A different view on current affairs & history
This is a blog written by my brother about an event that occurred almost 60 years ago. Despite living in the same house and in fact sharing the same bedroom, I was only informed of this event recently.
Main picture: Mills No. 36 hand grenade with its internal bits minus the detonator
Continue readingTrump’s disagreeable character traits run the full gamut and most pertain to his narcissism. At the Pope’s funeral, attendees were requested to wear a black suit and tie. Trump did not. This is crass Trump behaviour all over again as he always tries to make the situation about himself, even during the most sensitive and solemn of times.
In the past week again we saw his crassness writ large. With the whole Catholic world in mourning and about to enter the solemn phase of electing a new Pope, someone posted an AI image of Trump as a Pope on his Truth Social account. This was then reposted by the White House across social media. When asked about it, instead of distancing himself, he embraced it by saying, “I had nothing to do with it. It was just, somebody did it in fun. It’s fine. Have to have a little fun don’t you?” Inwardly he was rather chuffed. After all, he had himself reimagined as various Marvel comic book heroes, but like them, the comparison was illusionary. He is not religious, does not lead a pious life and is not selfless unless that act, and an act it is, actually advantages himself.
They say that dogs resemble their owners. This is true for Trump’s cabinet where his undercooked stooges share many of his characteristics. Even Melania once famously wore a jacket with the words “I don’t care” written across the back. Talking of Melania, she has only spent 14 of Trump’s first 108 days at the White House. Given Trump’s penchant for insulting people like when he accused some Republicans as being RINOs – Republicans In Name Only – Melania should be addressed as a WINO – Wife In Name Only. Given the icy Slavic stares she gives Trump most of the time, he must be effectively celibate which I suppose is one requirement for being a Pope.
At the time of writing this, the new Pope was elected. Having teased the dumb MAGA crowd with his Pope image earlier, their jubilation on hearing that the new Pope is American turned sour when it turned out not to be Trump. What are they going to do – claim the election was rigged and storm the Vatican?
No sooner had His Excellency, The Most Righteous Donald Trump jnr been inaugurated into the No. 1 Office of the Presidency of the United States of MAGAland than he sicced his dutiful and obsequious minions on the US Federal and Justice systems and the world trading system.
According to Ussher, God created Adam on the 28th October 4004 BC just after lunch time. He then created Eve and after a stern admonishment about extra-curricular activities, he left them to their own devices, not that they had any back then, while he went off to bed. After an extremely busy previous 6 days, he had a well-deserved lie-in on the 7th day.
Fast forward 6019 years and one man had an inspiration in between inhaling Big Macs and draining diet Cokes. That man was Donald Trump once referred to by a Republican lawmaker as the orange Jesus. On the 14th July 2015*, he created MAGA, a peculiar pigment of his imagination. MAGA is a new world order populated by a throwback sub-species of man known as Homo Republicus Americanus. Since America is a nation of immigrants, legal and illegal over the years, this species comprises many sub-sub-species, of which Homo Mid-Westernus Americanus is the most prominent. They are mainly Caucasian and share many obnoxious characteristics. They are predominantly red-blooded males who have a love/hate relationship with society:
Generally they have stunted critical thinking processes and consider America to be the greatest thing since sliced bread (which they invented). They think they were created to rule over earth particularly its shit hole countries and backward people. Their wives range from being just as bigoted and hateful as their husbands to those who are totally subservient to them.
And so a pall has been cast over America.
* Actually, that other American deity, Ronald Reagan, had first used a similar version during his 1980 Presidential campaign, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, but he didn’t trademark it as Trump did on this date.
Trump was riding high, surfing his personal tsunami after announcing huge reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world. He then smugly boasted that 50 countries were now “kissing my ass.” Given Trump’s penchant for hyperbole, it might not have been 50 countries but five piss ant countries. Perhaps it even included a delegation of tuxedo attired penguins from the McDonald Islands who arrived to give him the bird and flip him off. But it still played out well with his non-discerning Magalanders especially when Trump threatened to double down if anyone retaliated. This was a tough guy script straight out of a Hollywood Chuck Norris screenplay.
Just about all South Africa’s economic woes of lack of growth, the highest level of unemployment and concomitant widening wealth gap amongst Blacks have their genesis in the race-based legislation enacted by the ANC since 1994. But even after their parlous showing in the 2024 elections which forced them into a coalition government with the ‘white’ DA, they have doubled down on their employment equity and preferential procurement rules. For SMAC’s take on this you can
For 31 years the ANC has pushed its transformation agenda using racial preference laws and regulations. Yes, there has been significant transformation but these laws underpin just about everything that has gone wrong with the country. For the first decade or so, the effect was relatively minor due to the technocratic, technical and financial sophistication and depth of the economy which the ANC had inherited (along with its problems) and it had the backing of the liberal western democracies.
