The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2018—Volume XIV

By Anthony Livingston Hall

Current Events

Hall takes aim at the global events of 2018 with a unique and refreshing perspective. Topics in this volume include the following:

• President Trump displaying brazen hypocrisies—“Complaining about Trump’s hypocrisy is like complaining about a prostitute’s promiscuity.”
• The Catholic Church covering up sins of pedophile priests—“These putative men of God cannot believe God exists. They must reason that, if he did, he would have stopped priests from systematically abusing children long ago. After all, what God would allow a criminal sex cult to flourish as a holy church in his name?”
• Tiger Woods failing to win another major—“Tiger is becoming to PGA players what Hugh Hefner became to LA players: the most popular guy in the game who everyone knows can’t do it anymore.”
• Caribbean leaders condemning “shithole” Trump—“Haitian migrants pose a heavy, unsustainable burden for the relatively small and poor countries of the Caribbean. This explains why, even though none have called Haiti a shithole, some Caribbean leaders have treated Haitians like shit.”
• Meryl Streep hailing Harvey Weinstein as “God”—“That she said this is as much an indication of how far Weinstein has fallen from grace as it is an indictment of how much even Streep was beholding to his power and influence.”
• Europeans doing more than Africans to solve Africa’s migrant crisis—“Only a symbiosis of European colonial guilt and African umbilical dependence explains why.”
• Research showing the health benefits of bread—“No less an authority than the Bible decreed that bread and water are the staff of life. Which is why I hereby curse Atkins and his spawn of ketogenic false prophets in the name of God.”
• Trump continuing bromance with Putin despite bipartisan criticism—“Trump is behaving like a teenage girl who was reprimanded by her parents for sneaking out for a booty call with a notorious bad boy. And she responds by sneaking that bad boy into her bedroom . . . and ends up pregnant.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532067495

Anthony Livingston Hall

Anthony L. Hall is a Washington-based lawyer who is licensed to practice in a number of foreign jurisdictions. He hails from The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands and was educated at some of America’s best schools, including Williams College. Hall is also a syndicated columnist and the author of The iPINIONS Journal, a weblog of enlightening and entertaining commentaries that provide a refreshing take on current events. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. http://ipjn.com

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Copyright © 2019 Anthony Livingston Hall.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-6747-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6748-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6749-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018903413

iUniverse rev. date: 03/15/2019

Table of Contents

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Acknowledgement

Introduction

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

South Africa Replaces Corrupt Zuma with Captured Ramaphosa

Aping Zimbabwe, South Africa expropriating white farms to give to blacks

ANC betraying its values … again

Alas, as much as South Africa lifts up Mandela, it will never live down Zuma

Boko Haram (a la Chibok Girls) Strikes Again. So Where’s the Outrage?!

In Finally Criticizing Putin re Syria, Trump Criticizes Himself

Assad gases people … again; Trump vows to punish him … again

Egypt’s Sisi Aping Russia’s Putin to Continue Serving…for Life

Sisi cedes just 3 percent

Ebola Redux

Death toll

South Sudan: Africa’s Newest Nation Repeating Old Mistakes

In Killing Khashoggi…

Trump pardons Saudi Crown Prince

Iran Nuclear Deal

American-Style Protests Erupt in Iran…

UN rejects US call to censure Iran

Netanyahu’s Bombshell Presentation on Iran Bombs

Trump Withdrawal Explosive

Hail the ‘gall’ of the French

US reinstates sanctions

Apartheid Israel

Netanyahu Deporting Blacks to Preserve White Character of Jewish State

Netanyahu: African Migrants Worse than Muslim Terrorists

Celebrities ‘Boycotting’ Israel the Way They Boycotted South Africa

Israel Christens US Embassy in Jerusalem…

AMERICAS / CARIBBEAN

Trump Calls Caribbean and African Countries ‘Shitholes’…

Caribbean leaders condemning shithole Trump…

Venezuela Assassinates ‘Rambo’ Coup Leader

Another coup attempt?

Cuba: Viva la Revolución…?

Mexicans Voted for López Obrador to Confront Trump…

Migrant Caravan

Separating Migrant Children from Parents. This Is America … Too!

Trump ends separations but continues internments

Despite Trump, This Migrant Caravan Must Be Stopped!

Caravan has Mattis abandoning military principles for Trumpian politics

Trump promised a beautiful wall. But…

Ain’t no wall high enough

ASIA

Holocaust Museum Rescinds Aung San Suu Kyi’s Award…

UN finds Suu Kyi complicit in genocide

Fall from grace continues

Backlash? South Korea’s First Female President Jailed

Malaysian Airlines: Mystery of MH370; Tragedy of MH17

Thanks to EU, Turkey Ratifies Erdogan’s Dictatorial Rule

China Tightening Noose Around Taiwan’s ‘Independence’

China using loans to ‘colonize’ developing world

My niece ‘likes’ Mahathir’s take on China. Somebody pinch me.

China seizing assets as Kenya defaults on debt

Tsunami Devastates Indonesia … Again

And again

Trump’s Manifest Folly of Trying to De-nuke North Korea

Trump & Kim Agree to Hook Up Reality-TV Style

Freezing Nukes ‘Mission Accomplished’ for North Korea, Not Triumph for US

Trump Weasels Out of Ill-Fated Nuclear Summit

Trump, Kim, and delivery of two letters

Trump Holds Reality-TV Summit with Kim…

Kim Cuckolds Trump by Inviting Assad … Courting Putin

Trump Strikes Potemkin Nuclear Deal with Kim

Kim duped Trump

Trump Loves Kim. Kim Loves Nukes. And Never the Twain Shall Greet.

