doesn’t quite capture it. Let’s just say it doesn’t translate well.

Apparently someone on staff immediately afterward reminded President Duterte that when he wants to play John Wayne with the Chinese over the South China Sea, the Philippine Navy’s battle fleet consists of four small frigates a half century old and a number of patrol boats. The Philippine Air Force has a grand total of two jet fighters. Yes, two. As in a pair. The Chinese have more than that.

Putang ina mo, indeed.