Of all the BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) concepts introduced to redress the inequalities, Affirmative Action, via the Employment Equity Act of 1998, was the seed for the demise of the competent state. This was initiated in state and quasi-state bodies where white employees were levered out by making them unwelcome while offering retrenchment packages. Many of those who took them also left the country permanently taking their skills, institutional memory and families with them. This was followed by the Preferential Procurement Act of 2000 culminating in the BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) Act in 2003.
Still the economy soldiered on as the useful life of the infrastructure hadn’t been exhausted yet and the world’s economies were booming. However, the storm clouds were gathering particularly with the election of the venal and corrupt Jacob Zuma as president of the country in 2007. The first indication of the impending storm was the Proudly South African phenomenon of electricity load shedding introduced at the end of that year after the ANC had ignored a 1998 report by Eskom that warned of a lack of capacity by 2007 and a recommendation that the company be split into generation and transmission companies.
By now the negative effects of the race-based legislation had been fully entrenched. The four horsemen of the South African apocalypse were unleashed and became part of the weft and the weave of the economy – greed, incompetence, corruption and general criminality. The deployed cadres proved to be incapable of running a sophisticated state, both technically and honestly. Over the last 15 years every State-Owned Enterprise had to be repeatedly bailed out at huge cost to the fiscus. The poster child for this was Eskom which, despite bailouts of up to R500bn, and huge above inflation increases for 15 years, unleashed more load shedding in 2023 than in all the previous years. Rampant corruption and incompetence made Kusile the most expensive coal power station ever built, priced comparably to a nuclear plant, and taking just as long to build.
The overall effect has been economic stagnation but coupled to an ever-increasing population. Something had to give. So while the tenderpreneurs continued with their flashy cars and Johnnie Walker Blue and government employee’s salaries increased at the inflation rate plus, the unemployment lines grew ever longer to the point that criminal activity now forms part of many people’s CVs.
One would think that the ANC would realise that they should perhaps rethink the legislation, particularly after their disastrous showing in the 2024 elections.
Nope, instead of a case of BEEN there, done that, they have doubled down on their race-based legislation.
Trump’s first month in office has been a whirlwind shitshow that has left countries and American citizens rattled and fearful. But what is driving him? SMAC has taken a deep dive into the belly of the beast to try to explain this unprecedented phenomenon that is akin to a massive asteroid hitting the Earth (but we didn’t see it because all NASA employees have been fired by Musk to improve efficiency).
Until he started running for the presidency against Hilary Clinton, what did we know about Donald Trump? Nothing much really except for his successful reality show, The Apprentice. Some who took a deeper interest knew that he wasn’t a particularly successful businessman. In fact, he was disastrous. He managed to bankrupt three hotels and three casinos. You really have to work at bankrupting a cash machine like a casino. He had six other ventures that platzed, the most prominent of which were the Trump Shuttle airline and the Trump University. The latter also left all his graduates with expensive but worthless degrees.
So how did he get to be president … twice? His weapons of choice are mis-directions, lies and exaggerations which he uses like a stripper uses silicone – nothing’s real and it’s just there to attract and distract you to part with your money – and in his latest venture, your votes. Some of his lies are outrageous: In 2015 his personal physician, Dr Borstein, released a letter saying that Trump had “extraordinary physical strength and stamina” and he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”. The superlatives and the style cast doubt on its authenticity which was confirmed by Borstein before his death in 2021 when he admitted that Trump dictated the letter.
Following the playbook of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, where one repeats the lie until it becomes a fact, Trump used the far broader reach of social media where his supporters became unwitting propagandists by retweeting his talking points. An analysis of just Trump’s Twitter feed from June 2015, when he declared his 2016 presidential run, until January 8 2021, when he was booted off, reveals the following: He insulted Hillary Clinton 646 times by calling her a criminal amongst other things with most over less than six months before the November 20 election. That’s an average of 3 to 4 per day. Over the full period of around 260 weeks, he denigrated the legacy media 1288 times and used the phrase “fake news” more than 500 times. This was gaslighting at its worst. Another feature was Trump’s vile and vindictive personal attacks on people he didn’t like.
His second presidency has displayed even more than before that he is a bully. He has declared war on every country. With his BFF, Elon, by his side the next phase of human history might become known as World War X. But it doesn’t stop there. He has also declared war on everyone (federal workers, LGBTQIA+ people, migrants, Democrats, and anyone who did him a perceived injustice including prosecutors and the FBI) and everything (wind turbines, plastic straws, low flow shower heads). The last two show how single-mindedly petty he is all because he has a personal gripe. He does this because he can – firstly, because the USA is by far the most powerful country financially and militarily and whose dollar is effectively the reserve currency of the world and secondly because his toadies in the majority in both the Senate and the House as well as the Supreme Court have got his back not to mention His Master’s Voice, Fox News. In his first term he tested the limits of what he could get away with and then came four years in the wilderness during which he marinaded in his grievances and victimhood during his court cases. This has empowered and emboldened him to be off-the-charts outrageous.
