Faux News: Mau Mau-Ing in the Era of Trump and Biden

By Patrick Machayo

We are living in an era of highly polarized politics in America, and stereotypes in the international arena. This book grew out of the frustration of observing those myths, misinformation and stereotypes being perpetrated by politicians and media alike. This book is intended at times to be a sarcastic, cynical reaction to these stereotypes. At no time are the responses supposed to be authoritative. Sometimes witty humor is my intention within this book. Special attention has been given to politics in the Trump era, race relations and questions about Africa. This is because in my opinion these are highly charged topics in today's era.
The questions are supposed to be simple commonplace misinterpretations. As in my talk radio shows, this book is(was?) intended not to fill in brand new information but to affirm the obvious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664192621

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Copyright © 2021 by Patrick Machayo.

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Rev. date: 09/09/2021

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CONTENTS

Preface

A House Divided against itself Cannot Stand: If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

--------Abraham Lincoln June 16, 1858.

At the Springfield, Illinois Statehouse for the Republican

State Convention.

PREFACE

This book was never intended to be an authoritative account of the issues facing us today. In fact, it grew out of online conversations and the frustration witnessed by the author about the growing polarization in American politics and race relations and stereotyping of African society. Sometimes the answers are intended to be witty, humorous, sarcastic, confusing, challenging, inspiring, rude, blunt, provocative, nonchalant, and otherwise, casual. By no means is the intention to offend political sensibilities or change people’s political affiliations. Everybody, of course, has their opinions and is indeed entitled to them. What is shocking about today’s society is the extreme degree of intolerance, mistrust, confusion, and misinformation.

Several topics are examined at length: the current American landscape (Republican versus Democrat) and views on Trump versus Biden feature prominently. Racial issues are a guaranteed flash point, so I felt a need to include this topic. Africa is highly marginalized in the media and continues to be viewed from a very biased prism. The underdevelopment and instability of that continent continues to awe many. The struggle to end apartheid in South Africa is featured prominently in the American media. This book does not shy away from examining the issues facing that land.

American politics seem to be paralyzed by an outdated legislative process that seems to reward partisanship over the national interest. Gerrymandering and political primaries have eroded healthy competition, and politicians rarely seem to be held accountable for their campaign pledges. The shocking fact is the overwhelming power of voters on the fringes having oversized influence in American politics. Take Donald Trump, for example. Donald J Trump senior was selected by articulating ideas and by aggressively pushing for a reversal of environmental protections. He beat sixteen candidates with ideas about building a wall to stop illegal immigration, bringing back American jobs from overseas, and stopping what he viewed as radical steps destroying the mining industry by aggressively pushing for environmental protections and exiting the Paris Climate Agreement. In 2016, we had an 11 percent turnout in New York’s fourteenth congressional district. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a highly polarizing figure on the democratic left, won that election. We have created so many safe seats in Congress that only the primaries are competitive. In American history, there had been four presidential impeachments. Two were against President Trump. In 2020, we saw the rise of the COVID-19 epidemic that has since killed more people than World War II. In fact, one study states that as of mid-2021, the number could be higher than nine hundred thousand. That would be 57 percent higher than official figures. At the time of publication, Covid deaths have exceeded 675,000.

Denial of the obvious in American politics defies logic. In 2020, Joseph R. Biden won the popular vote by a margin of seven million votes and 4.5 percentage points overall. This means that 51.3% of all votes cast across the country were for Biden, while 46.9 percent were for Trump. Unfortunately, many in America continue to deny this arithmetic. Recent polls show that as many as 55 percent of Americans favor abolishing the Electoral College; 80 percent of them are Democrats, while only 24 percent are Republicans. Such is the polarization facing our society.

This book also examines Africa’s contentious role in the world today and historically. Nobody can even agree on the origins of the name Africa. Some have suggested that the continent was named after the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Others think it came from the Roman Africa terra, based on the Berber-speaking people who once resided in what is now modern-day Tunisia. There have been historic references of Africa as Ethiopia or Libya. The Latin aprica means sunny. Most references after the fifteenth century refer to this land as Africa, however.

Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994. Prior to this, the society suffered under institutional racism after the National Party came to power in 1948. They tried to hold on to power and repeatedly battled neighboring nations with multiple incursions and cross-border violence into Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Zambia. In South Africa, the population is Blacks are 76.4, White 9.1, mixed race 8.9, Indian South African 2.5 and other 0.5 percent.