North Korea caught red-handed. Duh

EUROPE

(Real) Black Face a Hit in … Romania

Catalonia Dreamin’

Harry Marries Meghan in Historic Swirling of British Royal Family

Colonial Ties Have Europe in Knots Over African Migration

Trump Abroad: Mooning NATO, Droning Britain, Spooning Putin

Brexit: Having Cake and Eating It Too…?

EU to UK: no way!

Trump to May: no way!

Actually, Neo-Nazis in Sweden Have Nothing on Neo-Nazis Across Europe

The ‘Yellow Vests’: Paris Is Burning … Again

French government surrenders…

Macron: mon amis, did you not hear, I cried uncle last week

Russia, Rogue State

Icy Baptism Exposes ‘He-man’ Putin as a Shivering Wimp

Skripal, Et Al: Russia Taunting Britain with Brazen Assassinations

Britain slaps Russia … on the wrist

Abramovich, Russia’s Most Famous Oligarch, Stuck in Moscow

Pussy Riot: Russia’s ‘Vlad the Poisoner’ Strikes … Again

UNITED STATES

Observing MLK Day

Observing President’s Day

Police Killing Blacks (Sometimes) Justified

Combating the public health risk cops pose to black men

Confirmation! ‘Pedophile Priest’ Is Redundant

And not a peep from the pope

The pope speaks, finally

Proof of pope’s complicity

Pope decrees no (more) gay priests

Mass Shootings

Target Parkland, Florida: Another School Shooting in Gun Crazy USA

Solution to mass shootings: treat guns like alcohol…?!

March to protect students from mass shooters (and gun-toting teachers)

Hey Voters, Serial Bomber on the Loose Right Here in America…

He’s a Trumpleton! Duh

Now White Racists Are Shooting Jews

The Trump Presidency

Overview

Turns Out Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Is Just an Explosive Book about Him

Trump Gets Physical

In excellent health?

First Year Ends with Government Shutdown…

Black Unemployment: Jay-Z Dragged Trump for Fronting on Obama’s Record

Money-Pit Budgeting and the Fallacy of America’s ‘Underfunded’ Military

Pentagon delays Trump’s military parade

Rob Porter, Trump’s Most Trusted Staffer, Is a Wife Beater. Duh

Stormy not only one who sold herself to Trump

Trump vs. Amazon or Pathological Pettiness Trolling Informed Indifference

Kanye Transitioning to Black Version of Rachel Dolezal

Most suitable heir to Trump’s America

Trump Is Most Snubbed President in History

‘Be Best’? Bless you, Melania

Trump’s (OJ) Caper on His Doctor Serves as Warning for His Fixer

Everything Trump Praises Fails. Airline Safety Is the Latest.

Firing Cartoonist Rob Rogers … for Trump’s Sake?

America’s First Family: Rich Getting Richer

Trump claims he hired the ‘best people’…

Tribalism and Dysfunction in American Politics

Congress recess

Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Ban Muslims…

Iranian Protests, NK Nukes Expose Trump as Hypocrite and Laughingstock … Again

Helsinki Summit: Trump Hails Russian Propaganda, Rejects American Intelligence

Top aides confronted Trump for siding with Putin … and got trolled

Trump Affirms His American Dystopia with Orwellian Newspeak

MAGA: Cutting Airport Screenings to Cut (more) Taxes (for the Rich)

Woodward’s ‘Fear’ and Anonymous’s Op-Ed Show We Have Everything to Fear

Rush to deny op-ed proves Trump demanded (and got) pledges of loyalty

‘Trump Radicalized More People than ISIS’

Midterm Elections: It’s All About Getting Out the Vote…

‘Blue Wave’

Mattis Resigns … in Protest?

Trump: I might’ve been a bone-spur, draft-dodging coward, but…

Criminal Justice Reform Is Trump’s Domestic Version of Nixon to China

Second Year Ends with Government Shutdown

Trump’s Grumpy Festivus

Special Counsel Mueller and ‘This Russia Thing’

Trump Framing FBI, Appeasing Putin. Treasonous?

Mueller Should’ve Indicted US Media along with Russian Hackers

Mr. President, Stop Tweeting and Testify!

Bad Day for Cohen, Manafort … and Trump!

Trump and the poisoned chalice of the pardon power

Trump flips on his fixer

New York Attorney General Dissolves the Trump ‘Charitable’ Foundation…

Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

As Tainted as Trump’s Election

Ford vs Kavanaugh Mirroring Hill vs Thomas

To testify or not to testify, that is the question

Justice Brett Kavanaugh *

THE GLOBALSPHERE

United Nations, Haven for Sexual Predators…?

‘Humanitarians’ extorting sex from Haitians for aid

Trumpeting Hot Air, Trump Is Perfect Davos Pitchman

Putin Hyping Nukes to Look Strong? That’s Weak!

It’s International Women’s Day: ‘Men Should Be Barred from Politics’

Blowing Up Iran Nuclear Deal Just Trump Doing as Stupid Does

Trump, May, Macron, Don’t Bomb Syria. Ban Russia.

Bombs away!

Mission Accomplished?

Earth Day

California burning: ‘The new normal’?

It keeps getting worse

Who expected Trump to believe his climate scientists…?

Windrush: May’s Britain more Heartless than Trump’s America?

May making amends

Miraculous Thai Cave Rescue

Hurricane Florence: Trump Antics, Media Hype Flooding Impact

G20 Argentina: Forget the Tango Between Trump and Xi and Putin…

Facebook Facing the Music

Cambridge Analytica Used Facebook Users as Facebook Intended…

Zuckerberg Confesses: Our Bad. But Let’s Still Be Friends

Data breach more about stupid users than greedy Facebook

Facebook Exploiting You Like a Pimp Exploiting Prostitutes…

SPORTS

NFL Conference Championship Sunday: Hail, Patriots! Hail, Eagles!

