Plane Sailing - Hopium & Fading Dreams of Empire

Trump wants to build a fleet of 3... 10... 20... 25 (why not 50 or 100?) new battleships for the US Navy, and although it strikes me as some sort of parody or sick joke, apparently Mango Mussolini is actually being serious.

From Altars to Outrage: The Strange South African Devotion to Bigotry and Moral Panic

It really has me beat why so many South African Christians worship at the altar of Charlie Kirk. Yes, I know it's been two months, and he's been the most well-behaved he's ever been - but still it seems some people can't help but bring him up in conversations with me, for some weird reason. Perhaps they know it will result in some sort of confrontation, as it inevitably did.

And so I just had an interesting "debate" with one such individual who denied insistently that the guy was "so full of love" and wasn't a racist transphobic scumbag who wanted people like me - for all intents and purposes, dead.

Seems that even when you can show verbatim quotes of his own words, they say you're "mistaken" and "taking that out of context". You just didn't understand him, apparently, even when he was saying the most incredibly offensive racist, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic things - the fault was yours, not his. Sound familiar?

I'm Done With Warnings

Holy fuck. The trans community. Or at least, portions of it.

Try to warn some people that their house is on fire, and not only will they throw stones at you for being an annoyance, for pointing out the obvious, or for misunderstanding your motives for warning them, but they will then launch into personal attacks, character assassinations and even issue threats.

Like, what are you going to do to me from the USA, dahling? Throw a ballistic handbag at me? Call me names? Send me some sternly worded hate mail?

Some people don't like to hear the truth, and can't handle it when they do hear it. Why should I have to sugar-coat the warning "y'all are going to end up in concentration camps if you don't pack up and move somewhere else that's safe"?

Lines In The Sand

Dear Americans, I've lost count of the number of times Trump has committed "impeachable offenses" in the past 8 months (not to mention during the fiasco that was his first tenure) - and the number of times outraged opponents and social activists have said "imagine if Obama/Clinton/Biden did this?!"

As if that somehow constitues some form of "red line" that others dared not cross previously. However, that analogy has become useless - because it's increasingly evident to me that the so-called line is simply one drawn in the sand, as on a beach... and every time Trump and his backing party takes up the challenge and steps across it, all the opposition seems to do is simply redraw another equally facetious line in the sand.

A Transphobic Transperson? How Does That Even Work?

*Ahem*

So this PM comes courtesy of a person who, unlike most of you here on FB, I have met in real life and knew personally. Let me regail you:

Spoiler Alert: Nazis Don't Like To Be Called Out For Their Nazism

So this fella - who has to be a fake profile - figures I'm an "English scumbag typical from UK descendant" screeching like a fishwife in all caps (with multiple !!!!!!!! of course) - and he's going to make me famous for "calling Afrikaners Nazis" (referring to the 70k+ Afrikaners who applied to take Trump's offer recently).

There are clearly a few things this person (if it is indeed a person, not a bot) doesn't know.

South Africa, Land Expropriation Facts vs Fiction & Afriforum's Treasonous Ambitions To Ask Trump To Overthrow SA Govt

To make it clear, Americans wondering what Afriforum is hysterically waving its arms about, this should help explain the new South African expropriation law for the uninitiated:

(Special note for context: when the initial announcement of this bill came some years ago, it was a lot less clear - and together with heckling from equally racist individuals demanding all whites be evicted from the country, there was some concern, even panic among all property owners.

Afriforum, an organized lobby group representing Afrikaner interests, deliberately played on fears that ALL private property would suddenly start to be expropriated, even along racial lines, and gained a massive increase in their support and membership - albeit a multicultural, multiracial mix of such.

Sadly, I too was swept up in that initial wave of concern initially - but because they claimed to represent the interests of residents and property owners (I am a property owner btw) and said some fairly innoccuous-sounding "right things", I too showed them some support. But it wasn't very long afterwards that I discovered their right-wing leanings and connections to neo-Nazi (others would play that association down and call them "conservative" - I don't like to mince words) groups around the world and in South Africa too, and terminated all levels of my relationship with them a number of years ago - long before this bill was even signed into law earlier this year.