Unfortunately for South Africa, the anti-apartheid was spearheaded mainly by the African National Congress (ANC). As a result, they have dominated elections since 1994, making the country basically a one-party state, with the Democratic Alliance holding marginal power, mostly at the municipal level. Cronyism and corruption is now rampant. During apartheid, Indians and coloreds ran their own affairs. Blacks were relegated to ethnic homelands called Bantustans. Black militant activity against apartheid rose sharply in the 1970s, with trade unionism, strikes, and school boycotts. Influx control was abandoned with the abolishment of pass laws in 1986. Around this time, trade unions coalesced into COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions). Cyril Ramaphosa, the current president, began his career as a trade unionist lawyer. Negotiations to end apartheid ran from 1990 to 1994. The ANC purportedly represents nonracial democracy. To its credit, it has worked considerably to incorporate the various South African tribes and races into its ranks. It has allied closely with the South African Communist Party (SACP). Joe Slovo, a white communist, was a prominent member of the ANC, and he was also a commander of its armed wing. The ANC’s 1994 election slogan was a better life for all. They were talking about reconstruction and development programs, also known as RDP. The idea was to rapidly transform the nation from its segregation into a rainbow nation that encompassed all the races with equality. Over the last two and a half decades of the ANC’s rule, the effectiveness of the government and rule of law and the corruption levels have all become increasingly compromised. Economic inequality, especially along racial lines, remains unresolved. The first decade of the ANC’s rule in South Africa was actually quite encouraging. In the late, South African economic growth suffered heavily under sanctions and boycotts. During the 1990s, several economic programs were created to reduce poverty and economic imbalances in the nation, including the child support grant and the Black Economic Empowerment. The Black Economic Empowerment movement had been quite controversial, and it had benefited mostly the ANC elite, while the average black South African had seen very little improvement in their quality of life. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is a wealthy man today. A few black billionaires have been created, including Patrice Motsepe and Nthato Motlana. The ANC government has aggressively pursued affirmative procurement policy to ensure that the government and parastatals facilitate the awarding of tenders to their own people through government mechanisms. The government has attempted to shift people from the informal to the formal sector. There have been some setbacks. For example, between 2001 and 2008, the South African mining industry contracted at the rate of 1 percent per year. South Africa’s proven mineral resource wealth is valued at approximately 2.5 trillion dollars, which is one of the largest in the world. The ANC has appointed its cadres to key positions across the government. The judiciary has remained largely independent. At the presidential level, you have two term limits of five years each. Blacks now occupy senior positions in all sectors of the government, and the affirmative action, also known as the Black Economic Empowerment, has diluted the white dominance of the private sector. However, more than 70 percent of the most arable and fertile land is still in white hands, and this creates a very explosive issue. However, no cases of land disputes have happened, as was the case in neighboring Zimbabwe. Jacob Zuma’s presidency was characterized by scandal. Holding public office became a vehicle for accumulating material wealth within the ANC. Today, South Africa has a sizable black middle class. The economy is more open than it was under apartheid. However, South Africa is one of the most economically unequal countries in the world. Black-owned assets total less than four billion rand, while whites, who are just 9 percent of the population, have assets of about ten billion rand. In fact, the economy gap between whites and blacks in South Africa is increasing. Many within the ANC hated the corruption that ballooned under Jacob Zuma and were very supportive of Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise into presidency. He assumed the presidency in February 2018. He came into being on a platform of reducing corruption and improving the delivery of services by the government and a policy of restoring economic growth. The ANC has always been a broad-based liberation movement that tries to incorporate all the sectors of society into the movement. Dissolution and anger is catalyzed by widespread crime and stunts economic growth. The collapse or near collapse of state-owned corporations such as the South African Airways is a constant reminder of the unrelenting mismanagement of the ANC-appointed technocrats. One of the bright spots in South Africa is the Office of the Public Protector, which investigates complaints against government agencies and officials and proposes remedies. Ex-president Jacob Zuma himself was prosecuted for corruption and jailed, and this led to massive looting throughout the country. Many Zuma supporters are currently in key positions and continue to frustrate President Ramaphosa’s hedonistic attempts to clean up the mess. There have been a few bright spots: Water and sanitation services are being provided steadily. The