Super Bowl LII: Eagles soar!

Wentz returns…

Australian Open: Federer Pads Numbers of Iconic Career

French Open: Nadal questions equal pay. Williams ducks Sharapova

Wimbledon: Serena lost. It’s patronizing BS to say she won.

The men played too

US Open: Serena’s upset with umpire overshadowed Naomi’s upset of her

March Madness…

Hail, Notre Dame women and Villanova men!

Warriors Sweep Cavaliers for NBA Championship

Players like LeBron and KD can never be among the greatest…

Justify Wins Kentucky Derby. But Horse Racing Is Still Unjustified

Justify wins (tainted) Triple Crown

Danica Patrick Ends Train-Wreck Career with Crash at Indy 500

Nations in World Cup Endorsing Russia’s Rogue Behavior

Vive la France!

Cristiano Ronaldo gets MeToo red card for alleged rape

Stanley Cup: Capitals Defeat Golden Knights

US Open: Tiger Woods Becoming the Hugh Hefner of PGA Players

British Open: Tiger roars but does not bite … again

He finally wins one. But…

Hamilton Becomes Greatest F1 Driver of His Generation

PyeongChang Winter Olympics

Olympics and Politics Playing Out like Marriage and Divorce

Diplomatic Brinkmanship Upstages Opening Ceremony

North Koreans snubbed Pence … back

Day 1—What shall I watch, what shall I say?

Day 2—The youthful abandon of Red Gerard

Day 3—The grit of Cross Country and the crash of Slopestyle

Day 4—The rise of Chloe Kim

Day 5—The pyrrhic redemption of Shaun White

Day 6—Mikaela Shiffrin begins her Heiden quest

Day 7—Lindsey Vonn: return of the snow queen

Day 8—Gay politics upstage men’s figure skating…

Day 9—Women ski jumpers still fighting for equal rights

Day 10—Norway vs. the Netherlands (with Russia, the Wildcard)

Day 11—Hot ice dancing full of intrigue

Day 12, 13, 14—Jamaican-style bobsledding jumps the shark

Day 15—Closing Ceremony, ending a ratings and diplomatic bust

PyeongChang Paralympics: Did You Watch…?

Olympians snub Trump

ENTERTAINMENT

Grammys Rapfest Snubs Jay-Z

The Oscars: My Picks

And the Oscar goes to…

Oscars cutting fat to attract viewers

Academy cuts popular category

Female James Bond Is Just a Perversion of Stockholm Syndrome

Are You Among the Losers Still Watching the VMAs?

Viola Regrets Portrayal of Black Women in ‘The Help’

POTPOURRI

Hey Lovers, Valentine’s Day Is for Suckers!

Calling BS on ‘Cultural Appropriation’

My Good Friday Sermon

Happy Easter … Monday!

Bill Cosby, ‘America’s Dad,’ Guilty of Felony Sexual Assault

Colleges line up to rescind degrees

Cosby gets 3-10 years. He got off easy.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Nicholas Kristof, the Martin Luther of Journalism…?

This Is My Nineteenth Motherless Mother’s Day…

Observing Memorial Day

No More Swimsuit Competition for Miss America? WTF

No swimsuit equals low ratings. Duh.

African American Museum Paying Trumpian Homage to Oprah. Shame!

Frederick Douglass is the ‘greatest figure America has ever produced’

‘Michael Jackson Is Worth More Dead than Alive.’ Duh

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

Christians Proselytizing Fake Dead Sea Scrolls as Gospel. Duh

Observing Veterans Day

‘Bread Isn’t the Baddie It’s Made Out to Be’

Happy Kwanzaa!

MeToo Becomes Time’s Up

The Golden Globes (Oprah and MeToo)

Oprah for president?

Simone Biles Joins USA Gymnastics’ #MeToo ‘Moment’

Life for Nassar. Fallout for USA and MSU

Tom Brokaw Facing MeToo Accusations

New York AG, MeToo Crusader, Facing Reckoning Too

After Firing Charlie Rose, CBS Must Fire Les Moonves

#MeToo claims head of CBS, Moonves

Another one bites the dust

Moonves gets coal-laden parachute

#MeToo Leaders Outed as Abusers Too? WTF!

Sex, lies, selfies, and texts

IN MEMORIAM

Billy Graham, Preacher to Masses, Counselor to Presidents

Stephen Hawking, the ‘Most Popular Physicist of All Time’

Sorry Stan Lee died. But look at me.

PSA: Your next selfie could kill you

Trump Presidency Fueling Suicides…?

Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul’

John McCain, War Hero, Political Maverick … Never Trumper

Eulogizing brave father, Meghan whips wimpy Trump

George H.W. Bush, Most Accomplished One-Term President

‘Presidents Club’: awkward

Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials

About the Author

For Shona,

And the many magical days ahead

for you and Harris

Acknowledgement

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Thanks to my production and design team for their professional and personable support.

One of my pet peeves is finding typos in published books. But I have come to accept that, no matter how keen the editing, there’s no avoiding them. In fact, works by acclaimed authors like Tom Wolfe, Henry Miller, and Kurt Vonnegut have had the dubious distinction of appearing on the dreaded Corrigenda List of Book Errata. Therefore, please forgive me if you find any typo that makes this book a candidate for that list.