That said, the final product is a lot clearer and easy to understand, and because I have a clear understanding of this now, I can see there's no reason to panic.)

In fact, it's even less invasive and draconian than the original law that governed expropriations under the old NP (Apartheid) government. That government used the earlier law to expropriate land whenever and wherever it wished to do so - and one look at the history of SA and the Group Areas Act should suffice to demonstrate my point. Yes, some money was exchanged - it is claimed "market value", but many people lost their private homes to political agendas to separate South Africans of varying races from living amongst each other and entire communities were obliterated in the name of white supremacy.

The new bill, as stated, does not target private homes as such, and only under very specific conditions - and only after following a rigorous legal process. I'm not sure if Afriforum has even read this law, or understands it and is just continuing to spread false information anyway - but the truth of the matter is, the South African government - just like the colonial British government did before it - has always possessed the power to expropriate property from South Africans. The only difference has been, and continues to be, the wording of that power. To date, not a single case of expropriation without compensation has occurred in South Africa - and the wording of the above FAQ slides provided by the Dept of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) explains the circumstances, conditions and process for it to happen pretty succinctly and simply.

If Afriforum understands this, or is as confused as the USA's new Predator in Chief seems to be by the concept of tariffs, isn't crystal clear to me - but suffice it to say they've done a good job of misrepresenting the facts.

The question we need to ask ourselves as South Africans is, why any group of local people would go to the trouble of approaching a foreign power to present blatant lies and disinformation that - if believed - could do serious harm to our country's image, economy, and even stability?

Surely this is an incident of enormous gravity with epic consequences? They have not only embarrassed South Africa on the international stage, but sought to ultimately topple our democratically elected government by means of convincing that foreign power to bring pressure to bear - politically, socially and economically sabotaging South Africa for the sake of achieving their own ends. It is treason, by every definition of the word.

Make no mistake, Afriforum does not have any of our interests at heart - only the interests of their wealthy backers, who most likely stand the most to lose.

It's not in their interests to examine the facts, read and understand the resultant new law - to relent and say "oh, we were wrong about this, there's nothing to be afraid of if it's administered justly as afvertised".

Why?

Because fear is their main undercurrent - fear keeps their membership full of people willing to pay money, even R50 a month - to support their activities - which sadly, are nowhere near as good, benificent, noble or patriotic as they pretend they are.

Sure, they may fix a few potholes here and there - but that's only to win over hearts and minds - and so they can point out how "useless" the SA government is. And having a threat or an enemy to unite people against is what keeps them in business - a mass of supporters who feel culturally vindicated and productive. Even if they are being fed lies upon lies. This is the essence of populism, folks. Are you really stupid enough to fall for that?

It's exactly this sort of crap that put their would-be savior, Trump, back in the Oval Office, building his foundation on populism and fear-mongering and sowing divisions between Americans. That's why they were comfortable approaching him to help them - their aim isn't to "protect white South African's homes" (which are in no danger according to the law) but to deliver a scare tactic through blatant lies (there have been no such expropriations under this law) in the hope that Trump will assist them in overthrowing our democratically elected government.

And make no mistake, regardless of where we sit on party politics, as South Africans, this coalition government (GNU) is our democratically elected government - but this doesn't sit well with our local Nazis.

The ANC is too left-wing and dark-skinned for Afriforum's comfort - and the DA is majority white, but too liberal for their tastes as well. And they know they would never get anywhere if they acted openly as a political party - just as their stablemate, the FF+ hasn't and never will.

Afriforum is an extremist group. There's no denying that fact. They've literally just acted out in their extremism by taking domestic issues before the court of a foreign oligarch. And yet, there are still plenty of locals who will see this article - and my posts about this aggregious act of sabotage and betrayal - and attack me for it, as some have already on other posts and comments on social media.