His character is a complex assembly of asinine ideas, half-baked conspiracy theories, festering vindictiveness and many other distasteful traits in his amoral bubbling personal cauldron but the most important idee fixe is the word me. He has no alter ego just ego.
In the first weeks of his presidency Trump has been issuing executive orders at a faster rate than he lies and insults people. Then again, most of his orders are actually vindicative insults in themselves and not only affect one person but millions worldwide. Many are ultra vires but he doesn’t care. SMAC has delved into this and come up with his own insult (not that he cares just like Melania who wore a jacket with that slogan during his last presidency).
Trump loves to insult people. It somehow fuels his outsize ego as much as McDonald burgers with a side order of Diet Coke – hold the paper straws – sustains his outsize body. In fact, he is an equal opportunity serial insulter who will even insult allies if they do not please him sufficiently. One of his least vile insults was reserved for Republicans who were not fully onboard with his ‘T’ party, the MAGAhatters, was to call them RINOs – Republicans In Name Only.
Well, he should be called a PINO – President In Name Only – particularly during his first term when he actually lost the popular vote by a significant amount. Although he now managed to win the popular vote, largely due to Democratic Party ineptness rather than his own brilliance, he is still a PINO as there is nothing presidential about this gloating bully boy with his minions. In fact, his second term could be referred to as Despicable Me 2. But perhaps that’s not a good comparison as Gru turned out to be not so gruesome but a rather schmaltzy character, and his minions just a noisy, chucking rabble who are naughty rather than bad.
So, time to retire my PINO moniker and to introduce a new one – DINO – Democracy In Name Only. It’s appropriate for him that the word, DEMOCRACY, has the vocalisation of MOCK embedded in it as this describes one of the greatest weapons in this bully boy’s thin-skinned armoury. It’s his go-to attack weapon when defending one of his ill-conceived ideas (like Eric and Don jr – meow), or lies, or exaggerations, or etc. His first presidency was a trial run for him, like a baby learning to walk. This time around he’s locked and loaded and is not taking prisoners. He had the support of millions of minions during his four years in the wilderness while he marinaded in his grievances. They drew up a long list of actions that he could take legally, borderline legally and illegally to get into the Democrat’s and the Washington establishment’s faces. Groups like Project 2025 created the poisonous cocktail with a 900 odd page how-to manual and Il Douche has added his sour twist of lemon in the form of petty and vengeful executive orders like renaming the Gulf of Mexico or withdrawing the security details of former top aides who didn’t totally bend to his will first time around.
He has surrounded himself with unqualified and unsuitable toadies and given free rein to a prat manchild to destroy the Federal system which he sees as responsible, not only for America’s ills, but his own legal misfortunes.
Giving him the full name of DINOsaurus Rex who would be king suits him insofar as much was made of his small hands during his 2016 presidential campaign and, although fearsome at the present, he will soon become just a footprint in history.
South African society is plagued by the wealth gap between black and white inherited from the old days. SMAC has nervously dipped his toe into these dangerous waters and reveals that “blacks are good, whites are bad” is just a useful trope for the ANC and it is actually their policies which have made it worse.
In 1970 my elder brother, Dean, was the first in the family to experience the ‘pleasure’ of being called-up to do 9 months compulsory military service at 1 SA Infantry Training Battalion in Oudtshoorn. This was a milestone for the family as he was the first to enter the adult world of hard knocks. Being four years younger and in Standard 8 (grade 10), I was in awe of what he reported in his letters what the Army was like. Little did I know that I would have to serve two years National Service of which a year was spent kakking off on office’s course, 3 months longer than his entire national service. In mid-year he was due for the much awaited 7-day pass and Dad decided to make it a family outing by driving up to fetch him.
This was a great event and another milestone for the family. Apart from the odd day trips to van Stadens Pass or Gamtoos River mouth, Dad never ventured out of the Port Elizabeth area except for a weekend at Louterwater 200km away in the Langkloof. I was preschool at the time and Dad worked there building fruit packing sheds for roughly six months c1962 and he decided to fetch us for a short holiday there. We bunked in the basic dusty site huts for the weekend with Mom having to cook on a primus stove! Way to go Dad. You sure knew how to show a gal a good time. It was an excited bunch that set off in the 1966 Vauxhall Victor early on a Saturday hoping to arrive at Oudtshoorn 360km away at around midday. The excitement soon ebbed as we made our way along the long and deary Langkloof (long valley). Being still kids, Cheryl and I had not yet come to appreciate the stark Karoo landscape. The boredom was
occasionally relieved by tucking into ham and egg fart sandwiches. Midday was approaching and Oudtshoorn was approaching as we hit the final leg about 10-15km away.