Thanks to my group of extraordinary friends for their continued interest in my commentaries. Never mind that their support these days amounts to little more than suggesting snarky topics, which I invariably ignore. All the same, I say a special thank you to Mary Lauture. She is easily my most loyal reader.

Thanks to my darling Katherine—whose love, support, and friendship have sustained me in all of my endeavors for the past thirty-two years. She has a pretty sharp editorial eye too.

Last, but by no means least, thanks to you, my readers. You may be relatively few in number, but you inspire appreciation beyond measure.

Introduction

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Time Magazine named The Guardians its 2018 Person of the Year. It cited the unprecedented risks many journalists are taking these days to defend the news against the war on truth. No doubt the sensational murder of The Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi moved Time to make this designation.

To be fair, though, no person had greater influence on the global events of 2018 than President Donald Trump. Indeed, his unrelenting assault on the media, which he continually denounced as the enemy of the people, probably factored in the magazine relegating him to the runner-up position.

Time claims it does not consider whether the person’s influence is for better or worse. But, arguably, Trump represents the forces of evil; The Guardians, the forces of good. And, the forces of evil held so much sway this year, the magazine can be forgiven for wanting to show that the forces of good can still triumph.

All the same, the media covered every damn thing Trump did, said, and tweeted so obsessively that publishing commentaries on anything else conjured up this famous analogy:

And still I persisted.

This is why, in addition to the chaos and scandal of his presidency, a word cloud of the topics in this fourteenth volume would include those related to the unraveling of England’s Brexit from Europe; the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat at the Winter Olympics; the anachronistic frills of another royal wedding; the existential trek of migrant caravans; the shock of Serena Williams blowing two opportunities to win another Grand Slam; the reckoning for the Catholic Church, Hollywood, USA Gymnastics, and all havens for MeToo sexual predators; the brazen assassinations of political dissidents by Saudi and Russian dictators; the pitiful sight of Tiger Woods trying to recapture old glory; the enduring cultural menace of the Kardashians … and Kanye West; the folly of South Africa aping Zimbabwe; the doping scandal compromising the integrity of the World Cup; the growing irrelevance of the Grammys, Oscars, and other awards shows (a.k.a. jumping the shark); the all too predictable collapse of Venezuela’s economy; the running (out of fashion) of the Triple Crown; the unmasking of Facebook as a peddler of personal data; the contentious confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court; the shock of the Eagles soaring over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII; the phenomenon of Black Panther; the nuclear brinkmanship between the United States and North Korea; the wildfires and hurricanes showing what climate change portends; the deaths of famous people; and, believe it or not, much, much more.

Still, although major, these and other events played out like mere tributaries to the raging river that is the Trump presidency.

As always, I have left the commentaries in their original form—as published on my weblog The iPINIONS Journal (www.ipjn.com). I have defied my publisher’s repeated entreaties to allow professional editors to polish them up, hence the hedging in my Acknowledgment above about any missed typo. Publishing them in this form not only gives you a sense of time and place, but also lends authenticity to my take on events in real time. I have included many updates not posted on my weblog. I’d like to think they add value.

This volume is by nature anthological and argumentative. It is not a narrative. It unfolds more like a magazine than a novel.

I quote extensively from commentaries that composed previous volumes. I do so not just to show how current events vindicate them, but also to distinguish myself from commentators whose opinions seem no more rooted than the trending topic of the day. The problem, alas, is that I appear to gloat I-told-you-so throughout. I am also obliged to repeat a relevant quote on the odd occasion. But I beg your indulgence because there’s no other way to distinguish myself in this context. For example, I delineated my misgivings and even warned about a Trump presidency in many commentaries, including Trump for President?! Don’t Be a Sucker, April 8, 2011, and WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done. November 9, 2016. Therefore, it would seem a form of commentary malpractice if I failed to quote from them (repeatedly) in commentaries on his chaotic, incompetent, three-card-monte presidency.

I use two block quotation styles: shorter quotations have one line to left; longer ones have two lines—one above and one below.

I grew up in the Caribbean; I attended schools in the United States and England; I have degrees in political economics and law; I am licensed to practice in four foreign jurisdictions; and I have traveled extensively. All of this gives me a relatively unique perspective on global events and frames my commentaries.

I hope that, for posterity, this volume proves a reliable source for reflection on the most important and noteworthy events of 2018. I especially hope that these commentaries serve as a provocative, informative, and entertaining antidote to snarky social media postings that now trigger and inform so much public debate. And if, like me, you prefer non-fiction, you will find plenty in this volume to affirm the proverb:

-—ALH

January 3, 2019

Africa / Middle East

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South Africa Replaces Corrupt Zuma with Captured Ramaphosa

February 16

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) gave President Jacob Zuma an ultimatum on Monday: resign by Wednesday or be impeached on Thursday (via vote of no-confidence).

True to form, the hopelessly beleaguered Zuma strutted and fretted his case on TV until the eleventh hour and then resigned. No doubt he’s now hoping the sinecure he negotiated will prove secure against prosecution on over 700 pending charges of corruption. Whatever the case, his antic farewell said and done, Parliament elected his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, the 5th president of post-apartheid South Africa yesterday.

As it happens, I have been telegraphing this day ever since South Africans elected Zuma nine years ago. I refer you to attesting commentaries like South African President Mbeki Forced to Resign. Hail Zuma?! September 22, 2008, Zuma Doing to South Africa What Mugabe Did to Zimbabwe, December 12, 2015, and Wither South Africa, April 10, 2017.