The usual claim people of this ilk bring up is that "we're well on our way to becoming like Zimbabwe". Well, that's a blatant lie - because I've been hearing it - and even said it myself a few times - but you know, looking back - it's been THIRTY YEARS - and we're still nowhere near that claim becoming a reality. At what point do people finally wake up and smell the coffee and realize that it's not happening? It's a lie, a dogwhistle, a right-wing talking point and rallying call that denies the facts and abandons reason for the sake of unifying the local right.

Their supporters don't care if they're right - just as long as they say the right things - and that they're right wing.

I know many white South Africans who even today like to say in passing conversation (because they like to assume that all other white people around them will automatically agree with them) that "black people can't govern a country" - but if you were to look carefully at the whole of Africa and wipe the racist bullshit programming out of your mind, you would see numerous countries that are peaceful, stable, and growing. And should we look across the Atlantic at the imploding dumpster fire that is the USA right now - run by white people, what would they say then?

Of course that's okay with them - because Trump and his cronies represent America's right wing. Any criticism of that is just "lefty woke sour grapes" in their view.

When you point these things out, and point out their blatant racism - even small, residual levels of racism, they become hostile, even violent. Just like angry toddlers when you put them away for naptime, or take away the scissors before they hurt themselves.

People this stubborn don't like to admit they've been wrong about anything. It makes them seem weak and fallible - even if they have to cut their own nose off to spite their face, because they need to double down and prove how right and strong they are. They will typically do so, even if they know they will regret it afterwards, they still want to "show you".

This is the truth.

It's a sad truth that racism and hatred are still alive and well in South Africa, as these examples show:

And that's just the fallout from the first day of my addressing this outrageous incident. But even so, calling me names, insulting my late mother (who was a better person than I - or they - will ever be), and trying to shout me down, will not work. I'm quite sure there might also be some future threats inbound as well.

All I'm asking of my fellow South Africans is that you try to be better people than what the past has made you out to be.

Better than associating yourselves to a bunch of Nazi thugs and traitors willing to throw the whole South African nation under the bus to further their own disingenuous agendas - or just because they say a few "gevleulde woordjies" that seem to connect with your own views.

And before you jump to conclusions and rush to support those populists blowing their little dogwhistles from atop their soapboxes, I advise you do a little background check on them first instead of taking them at face value.

Warning: Panama Is The Key - This Is Why

Warning.

There's a lot of chatter right now about Trump's statements and mounting desire to invade Panama to take possession of the shipping canal. There's a reason why the canal is administered by an internationally neutral country - so as to not allow the canal to be hijacked for political or ideological reasons.

We've seen NO EVIDENCE that the canal is being "administered by China" as Trump has claimed on several occasions, or that the USA is being "unfairly treated" by Panama in the administration of the canal as an international trade channel. So why does Trump insist he wants the Panama Canal? He's said he wants Greenland and Canada too - but why all this belligerence? And why specifically Panama?

All Choked Up

Well, their soup is pretty choked up with bigots now, alright.

It's orange and reeks of poop. They're going to need a whole new bowl to get rid of the mess.

Just another way I tried to warn them over the last few years - but nobody really pays attention much to writers anymore, do they? What do we know? We only research and study history and can more easily recognize bullshit artists when we see them.

It's out of my hands. 

Ode To The Fall Of The American Empire

Over the years, a lot of us sitting on the outside predicted the gradual rise of the American far right to ultimately seize power, and the collapse of civil rights and due process - of the dominionists (who make up the core of the GOP today) and the populist right who have perverted the version of Christianity they identify with, into the personality cult of Trump - and so they can justify anything they say or do, with religion. 

America's Shame Before The World!

I can't understand how a majority of Americans - supposedly the most forward-thinking people on the planet - could vote "Trump".

It's mind-blowingly disappointing. It's awful. Simply awful. 

 

This is a dark day for human rights, not just in America, but everywhere. Considering the orange monkey's appalling campaign promises, there will be human rights violations and civil rights losses in abundance as Trump faces pressure from his rabid supporters to live up to his election promises - build the wall, strip LGBT rights, enact racist laws, deport all immigrants, hack the constitution, make Christianity a state religion.