Therefore, I’m not surprised that South Africa ousted Zuma this week much as Zimbabwe ousted Mugabe three months ago. And, with all due respect to viral memes, the metaphor is not South Africa kicking Zuma to the curb on Valentine’s Day. It is South Africa finally holding him to account for raping it the way he allegedly raped countless South African women, leaving the country as ravaged and depressed as he invariably left them. Granted, there’s a silver lining in South Africans not waiting 37 years to rid themselves of his corrupt and corrosive leadership. This means that the mess Zuma left Ramaphosa pales in comparison to that which Mugabe left his successor.

Nonetheless, it beggars belief to think that Ramaphosa will do much to clean it up. After all, he’s the poster boy for the corruption and cronyism that enabled political elites to benefit most from the country’s black-empowerment and affirmative-action policies. Policies intended, but which have failed, to lift over half of South Africa’s 56 million people out of poverty. Not to mention that he is more captive to the state-capture scandals that defined Zuma’s presidency than Zuma himself.

Only this explains Forbes ranking him among the richest South Africans with a net worth of $450 million. Even accounting for his unbridled greed and ambition, this has to be more wealth than Ramaphosa ever imagined amassing.

Nelson Mandela, the father of black South Africa, reportedly tapped Ramaphosa 20 years ago as his preferred successor. Therefore, South Africans can be forgiven for hoping that he is now free to fully (re)commit himself to the poverty alleviation and sustainability programs that inspired Mandela to do so.

Incidentally, Mandela and Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern Singapore, enjoyed a mutual admiration society. I suspect this was based on Mandela’s interest in modeling South Africa’s development on Singapore’s and Lee’s interest in basking in the reflected glow of Mandela’s moral authority and statesmanship. Lee fully basked; alas, South Africa never fully modeled.

In any event, the best thing South Africans can do at this point is to vote for Mmusi Maimane and his Democratic Alliance (DA) in next year’s general elections. Because he personifies the leadership and the DA champions the values Mandela saw in Ramaphosa and the ANC, respectively.

In fact, ANC leaders have so betrayed their party’s founding values that it will take a generation or two for new leaders to rediscover them. And you don’t have to take my word; ANC stalwarts like Nobel Laureates Nadine Gordimer and Desmond Tutu have bemoaned this fact. I duly commented on their disaffection and disillusionment in commentaries like South Africa Betraying Its Values, May 13, 2011, Massacre at South Africa’s Lonmin Marikana Mine, April 17, 2012, Chief Prosecutor Condemns SA President Zuma and His Ruling ANC, October 21, 2013, and South Africa Joins Ranks of Countries Selling Its Sovereignty to China, October 3, 2014.

But nothing damns the ANC quite like this from the universally acclaimed French economist Thomas Piketty—as quoted in the October 6, 2015, edition of The Guardian:

Amandla! … Ngawethu!

Related

Aping Zimbabwe, South Africa expropriating white farms to give to blacks

August 12

Corruption, incompetence, lawlessness, and the specter of racial retribution are driving South Africa into the same dysfunctional shithole where Zimbabwe has been festering for the past 30 years.

I have lamented this fateful symmetry in many commentaries, most notably in Zuma Doing to South Africa What Mugabe Did to Zimbabwe, December 12, 2015. More to the point, though, I have continually warned it would be thus—as the following excerpts attest:

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• From Zimbabweans Pray for Liberation from Their Liberator—Robert Mugabe, May 29, 2005:

To the relief and exultation of restive blacks, Mugabe announced sweeping land reforms in which his government would seize the ‘farms of white colonialists to give to landless peasants and the veterans of the war of liberation’. Unfortunately, like his independence blueprint for black empowerment, Mugabe’s land reforms have been an abject failure:

Five years ago, there were 4000 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe; today, there are only 400 (mostly unproductive) farms left. Five years ago, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of sub-Saharan Africa; today, it is a basket case of starving people. …

Instead of seizing white farms, it would have made far more sense to impose (price and production) controls on them pursuant to the national interest. White farmers would have complied. What’s more, Mugabe could have spun this as a form of nationalization consistent with his plan for black empowerment.

• From Zuma Issues Fatwa against Cartoonist Zapiro, December 22, 2008:

Rabble-rousing trade unionists and unreformed communists have turned the ANC from a governing coalition into a band of rebels. Therefore, Zuma enlisting them to intimidate a political cartoonist should serve as a dire warning of what South Africa will become under his leadership.

• From Julius Malema: President Jacob Zuma’s Mini-Me, August 18, 2011:

[T]he country Mandela liberated is becoming just another dysfunctional African kleptocracy under Zuma’s rule. Which, alas, is dashing great expectations that it would become the Dark Continent’s beacon of democracy, economic development, and black empowerment. …

Misguided blacks who took out their subsistence frustrations on white farmers in South Africa were incited to do so by the many misguided blacks who did the same in neighboring Zimbabwe … pursuant to official government policy.

• From Massacre at South Africa’s Lonmin Marikana Mine, August 17, 2012:

It’s hardly surprising … that these poor, uneducated South Africans have now resorted to rabble-rousing tactics to get better wages and other benefits: President Zuma himself led them to believe that these are the least to which they were entitled from day one of his presidency. But we have seen the inevitable consequences of his brand of mindless populism play out (in the extreme) in Zimbabwe. …

Zuma’s rhetoric led thousands of poor black miners to believe they were entitled to strike and use similar tribal weapons/tools to extract more than a doubling of their wages from rich white mine owners and their token black shareholders, most notably Cyril Ramaphosa. …

The analogy to Zimbabwe is instructive. Because just as that country was a thriving producer of farm products before similar strife turned it into a basket case, South Africa is now risking its status as the world’s leading producer of platinum being irreparably harmed.

• And from Wither South Africa, April 10, 2017:

[South Africa] is in the death throes of becoming a Zimbabwean mess. …

Having robbed the treasury, wrecked the economy, and scandalized the people, South Africa’s rapacious leaders are now setting their sights on the last repast of all pseudo nationalists: white-owned land. …

South Africa is on an inexorable descent into the heart of darkness.

__________________________________ 

As it happened, some of my South African friends led the chorus of those who dismissed my warnings with resolute indignation, so much so that I often felt like a latter-day Cassandra. But this latest, vindicating instance of South Africa aping Zimbabwe should finally convince even my indignant friends of their validity:

Frankly, this is stupefying. After all, everyone knows this kind of racially motivated land reform was the tipping point for Zimbabwe’s economic death spiral.

Mind you, when Ramaphosa replaced (ousted) Zuma as president in February, this collectivist pandering was the last thing anyone expected. After all, as indicated above, Ramaphosa was/is the poster boy for the few black South Africans who amassed unimagined fortunes by cultivating business ties with the country’s white capitalist elites. Those ties were plainly opportunistic. Yet they raised great expectations, at home and abroad, that under his leadership South Africa would emulate countries like Switzerland, not ape those like Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, Zuma’s kakistocratic government planted seeds of distress and restiveness in so many blacks that Ramaphosa seems resigned to just harvest their grievances.

As in Zimbabwe, dispossessed blacks compose the vast majority of the electorate in South Africa. Moreover, as it was with Mugabe’s land grab, the only thing that explains Ramaphosa’s is his wish to appease those blacks whose votes he needs to consolidate his power—the welfare of the country be damned. In addition to dispossessing white farmers, he clearly hopes to uproot the growing influence of Julius Malema’s far-left party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, which has made expropriating land without compensation its clarion call. Ramaphosa is banking on this pilfered policy to help him win his own electoral mandate in national elections next year.

Meanwhile:

This, compounded by an epidemic of graft and violence, is what nearly 25 years of black rule has wrought. And Ramaphosa seems hell-bent on making matters worse.

Incidentally, apropos of South Africa serving as that continental beacon, huddled masses of poor, oppressed Africans are fleeing north to mother Europe instead of south to this Cape of [Lost] Hope:

It speaks volumes in this respect that Zimbabweans—who fled the frying pan their country was—have returned home in droves to escape the fire South Africa has become:

But white South Africans are now escaping too:

I should clarify that white farmers are not as indispensable to South Africa as they were/are to Zimbabwe. Therefore, I do not expect to be writing about South Africans as I did about Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe’s Black Farmers Cry: Bring Back White Farmers, September 16, 2015. Instead, South Africa’s white flight might cause me to write about it as I did about Venezuela in commentaries like Venezuela’s Death Spiral of Recession, Protest, and Repression, April 24, 2017, and Chávez Chavismo: More Robbing Hoodlum than Robin Hood, August 12, 2015.

Indeed, as the Financial Mail asked in an August 9 editorial:

Alas, as indicated above, the only answer is Ramaphosa’s desire for power. But, ultimately, I fear Israeli diplomat Abba Eban said it best in the Jerusalem Post on November 18, 2002. Because here is what he said about Arabs, which can probably be said about Africans too:

ANC betraying its values … again

September 25

Enough said.

Alas, as much as South Africa lifts up Mandela, it will never live down Zuma

September 29

The title to this pithy piece was inspired by a Zapiro cartoon: one side depicts President Ramaphosa leading dignitaries in hailing the unveiling of this Mandela statue; the other side depicts an African man glancing at a plaque on the wall as he enters a public toilet. The plaque shows just Zuma’s name below Zapiro’s rendering of his trademark shower head. This, of course, references Zuma’s claim that he showers after unprotected sex with young girls to prevent contracting HIV—a claim that will, and should, live in infamy.

That explained, Mandela clearly deserves this honor. I just wonder why South Africa had to pay for it. The UN should have passed a resolution to fund it. After all, when he was alive, every nation claimed him as its own. But, at the very least, the African Union should have funded it as an all-Africa gift to the UN.

Boko Haram (a la Chibok Girls) Strikes Again. So Where’s the Outrage?!

February 22

Terror group Boko Haram incited international outrage four years ago when it kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. In fact, no less a person than First Lady Michelle Obama led the viral protest #BringBackOurGirls.

Yet, just two years later, you would have been forgiven for having no clue this infamous kidnapping ever occurred or, more to the point, that those schoolgirls remained in captivity. This incited my outrage, which I vented in #BringBackOurGirls Lost in Dustbin of Public Consciousness, April 18, 2016:

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This kidnapping incited universal outrage. Never mind that this outrage manifested in little more than people—most notably celebrities like Rihanna, Madonna, and Michelle Obama—posting #BringBackOurGirls on their social media pages.

Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find any mention of these girls on those pages since then. Which is why it’s hardly surprising that this tragic anniversary passed for so many as if ‘the Chibok girls’ never entered public consciousness.

Mind you, Boko Haram kidnapped many more schoolchildren (i.e., girls and boys) with nary a mention in mainstream or social media. In fact, having killed 20,000 and displaced 2.8 million across five regional countries, its unrelenting reign of terror is now preventing over 1 million Nigerian children from going to school. …

That this anniversary garnered so little media coverage reflects not only the fecklessness of this fight, but also the disinterest in the schoolgirls’ plight.

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Given that, it is noteworthy that some mainstream-media organizations are reporting on Boko Haram’s latest kidnapping, much as so many reported on its Chibok kidnapping four years ago.

Alas, just as it was four years ago, the Nigerian government is giving all kinds of misleading, self-serving reports about rescuing these Dapchi girls. But also, just as it was four years ago, the parents of the missing are still grieving inconsolably, betraying the fact that those government reports are untrue.

Frankly, the record suggests that these girls will return home in only one of four ways:

1. The government negotiates a prisoner exchange.

2. The government pays a handsome ransom (to save face).

3. The parents pay a handsome ransom.

4. The girls manage a daring escape.

In the meantime, it is equally noteworthy that reporting on this Dapchi kidnapping has incited nary a peep from the usual gaggle of hashtag protesters. Perhaps they’re too busy tweeting fashionable and equally fleeting outrage about the latest mass shooting of schoolchildren in Gun Crazy USA.

In Finally Criticizing Putin re Syria, Trump Criticizes Himself

February 26

President Trump was obliged to hold a joint press conference when Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull visited the White House on Friday. This gave reporters an increasingly rare opportunity to question him in a formal setting.

I feared they would waste the two questions Trump allowed to ask redundant ones about the Russia investigation. Therefore, I was heartened when one of them asked why he was just standing by while President Putin and President Assad commit all manner of crimes against humanity in Syria. Trump, after all, is the self-proclaimed strongman who launched 59 cruise missiles at an airbase in Syria last April. The base was relatively deserted. But he insisted his wag-the-dog strikes would make Assad think twice about ever crossing his red line on the use of chemical weapons again. His clear insinuation was that, unlike the weak Obama, he would make Assad pay a deadly price every time.

Yet here, in effect, is all Trump had to say:

This, despite the fact that Assad has crossed his red line many times since last April—impunity increasing Assad’s indifference with each new attack.

But nothing betrayed his weakness quite like Trump not even having the balls to call Putin out by name for intervening in Syria. Even worse, he went out of his way to deflect responsibility. This, of course, is an incriminating tell. No doubt you’ll see that it mirrors the way he always deflects responsibility for Russia’s cyberattack on the 2016 US presidential election:

That said, this tweet shows why Trump’s lame criticism of Russia actually criticizes himself:

Many commentators are hailing him for finally calling unrelenting wars crimes in Syria a humanitarian disgrace. Unfortunately, this just reflects how much Trump has lowered the bar for and debased the norms of presidential leadership. But I hope reporters continue pressing him to explain why he has done nothing to prevent these crimes.

The conflict in Syria has been raging ever since Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011. It became very complicated very quickly—complete with regional powers fighting sectarian battles by proxy, Western powers whack-a-moling ISIS terrorists, and Russia seeking superpower relevance. They all have the blood of innocent Syrians on their hands. Not to mention the migration/refugee crisis this conflict spawned. But Russia became most blameworthy when Putin began providing direct political and military cover for Assad. After all, that cover has included everything from vetoing UN resolutions criticizing Syria to enabling Syrian forces to launch chemical attacks and drop barrel bombs on opposition forces and innocent civilians alike.

I decried Russia’s complicity in several commentaries, most notably in Why Putin, Not Obama, Is the Master of Assad’s Fate, December 14, 2012, and Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence, November 18, 2015. And I ridiculed its setbacks in others, most notably in Putin’s Bush-Lite Declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Syria, March 19, 2016, and Alas, Syrian Ceasefire No. 44 Will Fare No Better, September 10, 2016. More to the point, though, anyone who knows anything about this Syrian conflict knows that Putin’s idea of working constructively is saying anything and bombing anyone to keep Assad in power. Evidently, Trump is either too stupid to see this or too compromised/cowardly to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley is his John the Baptist-like ambassador to the United Nations. She never misses an opportunity to denounce Putin and Assad (by name), citing the open and notorious way they are turning Syria into what UN Secretary-General António Guterres describes as Hell on Earth. Such was the case on Saturday when she blasted Russia after it finally agreed to a UN resolution providing for (another) ceasefire. This one was supposed to allow deliveries of humanitarian relief to millions of besieged Syrians, over 600 of whom Syrian and Russian bombs killed just this past week.

Here in part is what Haley said:

Except that, whenever Haley denounces Russia, she highlights the daring way Putin is continually defying, if not mocking, Trump (and his wishful thinking about working constructively). Which is why nobody should have been surprised that, after voting for that ceasefire resolution on Saturday, Putin gave Assad his blessing for this on Sunday:

My heart goes out to these victims. But there’s no gainsaying the fact that this latest attack is mostly about punching a bully (namely Trump) in the nose. After all, given what Trump said on Friday, Putin and Assad were clearly daring him to put up or shut up on Sunday. Instead, Trump retreated, tweeting talking points about how his immigration policies will make America safe (and white) again.

And so it goes—with Putin doing as Putin does; Trump tweeting as Trump tweets. But hope springs eternal that commentaries like this will goad the thin-skinned Trump into launching truly deadly strikes against Assad, if only to save his own face.

Related

Assad gases people … again; Trump vows to punish him … again

April 10

Sadly, there’s no denying the groundhog-day spectre of this tragedy.

This attack and (unfolding) reaction to it mirror what played out a year ago this week. And it’s worth noting that this timing smacks of trademark taunting by Vladimir Putin, Assad’s puppet master.

That said, just as she did back then, Ambassador Haley is leading the chorus of global condemnation. To her credit, though, she is at least showing the presence of mind to bemoan the recurring nature of such attacks. Here, for example, is how she punctuated her now-familiar denunciation of Russia and Syria for the atrocities that have defined this seven-year war:

Meanwhile, just as they did back then, Russia and Syria are gaslighting the international community: On the one hand, they are insisting there was no attack; while on the other hand, they are blaming Western-backed forces for staging it to frame them (a.k.a. a false flag operation). Unfortunately, this gaslighting smacks of the same diabolical cynicism that saw Russia poison its former spy Sergei Skripal, and then blame Britain. I commented on this infamous poisoning in Russia Taunting Britain with Brazen Assassination, March 13, 2018, and Britain Slaps Russia…on Wrist for WMD Poisoning, March 14, 2018.

But, frankly, the groundhog-day nature of everything related to this chemical attack is such that I am loath to comment too much anew. In fact, much of what I would say I already said in this excerpt from Putin Blames ‘Little Green Men’ for Syrian Gas Attack—as Bloom Comes Off His Bromance with Trump, April 12, 2017:

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Only two words explain what Putin is doing here: lying and projecting!

Putin is projecting blame onto phantom terrorists—not only for last week’s gas attack, which he knows his puppet Syrian regime perpetrated, but also for future attacks, which he knows it plans to perpetrate (if only in a vain and diabolical effort to further implicate the phantom terrorists and vindicate him).

But Putin is also deflecting blame for his manifest failure to oversee the complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons. You may recall that he famously promised to do so in exchange for Obama taking his finger off the trigger, which would have launched many more missiles at Syria in 2013 than the 60 Trump launched last week.

In The Issue Is Not Whether Russia Affected the Outcome of US Election, December 12, 2016, I delineated (some of) the many reasons why the election collusion/bromance between Putin and Trump was doomed to implode. The most notable reason for this looming day of reckoning is that Putin will finally realize that, despite his flirtation, Trump’s policies towards Russia (especially re Ukraine-related sanctions) will be no different than Obama’s. …

In other words, Trump was bound to disappoint Putin – just as he was bound to disappoint the poor fools who thought he really would, or even could, get Mexico to pay for that wall. Which suggests that Putin is not nearly as smart as he’s reputed to be.

And the more Trump disappoints him, the more Putin will have to explain himself to all of the Russians he had drinking champagne toasts to Trump’s election. Not least because he had them convinced that Trump was his puppet who he could manipulate to lift crippling economic sanctions in short order.

I cannot overstate this looming day of reckoning for their relationship. And nothing will characterize it quite like Putin unleashing the same leakers of secrets and peddlers of fake news to humiliate Trump and undermine his presidency who he unleashed to undermine Hillary and help elect Trump (i.e., the political execution of the proverb—live by the sword, die by the sword).

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My allusions to a day of reckoning between Trump and Putin bears reinforcing. Foremost, they were prescient in many respects—as circumstances that finally forced Trump to arm Ukrainian fighters and sanction Russian oligarchs attest.

But my allusions also telegraphed the manifest challenge Trump now faces. Specifically, to save his face, Trump must react with punishing force; that is, the fire this time must look more like fireworks than firecrackers. I duly ridiculed the contrived nature of his pinprick reaction last time in Trump Launches ‘Wag-the-Dog’ Strikes against Syria, April 7, 2017. Except that, to save his face in turn, Putin must react directly against US forces; that is, he must do more than show that Trump’s missiles had no impact on his ability to help Assad continue bombing Western-backed forces and Syrian civilians alike. I duly ridiculed the we-survived nature of his reaction last time in Assad Responds…, April 9, 2017.

All the same, I predict they will both do only what is minimally required to save face without triggering a full-scale confrontation between American and Russian forces … over Syria of all things. This, despite the chest-thumping, war-mongering rhetoric they might hurl at each other. I mean, let’s face it, after seven years of war, it is practically impossible to bomb anything in Syria that hasn’t already been bombed, repeatedly. More to the point, I’m sure military planners from both sides are already discussing ways to ensure targeting to limit civilian casualties and de-confliction to avoid unwitting escalation. Then, of course, there’s the patently hypocritical way Trump is telegraphing his intent to bomb Syria within days and withdraw all US troops very soon. After all, he made hay during his presidential campaign of ridiculing his predecessors as fools for telegraphing their intent on similar occasions. #IDIOT! As was the case last year, Trump is giving Assad more than enough time to move his indispensable military assets to safety, which might even include relocating them in Tehran. And those assets include the helicopters he uses to perpetrate chemical attacks.

Mind you, Putin understands Trump’s need to wag the dog like no leader has ever done before. After all, it will take shock-and-awe explosions to detract media attention from the stormy weather he’s experiencing these days, especially with yesterday’s FBI raids on the home and offices of his personal lawyer. That lawyer, of course, is wannabe fixer Michael Cohen. And it appears the only reason simpleton Trump retained him is that his name sounds like that of the infamous mob lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump idolized Cohn.

In any event, both Putin and Trump undoubtedly appreciate the shrewdness of emulating former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan in the midst of his entanglement with Monica Lewinsky. Tragically, when all is said and done, nothing will change in Syria. And chances are very good that it will only be a matter of time before this groundhog-day tragedy plays out again.

Egypt’s Sisi Aping Russia’s Putin to Continue Serving…for Life

March 26

Egyptians go to the polls today for a presidential election that smacks of a coronation. After all, not only is voting compulsory, but President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is effectively the only candidate. Frankly, the only uncertainty is whether he’s shameless enough to rig more than the 96.1 percent of the vote he rigged in 2014.

Only a godless dictator would broadcast such a big lie without fear of his people ridiculing him or of God rebuking him. This, alas, is what the Arab Spring has sprung. The BBC telegraphed this unfolding farce a month ago (on February 24). That’s when Our World previewed this election under a headline that was as telling as it was succinct:

As it happens, though, here is the foreboding I sounded years ago—when the Arab Spring was still in full bloom: