#zuma must fall

[zumaandrockypupsfanatic]

Rocky and Zuma must have very sensitive noses. The slightest touch makes them sneeze so hard that it caused Rocky to fall off of his pups and it caused Zuma to fly and flip in the air. Is that why they never get any boops?

[beardedmrbean]

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa was heading closer to the reality of a national coalition government for the first time and a series of complex negotiations to achieve that, as partial election results Friday put the ruling African National Congress well short of a majority.

With more than 65% of votes counted across the country's nine provinces, the ANC — which has held a majority for 30 years since the end of apartheid — had received just under 42% of the national vote in Wednesday's election, according to the partial results as counting continued. That represented a huge drop from the 57.5% it received in the last national election in 2019, although there was still some way to go.

The ANC was still widely expected to be the biggest party, but its being so far off 50% at this stage of an election was unprecedented, analysts said.

The commission that runs the election has said the final results will be announced by Sunday, possibly sooner. While all the major parties indicated they would wait for those final numbers before entering any coalition talks, the country's focus now was firmly on whom the ANC might approach to jointly govern Africa's most developed economy if it loses its majority.

ANC deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane said the party’s leadership would meet on Friday and “reflect on what is good for the country.”

It was anyone's guess what the ANC might do, given it has said so little about any coalition plans and that there are dozens of opposition parties contesting the election. The three other major parties are the centrist main opposition Democratic Alliance, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters and the new MK Party led by former South African President Jacob Zuma, who once led the ANC.

Should the ANC lose its majority, it would also have implications for President Cyril Ramaphosa. South Africans vote for parties in elections and the president is then chosen by lawmakers in Parliament. If it loses its majority, the ANC would need help from other parties to reelect Ramaphosa for a second term.

There is time pressure because Parliament must sit within 14 days of the election results being announced to choose a president. Also, the longer it takes to form a coalition, the more chance of market instability.

Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said he was open to working with the ANC, although he would have to first speak with a group of other smaller parties with which he has a preelection agreement. He said the possibility of the country's biggest political shift in 30 years "opens up a whole new universe for politics in South Africa and to start building something better for the people of South Africa.”

Steenhuisen had said on election day: “All bets are off in this election. We’re heading into coalition country.”

With votes counted from more than 15,000 of the 23,000 polling stations, the ANC led by some way, as expected. The Democratic Alliance was second on around 23% of the vote. Zuma's MK Party had 12% and the EFF around 9%.

Coalition negotiations could depend on how far the ANC falls short of a majority in the final results, if indeed it remains under 50%. If it’s just short of a majority, it could approach several smaller parties to get past 50%. If it is some way off — as it was in the latest results — it might have to work with one of those three main opposition parties. They have very different ideologies.

Analysts say an ANC-EFF or an ANC-MK coalition could spook investors given EFF and MK pledges to nationalize parts of South Africa's economy, the most developed on the African continent. The inclusion of the business-friendly DA in a coalition government would be welcomed by investors, according to Aleix Montana, the southern Africa analyst at the British-based risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

The ANC has had a clear majority for all of South Africa's democracy since the party swept to power in a 1994 election which officially ended the apartheid system of white minority rule, leading Nelson Mandela to become the country's first Black president. It has been the dominant political force and slipping below 50% would be a momentous change for South Africa, even if the signs were on the wall.

The ANC's support has steadily declined from a high of nearly 70% of the vote 20 years ago as South Africa grapples with deep socioeconomic problems, including widespread poverty and now one of the worst unemployment rates in the world at 32%. Poverty and unemployment disproportionately affect South Africa's Black majority that make up 80% of the population and were the core of the ANC's support over the years.

While the inequalities of apartheid were always going to be hard to solve, and the ANC was praised for making progress in its first 10 years in government, it is now being blamed by many for failures in basic government services, numerous corruption scandals and most recently an electricity crisis that led to rolling blackouts across the country of 62 million.

A projection from a government agency and national broadcaster SABC, based on vote returns, was estimating on Friday that the ANC would end up with just over 40%, a drop of around 17 percentage points, which would be a stunning result in the context of South Africa.

[semi-sketchy]

PAW Patrol Episode Thoughts - Season 1

I'm copy-pasting this from my DeviantArt, kinda hoping it may give me the strength to pull through season 3 (season 4 has Sweetie BUT THE ROAD THERE IS SO BAD) and eventually the rest of this ongoing show.

In the future, this Tumblr should be updated at the same time as my DA, but for now, here's my season 1 thoughts.

-----------------

I decided to watch all the PAW Patrol episodes and summarize some thoughts, as I do. Some of these I've never seen and others it's been a long time, so kinda curious how they've all held up.

Just gonna give a little rating of 1-10 based on my initial reaction.

1/10 - The episode you'd force your worst enemy to watch on repeat

2/10 - Just awful

3/10 - Pretty terrible

4/10 - Didn't hate, but wouldn't wanna watch again

5/10 - Just okay

6/10 - Decent, wouldn't mind watching it again

7/10 - The average good

8/10 - Really liked it!

9/10 - This is a must-watch

10/10 - Probably my favorite episode ever like maybe two are going to get this rating

Obviously this is all subjective, just because an episode shares the same rating as another doesn't mean I think they're equal. I don't want to get into .5s and such, so I'm just rounding.

I'm also going by the episode order listed on the Fandom wiki, which doesn't correlate to the US air date in the slightest.

Also yeah, I'm gonna mention my OCs because I like them.

Episode 1: Pups Make a Splash/Pups Fall Festival

A: Rubble skateboards, Marshall doesn't know what a bay is, Rocky drops Cali in the tub twice, Captain Turbot is very kooky. 7/10

B: Snow in the fall, proof this is Canada. Also really love the pups going out and just being members of the community, not to mention Zuma and Skye are cute. 9/10

Episode 2: Pups save the Sea Turtles/Pups and the Very Big Baby

A: This is the introduction of Alex, which immediately knocks the score down, although it is the first instance of ChaseXSkye being teased and it is kinda informative about turtles. 7/10

B: Saving a beached whale is a cool concept and the interactions are good. 7/10

Episode 3: Pups and the Kitty-tastrophe/Pups Save a Train

A: Zuma...a kitten stole your hovercraft. Rubble is extra adorable, although I have to ask why Ryder thinks it's a good idea to send dogs to rescue cats. 8/10

B: I call BS trains cannot stop that fast and Chase absolutely should not be JUMPING OFF THE ROOF OF A MOVING TRAIN, very accurate on what a cat will do for food though. 9/10

Episode 4: Pup Pup Boogie/Pups in a Fog

A: Skye is a DDR master and Marshall can moonwalk confirmed. It's also weird how the groomer is basically the town vet. 8/10

B: Ryder knows how to break and enter. 7/10

Episode 5: Pup Pup Goose/Pup Pup and Away

A: RUBBLE NO DON'T GIVE GEESE BREAD THAT'S BAD FOR THEM. Marshall and Fuzzy are cute though and the amount of geese is further proof this is Canada. 7/10

B: Immediately knocking the score down for the fact this is the first instance of that annoying bowling-pin sound and the introduction of Mayor Humdinger. Although is this confirmation that Goodway stole Chickaletta from Farmer Yumi? 7/10

Episode 6: Pups on Ice/Pups and the Snow Monster

A: Yeah Alex is a very accurate representation of a little kid, thinking that being in mortal danger is super fun. 7/10

B: I have to immediately scream at them driving across a train bridge when there's a perfectly good road leading to the mountain. I never took Rubble for being cowardly, either, but here we are. 6/10

Episode 7: Pups Save the Circus/Pup a Doodle Do

A: Ryder, riding elephants is NOT something you should do and you don't calm an animal by climbing on their back. Also the air mattress should've popped. 5/10

B: Overall this one had a few good chuckles and the interactions were decent, but it was such a roundabout way to pad the timer. 6/10

Episode 8: Pups Pit Crew/Pups Fight Fire

A: Alex once again causes problems because he refuses to listen, thankfully he gets scolded by everyone when he shows he didn't learn anything, but...Ryder, you should've installed proper breaks to begin with like....come on. You're smarter than that. 5/10

B: Ryder being like "Marshall, you're our emergency" was just mean. I also don't realize how they were so inconsistent with the timer, but it was cute seeing everyone come together for Marshall. 7/10

Episode 9: Pups Save the Treats/Pups Get a Lift

A: Mr. Porter...why didn't you use your parking break on a hill? Also Ryder had all that talk about "using a hovercraft to not put extra weight on the ice" THEN JUST WALKED OUT ON IT ANYWAYS AND GOT INTO TROUBLE. FOLLOW YOUR OWN ADVICE, DUDE. 7/10

B: Cats completely freaking out and hating the cold is so accurate it hurts. Also Rubble is so adorable here. 9/10

Episode 10: Pups and the Ghost Pirate

Rubble dressed as Elvis is so cute, but why does Ryder keep asking Marshall to be flown even though he knows he's scared of flying...like anyone could go in the air here. Still, good laughs. 7/10

Episode 11: Pups Save Christmas

Pretty alright and kinda what I expect of a Christmas episode. Ryder completely got cheated out of a gift, though. 6/10

Episode 12: Pups Get a Rubble/Pups Save a Walrus

A: Kinda set the gold standard for how to introduce OCs and I really wish they did more origin stories for the pups, even though there's more than a few inconsistencies. Rubble really is a writers pet. 7/10

B: Kinda wish they used this fishing net story to bring more attention to how much ocean trash there is, but it fell short in that regard. 6/10

Episode 13: Pups Save the Bunnies/Pup-tacular

A: Not gonna fault on the whole "you shouldn't give rabbits carrots" since these are wild bunnies and carrots are like candy to them, BUT I will fault Ryder and others for PICKING UP WILD ANIMALS AND FEEDING THEM CAKE. Surprised we never heard anything more about the rabbit Skye kept, WHICH AGAIN, YOU CANNOT JUST TAKE A WILD ANIMAL FOR A PET. 7/10

B: Poor Katie, getting disappointed again and again as each pup gets called away, but Rocky pushing aside his wants for her was super sweet and made it a feel-good episode. 9/10

Episode 14: Pups Save the Bay/Pups Save a Goodway

A: This was kinda informative about ocean oil spills, but the methods... I know, kids show, they're not gonna set their bay on fire, but still, towels are not a skimmer replacement. 7/10

B: Accurate to how family treats you over small things. It's kinda weird that the statue is just Humdinger's model, but this was the first season and they were on a budget. 6/10

Episode 15: Pups Save a Hoedown/Pups Save Alex

A: All the pups in their little cowboy hats are so cute, but it was an enjoyable episode, too. 7/10

B: Oh my god cats hissing and slapping carriers....accurate. Don't know why it's titled "save Alex" since he just...tags along and acts like an excited little kid. 8/10

Episode 16: Pups Save a School Day/Pups Turn on the Lights

A: Don't know why Alex was planning on eating a tuna sandwich that had been unrefrigerated over night, I think it's better that Cali got it. Although, Ryder, bro...you need to actually MEASURE the food so that way you're not over/under feeding your dogs. Also Rocky is a purse-snatcher. 8/10

B: The amount of UNIQUE ANIMATION in this episode is great and Adventure Bay runs on renewable energy, but the wind turbines weren't made correctly. Still, the surprise party for Chase is cute and Byte would be great in an episode like this. Surprised Ryder doesn't have a generator, though, or at least a battery backup. 7/10

Episode 17: Pups Save a Pool Day/Circus Pup-Formers

A: Marshall has the most indestructible pool floatie I've ever seen and his elevator joke actually got a chuckle out of me. But, if the water tower pipe is bent that would cut off the water for the whole town and not just the pool? And if everyone was so hot why not swim in the ocean...? 7/10

B: Ryder just reads the cereal box while eating instead of watching YouTube like the rest of us. Ryder volunteering his pups without their consent was kinda scummy though and Marshall's reaction was completely warranted. 6/10

Episode 18: Pups Save the Easter Egg Hunt

Is this Skye's bunny making a return? First Fuzzy comes back in episode 16 and now Skye's bunny, are they beginning to care about continuity? Do love how everyone is just like "oh no! That eagle took all the eggs and candy! ...Oh yeah and Rocky too, I guess." What I wanna know is how Alex got that egg out of the nest when it was so high up and how the egg was still alive without the warmth. Skye also not being afraid of eagles feels weird. 6/10

Episode 19: Pups Save a Super Pup/Pups Save Ryder's Robot

A: Rubble cosplays and it's adorable, also is 10x better than Mighty Pups could ever dream of being. This seems like a good job for Tara, although Zuma struggling to drive Rubble's rig is cute. 6/10

B: Ryder starting the robot apocalypse to replace all his dogs with machines. 6/10

Episode 20: Pups Go All Monkey/Pups Save a Hoot

A: Mr. Porter you should know better than to leave the keys in your car, just lucky Ryder somehow knows how to drive an actual car despite being 10. 7/10

B: Chase is very cute with little Hooty, also kinda funny how Chase is just BSing the entire "yes I can speak owl" thing. Honestly the nostalgia of this one was better than the actual episode. 8/10

Episode 21: Pups Save a Bat/Pups Save a Toof

A: Ryder just like "thank god, finally a day without any trouble-- ah shit". What this episode was so delicately trying to walk around is if a bat is out during the day, they could be rabid. Ryder's smart sending in his dogs since they've gotta be vaccinated. 8/10

B: After getting my wisdom teeth out, I am 100% behind Chase. Fuck the dentist/oral surgeon. It's also just a loose puppy tooth, it would come out on it's own anyway. Ryder and Rocky not liking brussel sprouts and water though don't really count as fears? And we didn't even see Zuma's fear. Also might want to point out that a human dentist isn't going to work on a dog's teeth. Ryder, take your damn dogs to a vet. 9/10

Episode 22: Pups Save the Camping Trip/Pups and the Trouble with Turtles

A: Rocky really was about to light up a turtle, huh. It's cute seeing the pups just out having a life outside of rescuing and this episode teases Chase's crush on Skye even more. 8/10

B: Everyone naming the turtles something that rhymes with "turtle" then Marshall just going "Joey. What? I like the name Joey" was great, although it's so weird seeing Ryder only call one pup for a mission? This one was also really good, solid 8/10

Episode 23: Pups and the Beanstalk/Pups Save the Turbots

A: Chase's crushing on Skye is so obvious even Rubble knows. While I don't really care for the Rubble's dream episodes, this one was good. 7/10

B: I don't know how I feel about Skye swooning over Francois, you know, A HUMAN, and then Rubble being like "I can be French too! Impressed?" Also this actively made me look up if a blue-footed booby bird is real and...yes. It is. I think they just used it to see if they could get away with that name. But god is Francois insufferable in this episode. 7/10

Episode 24: Pups and the Lighthouse Boogie/Pups Save Ryder

A: Rubble is pure lightning at DDR, his speed is incredible, even though Zuma can outlast him. Still, a cute rescue and the water animation/texture actually has some effort put into it! 8/10

B: You know considering he was on a cliff, I'm surprised the pups didn't think he went splat. Also surprised the pup pad didn't completely shatter, I mean... I cracked a phone screen once when it fell 2 inches. A 100 foot drop doesn't break it, but a goat's teeth does. Amazing. Is really cute to see the pups actually take full command here. 8/10

Episode 25: Pups Great Race/Pups Take the Cake

A: Chase completely panicking about his cones is funny, but man Alex did good keeping up with them. 7/10

B: Goodway, you need to give much more advance notice to a baker for a big cake like this, you can't frost a cake while it's hot! This "let's get it done in a few hours" is completely unrealistic, even if it was just a single layer sheet cake. Also it needs HEAVY DUTY SUPPORTS so the layers don't crush each other. Still a cute episode though. 8/10

Episode 26: Pups and the Pirate Treasure

Ah! A pirate's cave! Another episode Tara would be perfect for. Although, all the pups working together to solve a mystery and find pirate treasure is cute and cool and a good way to end off season 1. 8/10

Season 1 overall:

The voice acting in some of the earlier episodes is pretty mediocre, but there's some actual effort put into the animation and lighting. Not to mention, all the characters have personalities. They're actual members of the community, the dogs are dogs and you can really see the bond they have with Ryder. Watching it reminds me of why I fell in love with the series to begin with.

[clothinglowpricemerch]

Road Tripping through California's Coastal Paradise: A Symphony of Beaches, Surf, and Sunsets

California's coastline is a haven for beach lovers, surfers, and nature enthusiasts alike. From the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to the laid-back vibes of Santa Monica, this coastal journey offers endless opportunities for exploration. Cruise along the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at charming towns, sun-kissed beaches, and world-class surf spots.

Introduction

Welcome to the sun-soaked shores of California, where the Pacific Ocean kisses the coastline in a harmonious dance of waves and where every bend in the road unveils a new chapter of coastal beauty. With a decade of travel experience, I invite you to join me on an unforgettable road trip through California's coastal paradise. From the majestic Golden Gate Bridge to the relaxed ambiance of Santa Monica, this journey is a symphony of beaches, surf, and breathtaking sunsets.

The Pacific Coast Highway: A Ribbon of Scenic Wonders

Setting the Stage: The Golden Gate Bridge

Our coastal adventure begins in San Francisco, home to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. As the crimson-orange towers rise against the backdrop of the fog-kissed bay, it's a visual overture to the wonders that await on this journey. Take a leisurely stroll along the bridge's pedestrian walkway for panoramic views of the city, Alcatraz Island, and the Pacific Ocean.

Cruising Along Highway 1

Hit the road on the legendary Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1), a ribbon of asphalt that hugs the rugged coastline. The journey is as much about the drive as it is about the destinations. With the Pacific Ocean to your west and cliffs adorned with wildflowers to your east, the scenery is a constant companion.

Charming Towns and Coastal Retreats

Half Moon Bay: Coastal Tranquility

Our first pitstop is Half Moon Bay, a coastal town known for its laid-back atmosphere and pristine beaches. Explore the historic Main Street, lined with boutique shops and charming cafes. For nature enthusiasts, a visit to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve unveils tide pools teeming with marine life.

Santa Cruz: Surfing Capital

Continue south to Santa Cruz, the quintessential surf town. Feel the salty breeze as you stroll along the Santa Cruz Wharf or test your skills at the iconic Steamer Lane surf spot. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk adds a nostalgic touch with its vintage rides and seaside attractions.

Carmel-by-the-Sea: Quaint Elegance

As the road winds through cypress-lined cliffs, you'll arrive at Carmel-by-the-Sea. This picturesque town exudes charm with its fairytale cottages, art galleries, and white-sand beaches. Take a scenic walk along 17-Mile Drive for postcard-perfect views of the rugged coastline and the famous Lone Cypress.

Big Sur: Majestic Landscapes

Big Sur, a crown jewel of California's coast, beckons with its dramatic cliffs, redwood forests, and artistic retreats. McWay Falls, a waterfall cascading onto a pristine beach, is a must-see. Breathe in the fresh air as you navigate the winding roads, and be prepared for jaw-dropping vistas at every turn.

Sun-Kissed Beaches and World-Class Surf

Pfeiffer Beach: A Hidden Gem

Tucked away in Big Sur is Pfeiffer Beach, a hidden gem known for its purple-hued sands. Marvel at the unique rock formations, including the famous Keyhole Arch. Sunset is a magical time here, as the fading light paints the rocks and waves in a palette of warm tones.

Malibu: Surfing in Paradise

As you head towards Southern California, Malibu awaits with its glamorous beaches and world-class surf breaks. Zuma Beach is a favorite among surfers and sunbathers alike. Whether you're catching waves or simply soaking up the sun, Malibu embodies the epitome of the California surf culture.

Huntington Beach: Surf City USA

Continue south to Huntington Beach, crowned as Surf City USA. The International Surfing Museum is a tribute to the sport's rich history, while the Huntington Beach Pier provides panoramic views of the coastline. Join locals and visitors alike as they embrace the surfing lifestyle that defines this vibrant beach community.

Nature's Spectacle: Coastal State Parks

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Return to the coastline, and venture into Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where lush forests meet the sea. The Overlook Trail offers breathtaking views of McWay Falls and the surrounding coastline. It's a sanctuary of tranquility, with the rhythmic sounds of crashing waves and the rustling leaves creating a symphony of nature.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

Explore the pristine beauty of Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, often referred to as the "crown jewel" of California's state park system. Hike along coastal trails that lead to hidden coves, and witness seals, sea lions, and a variety of bird species. The reserve is a testament to California's commitment to preserving its natural treasures.

Santa Monica: The Grand Finale

Sunset at the Santa Monica Pier

As our coastal journey reaches its grand finale, Santa Monica welcomes you with open arms. The iconic Santa Monica Pier, with its Ferris wheel and carnival atmosphere, sets the stage for a perfect ending. Join the locals for a sunset stroll along the sandy shores or ride the Ferris wheel for a panoramic view of the coastline bathed in the golden hues of dusk.

Embracing the Laid-Back Vibes

Santa Monica's laid-back vibes make it an ideal spot to unwind after the road trip. Explore the vibrant Third Street Promenade, dotted with shops, restaurants, and street performers. The beachfront bike path invites you to rent a bike and pedal along the ocean, embracing the carefree spirit of Southern California.

Practical Tips for Your Coastal Adventure

Timing Your Trip

The beauty of California's coast is accessible year-round, but certain seasons offer unique experiences. Spring and fall provide pleasant weather and fewer crowds, making it an ideal time for a road trip. Summers can be busy, especially in popular beach towns, while winter brings the possibility of dramatic storm-watching scenes.

Pack Essentials for the Drive

Ensure your road trip is smooth by packing essentials. Sunglasses, sunscreen, and comfortable clothing are a must, as are your camera and binoculars for wildlife watching. Plan your accommodations in advance, especially during peak seasons, to secure the best beachfront stays.

Embrace Spontaneity

While it's essential to plan key stops and accommodations, leave room for spontaneity. Some of the best experiences on this coastal journey may come from impromptu detours to hidden beaches or roadside attractions. Embrace the freedom of the open road.

Conclusion

In conclusion, road tripping through California's coastal paradise is a journey that transcends the ordinary. From the misty cliffs of Big Sur to the sandy shores of Santa Monica, every mile is a brushstroke in a masterpiece of nature. As a seasoned traveler, I can attest that this coastal symphony of beaches, surf, and sunsets is an ode to the soul-stirring beauty of California's coastline. So, buckle up, roll down the windows, and let the salty breeze guide you on an unforgettable road trip along the sunlit shores of the Golden State.

[callofthecowards]

Zuma was confused, who were these fellows, what were they looking for, before she could ask enough questions, some. Thing, flew down, the bird? Perhaps, and the teleporting one? however, that wasn’t all, something, some smoke had appeared, and the teleporting one had grown to 5 times its size. It was a member of the legions of hell now, and it was trying to prevent the R.V from moving, before anything though, Abednego knew that he must perform his duty, he stepped down from the R.V, he walked towards the demonic creature, he had kicked it, it would normally be a one hit strike as usual, however, there was something else, the creature had fallen, but due to no device of Abednego’s, rather it had been struck by something falling from the heavens . a monster it appeared, a grotesque caricature of a man?

It must be killed. Abednego thought. He ran towards Abednego, flashing towards him instantly,  Nosfael swung his scythe, however, he hit nothing, Abednego jumped over the scythe and landed on  his head, jumping off and crushing him into the ground, Nosfael tried to strike back, he failed again, this wasn’t a fight, it was an animal playing with a toy, and surprisingly enough, the wolf was not the animal, no, it was Abednego, the most frightening creature of them all, Nosfael could not do much  except swing his scythe, he would hit nothing  no matter what he did, he was flailing, and, if he failed to turn this fight around, he might die.

“25,000 hours” Abednego  said, growing faster, Nosfael struggled to keep track of the flurry of kicks coming at him, his left ear was bleeding, so was his left eye, he could barely breathe, it was like, he was stuck in some whirlwind, some natural disaster, however, before he could ever be finished off by Abednego, something slapped Abednego out of his front, Nosfael flew, crashing into the ground and rolling for a bit before being blasted into the air y the pressure again, he fell, but this time, on his feet, and zoomed towards the demon birds, now awoken, he left a crater in his wake and was trailed by an  afterimage of himself,  a bright light flashed from his body 4 times, and he seemed to be a lot faster, he struck the monster in the arm and blew its arm clean  off, only to zoom away to the monsters leg, this part was a lot more sturdy and before long, the destroyed arm regenerated.

“of course, it’s a demon, why can’t we just fight hoodlums again” Zuma said from the R.V, she had tried to get down, but Barnabas stopped her again, reminding her of last time.

Abednego slammed his foot into the monsters nose again, before saying something else “Misbehavior” he whispered as one of his eyes fell out, his second eye formed into a clone of him, a false, demonic seeming version of himself, the clone jumped up and kicked the monster in the ear, the two of them jumped at the same time and grabbed his nostrils, his head hit the floor as the original version of Abednego kicked the monster in the back of the torso, a loud cracking sound was made.

                                                *Crash*

“80,000 hours” Abednego said, as he became even faster, he sprant around the beast delivering a blinding flurry of almost unperceivable blows, the normal untrained eye couldn’t see the, however, Zuma could, oddly enough, like able, she was tracking the fight with her eyes, this was shocking, even to her, however, that was not the focus here, the focus was the fact that he was moving at Mach 1 speeds, “stop!” Barnabas yelled.

The monster was already dead. But the devil contained within the monster was ye to die, it wasn’t just any demon, it was one of the 72 devils, the greatest legion among the legions of hell, his creation had spanned the whole of the world, the demon crawled out of the monsters body and slinked away, right after the demon had exorcised itself from the body of the creature, Abednego walked back and entered the R.V.

He sat back in the driver’s seat, and immediately was fallen upon by Babylon, he began to drive away once more, they had come around the facility, however, that was not the reason he had come about in the first place, they had come to reclaim something, a part of him, that he had never been able to fully control, the reason he wasn’t using his heavenly judgement blade, the heart of the star, the physical embodiment of all that Abednego was, it was heat, but also cold, It was a living contradiction to all the established laws of mankind, it was something that had no reason to exist, a fallacy, a mocking caricature of the truth, it was the very existence of Abednego.

Just as they drove past the facility, they were greeted by the sight of an elephant skeleton upon the way, its bones barely covered by blazing hot, depressing sand, “what happened here” Zuma asked, bewildered, “Everything that lives is gone to waste” Abednego responded, this was his home, where he had come from.

He had a brief recollection of a man named Shadrach, who was Shadrach, where had he known him from, he couldn’t remember, it couldn’t have been important, if he was, he would have remembered, the heart of the star Hyperion was a construct of light and energy in a semi solid for, as many people would describe it, it was something that didn’t exist.

the R.V drove forward as there was  almost perfect silence within the vehicle, until Zuma finally acknowledged the people who were in there with them “so, uh, do you know anyone here or?” Philip merely shook his head, he looked aghast, he was still struggling to process what he went through, Damian failed to respond, as was almost characteristic of him at this point, Rita, however, was chatty, as usual of her, she began to explain what had happened in the lives of her and Damian to the group, and so did Isaac, before long, they had hit it off and were now talking about shared experiences in the lab, meanwhile, able and  Barnabas were having a different conversation.

“we’re becoming a lot, aren’t we, wont this be a problem” Barnabas said, he noticed that there were not so many of them together before, however, now there were quite a few of them in this small cramped space, not only that, but it might be a hinderance to the crew to have so many people moving around and acting of  their own accord “it shames me to  say this, but we’ll need all the help we can possibly get” able replied, he knew the herculean task ahead of them.

The monsters they were about to face, required that they were at full power, and that there were quite a few of them, Goliad was the most powerful, but, for some reason, he hadn’t killed them there and then, however, Rripsshannks and Delilah would not do the same, talk less of Solomon, they had to do what must be done, and, they had to be careful, the simple act of summoning their friend had brought about the attention of the moon, they needed to stay out of its reach for a while, and that was exactly what they planned to do, they were heading away from this earth for a while, to an inverted earth, the world known as the mothsbane.

Im sorry what

[therainatdawn]

Zuma was confused, who were these fellows, what were they looking for, before she could ask enough questions, some. Thing, flew down, the bird? Perhaps, and the teleporting one? however, that wasn’t all, something, some smoke had appeared, and the teleporting one had grown to 5 times its size. It was a member of the legions of hell now, and it was trying to prevent the R.V from moving, before anything though, Abednego knew that he must perform his duty, he stepped down from the R.V, he walked towards the demonic creature, he had kicked it, it would normally be a one hit strike as usual, however, there was something else, the creature had fallen, but due to no device of Abednego’s, rather it had been struck by something falling from the heavens . a monster it appeared, a grotesque caricature of a man?

It must be killed. Abednego thought. He ran towards Abednego, flashing towards him instantly,  Nosfael swung his scythe, however, he hit nothing, Abednego jumped over the scythe and landed on  his head, jumping off and crushing him into the ground, Nosfael tried to strike back, he failed again, this wasn’t a fight, it was an animal playing with a toy, and surprisingly enough, the wolf was not the animal, no, it was Abednego, the most frightening creature of them all, Nosfael could not do much  except swing his scythe, he would hit nothing  no matter what he did, he was flailing, and, if he failed to turn this fight around, he might die.

“25,000 hours” Abednego  said, growing faster, Nosfael struggled to keep track of the flurry of kicks coming at him, his left ear was bleeding, so was his left eye, he could barely breathe, it was like, he was stuck in some whirlwind, some natural disaster, however, before he could ever be finished off by Abednego, something slapped Abednego out of his front, Nosfael flew, crashing into the ground and rolling for a bit before being blasted into the air y the pressure again, he fell, but this time, on his feet, and zoomed towards the demon birds, now awoken, he left a crater in his wake and was trailed by an  afterimage of himself,  a bright light flashed from his body 4 times, and he seemed to be a lot faster, he struck the monster in the arm and blew its arm clean  off, only to zoom away to the monsters leg, this part was a lot more sturdy and before long, the destroyed arm regenerated.

“of course, it’s a demon, why can’t we just fight hoodlums again” Zuma said from the R.V, she had tried to get down, but Barnabas stopped her again, reminding her of last time.

Abednego slammed his foot into the monsters nose again, before saying something else “Misbehavior” he whispered as one of his eyes fell out, his second eye formed into a clone of him, a false, demonic seeming version of himself, the clone jumped up and kicked the monster in the ear, the two of them jumped at the same time and grabbed his nostrils, his head hit the floor as the original version of Abednego kicked the monster in the back of the torso, a loud cracking sound was made.

                                                *Crash*

“80,000 hours” Abednego said, as he became even faster, he sprant around the beast delivering a blinding flurry of almost unperceivable blows, the normal untrained eye couldn’t see the, however, Zuma could, oddly enough, like able, she was tracking the fight with her eyes, this was shocking, even to her, however, that was not the focus here, the focus was the fact that he was moving at Mach 1 speeds, “stop!” Barnabas yelled.

The monster was already dead. But the devil contained within the monster was ye to die, it wasn’t just any demon, it was one of the 72 devils, the greatest legion among the legions of hell, his creation had spanned the whole of the world, the demon crawled out of the monsters body and slinked away, right after the demon had exorcised itself from the body of the creature, Abednego walked back and entered the R.V.

He sat back in the driver’s seat, and immediately was fallen upon by Babylon, he began to drive away once more, they had come around the facility, however, that was not the reason he had come about in the first place, they had come to reclaim something, a part of him, that he had never been able to fully control, the reason he wasn’t using his heavenly judgement blade, the heart of the star, the physical embodiment of all that Abednego was, it was heat, but also cold, It was a living contradiction to all the established laws of mankind, it was something that had no reason to exist, a fallacy, a mocking caricature of the truth, it was the very existence of Abednego.

Just as they drove past the facility, they were greeted by the sight of an elephant skeleton upon the way, its bones barely covered by blazing hot, depressing sand, “what happened here” Zuma asked, bewildered, “Everything that lives is gone to waste” Abednego responded, this was his home, where he had come from.

He had a brief recollection of a man named Shadrach, who was Shadrach, where had he known him from, he couldn’t remember, it couldn’t have been important, if he was, he would have remembered, the heart of the star Hyperion was a construct of light and energy in a semi solid for, as many people would describe it, it was something that didn’t exist.

the R.V drove forward as there was  almost perfect silence within the vehicle, until Zuma finally acknowledged the people who were in there with them “so, uh, do you know anyone here or?” Philip merely shook his head, he looked aghast, he was still struggling to process what he went through, Damian failed to respond, as was almost characteristic of him at this point, Rita, however, was chatty, as usual of her, she began to explain what had happened in the lives of her and Damian to the group, and so did Isaac, before long, they had hit it off and were now talking about shared experiences in the lab, meanwhile, able and  Barnabas were having a different conversation.

“we’re becoming a lot, aren’t we, wont this be a problem” Barnabas said, he noticed that there were not so many of them together before, however, now there were quite a few of them in this small cramped space, not only that, but it might be a hinderance to the crew to have so many people moving around and acting of  their own accord “it shames me to  say this, but we’ll need all the help we can possibly get” able replied, he knew the herculean task ahead of them.

The monsters they were about to face, required that they were at full power, and that there were quite a few of them, Goliad was the most powerful, but, for some reason, he hadn’t killed them there and then, however, Rripsshannks and Delilah would not do the same, talk less of Solomon, they had to do what must be done, and, they had to be careful, the simple act of summoning their friend had brought about the attention of the moon, they needed to stay out of its reach for a while, and that was exactly what they planned to do, they were heading away from this earth for a while, to an inverted earth, the world known as the mothsbane.

damn................................this is SO GOOD!!!!!!!

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] For decades, thousands of athletes have gathered each fall at Malibu’s Zuma Beach to swim, then bike and run along the coast in a race that has raised millions for local charities, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.But with less than two weeks to go before this year’s Malibu Triathlon, the event is at risk of being canceled due to a flooded underpass on the course that has since become home to an endangered fish known as the tidewater goby and a city law that specifies that nearby residents must be notified of the race route 32 days beforehand.By the time race organizers could devise an alternative race route that avoided the tidewater goby, the 32-day notification deadline had passed, and city officials denied a permit for the triathlon, scheduled for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.On Monday night, Malibu’s Planning Commission listened to an appeal from the competition’s organizers and heard about a shorter bike route that would avoid the flooded underpass. But the commissioners deadlocked on the appeal, voting 2-2, thereby rejecting it. “This is an event that brings families and communities together,” said Skylar Peak, a planning commissioner who voted in favor of greenlighting the triathlon. “We need to figure out a way to make this happen, not a way to deny this from happening.” “The problem that we have here is that this is not just about bureaucracy,” said Kraig Hill, a member of the Planning Commission who voted to deny the permit. “We are being asked to break the law — the noticing requirement is the law,” he said of the 32-day notice of an event. “We can’t just ignore it because we think it’s a good cause.” In a statement to race participants, the company that owns the Malibu Triathlon said, “We are appealing that decision and are confident we will be able to hold the safe, enjoyable, and inspiring event we all want while helping some of the most vulnerable in our society.”A spokesman for the city confirmed that officials expected organizers to submit a follow-up appeal, which would be discussed and voted on at a City Council meeting scheduled for Monday. Members of the public will be able to offer their comments at the meeting. The uncertainty surrounding this year’s event is a result of winter’s record rainstorms. For years, the triathlon’s bicycling course has run through the Zuma Beach undercrossing at Busch Drive, but the series of storms flooded the underpass. The roadway was not immediately cleared, and in time, the tidewater goby took up residence.For this year’s race, organizers submitted their permit application in January, then filed it in person with the city of Malibu in early March. They included a list of residents within a 500-foot radius of the proposed course — a list that would be used to mail notifications to residents 32 days beforehand.It does not appear that the city reached out to race organizers about the flooded underpass, but it’s unclear that the city was required to do so. The underpass is controlled by L.A. County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors, and in past years when the underpass flooded, organizers of the triathlon constructed a temporary ramp for bikes to travel over, organizers said.Brennan Lindner, the race director, said that, in mid-August, city planning officials emailed a list of outstanding items for their permit to be approved but made no mention of the Zuma Beach underpass, according to correspondence filed with the city. Around this time, county officials told organizers that the underpass would probably be unusable for the race, setting off a frantic effort by organizers to work with various government agencies to develop alternative routes. “It’s forced us to adapt as quickly as we possibly can,” Lindner told the Planning Commission on Monday night.By the end of August, L.A. County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors confirmed that state Fish and Wildlife officials and the regional water board had directed the county to not disturb the tidewater goby. Only in the final week of August did the city confirm to race organizers that the Zuma Beach underpass would not be cleared, nor could a temporary ramp be installed.On Aug. 31, triathlon officials submitted an alternative route, but it was rejected by the city on Sept. 5. On Sept. 8, race officials submitted another revised route, paring down the bike course to a series of loops roughly between Trancas Canyon and Westward Beach roads. The same day, city officials contended it was too late: The requirement to notify residents within 500 feet had passed Aug. 24, so the permit was denied.Race organizers appealed the decision, which resulted in Monday’s Planning Commission meeting in which scores of community members stepped up to the dais and begged the panel to approve the event.“God bless the tidewater goby, but let’s be honest, you guys have the power — you need to allow this to go forward,” said Pamela Conley Ulich, a former mayor of Malibu. “You can’t deny it on this technicality.” A representative for L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath urged the commission to allow the triathlon to proceed.“We cannot let bureaucracy prevent us from bringing resources to those who need it most, nor stop us from returning to these yearly celebrations ... that have been taken from us in the pandemic,” said Zachary Gaidzik, one of Horvath’s deputies.All commissioners expressed general support for the event, but two who voted to reject the triathlon’s appeal insisted their hands were tied by the legal requirement to notify residents 32 days before an event.“I wish that somebody had really jumped on this a couple weeks earlier,” said John G. Mazza, who voted to deny the permit. The proposed, modified course that avoids the underpass has been approved by Caltrans, the L.A. County sheriff and the Beaches and Harbors Department and entails riding the length of the Zuma Beach parking lot down to the Point Dume parking lot and repeating the loop three to four times, depending on the race.“It’s the safest route we’ve come up with,” Lindner said Monday night, highlighting that no residential or commercial driveways would be blocked.The bureaucratic morass injects uncertainty into an event that annually draws more than 4,000 participants, including teams consisting of employees from Disney, Warner Bros. and Netflix, along with several actors, musicians and celebrities. “There are thousands of people who would be disappointed if it doesn’t happen,” said Gerry Rodrigues, founder of Tower 26, a Los Angeles-based program that trains triathletes and swimmers. “Any participant has trained for months, and they are ready to go.”Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this report. [ad_2]

[zuffedf]

IPod marble blast Downloads - What IPod Games Are Worth Downloading?

While the sites for iPod game downloads may vary in features, their selection of marble blast will remain somewhat similar. Here are a few reviews of iPod-compatible games that you can find and download on the Internet

.

Bejeweled

Very similar to a classic game Columns, where you have to match falling down blocks, Bejeweled is simple, without much of special effects, and makes a decent time-waster. If you are a beginner in games, you may find it quite entertaining, but for a sophisticated gamer, who looks for rich graphics and fast pace, such iPod game download would be nothing to write home about.

Mini Golf

Another simple in design and use iPod game. If you are a golf fanatic, you might find it a nice entertainer. Otherwise, it is no way more advanced than your average cell phone marble blast , and does not really utilize the iPod's capabilities. Get it if you have an access to bulk iPod game downloads at a single membership price, because buying it from iTunes for a seemingly low price of $5 would mean overpaying in any way.

Zuma

Like Bejeweled, Zuma is a simple point-and-match game with little diversity and visual effects. A brain stimulator, the color matching game might be loved by occasional players, but most of game fanatics will give it little attention, probably, because the idea has been already exploited for so many times.

Texas Hold 'em

If you love playing card games, this iPod game download is a must for you. Texas Hold 'em is a kind of poker that you play with virtual opponents. In spite of minor flaws in technical aspects, the game is exciting and totally absorbing.

Vortex

Fun and fast-paced, Vortex is one of the best iPod games. It is an upgraded and slightly modified version of the famous Breakout, where you cast down bricks into a rotating cylinder. Packed with bonuses and extra options, the game was designed for iPod's click wheel that makes it very convenient to play.

Mahjong

The concentration and attention training game matches tiles/cards with numbers, pictures and Chinese characters on them. Nothing complicated, the game can be extremely addicting for those who prefer brain-twisting slow games over fast paced ones. Classic Chinese design, charming audio effects and multiple gaming variants are among the many benefits of the game, which you must have on your iPod.

[progressivemillennial]

Zuma Must Fall

Many in South Africa are demanding change because they have had enough of Jacob Zuma, the corrupt head of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).  While the dissatisfaction felt in the country has been felt for some time, the outcry for change has peaked over the past few weeks.

On March 31st, Zuma decided to dismiss Pravin Gordhan, the nation’s finance minister, and a popular symbol of anti-corruption.  To make matters worse, he was replaced by someone who had barely any finance experience.  But Gordhan was not the only minister to be removed by Zuma: 10 of 35 ministers were fired after hours.  As a result, the following occurred fairly quickly:

Members of the ANC dissented publically against Zuma, which threatened the party’s cohesion and threatens Zuma’s role as the leader of the party.  Even Zuma’s deputy said the firing of Gordhan was unacceptable.

People came out to protest and with very clear demands.

On top of that, the economy was severely impacted.  The rand’s value dropped significantly after the changes on March 31st.  As Norimitsu Onishi and Sewell Chan wrote in the New York Times, “The cost of borrowing for the government jumped, amid fears that rating agencies would downgrade South Africa’s government bonds to junk status. Africa’s most industrialized economy, South Africa is projected to grow 0.8 percent this year, and unemployment is 27 percent.”

Just days later, Standard & Poor’s downgraded South Africa’s credit rating to junk status.  Unfortunately for South Africans, that will lead to increases in inflation, higher interest rates for borrowing, higher costs for imported goods, and other detrimental economic consequences.  It will take several years at the very least for the economy to recover from this. 

Additionally, with the ratings announcement, more protests occurred, especially on April 7th. 

On April 7th, tens of thousands of South Africans of all colors and of all ages marched and protested, expressing their discontent with the state of their country and their leader.  They protested from Cape Town to Johannesburg, from Durban to Pretoria.  In Johannesburg, rubber bullets were shot at protesters and four were injured as a result.  Even though rubber bullets were fired, outside of two minor incidents, the police attested that the protests were peaceful.  The protesters had even more right to be angry when, earlier that day, Fitch joined Standard & Poor’s in lowering South Africa’s credit rating to junk.

Since then, Zuma has pointed to those protesting him as racists.  Specifically, he said that some of the placards and signs carried by protesters showed black people as baboons.  Certainly some protesters were racists, but the vast majority of the protesters undoubtedly want what’s best for their country.  It is the privilege of those in power to attempt to marginalize the aggrieved by painting all in a bad light by the actions of a few.  Undermining Zuma’s statement was the diversity of the protesters: are the black people who protest him racist, too?

It’s not clear at this point what will happen.  Political analyst Dumisane Hlophe told the BBC that “Mr Zuma is unlikely to be removed.  ‘He is not going down any time soon. In fact he may be in pole position. He has consolidated his power where decisions are taken within the party. In the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC).’  The numbers within the NEC are what counts and in there he has considerable support."  Even with that, history shows that when enough citizens demand change with focus, numbers, and sometimes force, the seemingly impossible can happen.

Most of all, I would share with all South Africans that I am with you and support your struggle.  I want and hope for you what I want and hope for America: an end to corruption, peace and prosperity, social (especially racial) and economic justice, and public servants who act in the best interest of their people.

Peace and love, Tom

[diaryofthetokenfatgirl]

All around our country today people are marching and peacefully protesting our government and calling for the resignation of our president who is corrupt beyond measure. I'm stuck in a briefing session for a forensic investigation into a government department, in a boardroom with a picture of our president on the wall staring at me.

[dontpanicatthedlsco]

South Africans uniting at the #ZumaMustFall March. God, I love my country

Pictures found at www.goodthingsguy.com

Article: www.goodthingsguy.com/opinion/social-media-blatant-racism/

[peskipixi]

Random thought.

Walking back to my car from my local grocery store today I had a thought… What is it like to live in a country with one culture and 99% one language? I thought of this because in the 50m to my car, I detected at least 4 languages being spoken. (If someone is interested, it was English, Afrikaans, Xhoza and German.) And I probably missed a few.

I shared my thoughts with hubs when I got to the car, and after a bit of thought, he pronounced: “Must be pretty boring…”

My point being: Even in the very very dire situation we find ourselves in today, I love this melting pot of a country with every fibre of my being, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else, even if I could.

[beardedmrbean]

May 30 (UPI) -- Early results Thursday from South Africa's general election show the ruling African National Congress on track to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since it rose to power three decades ago at the end of the apartheid era.

The Independent Electoral Commission's results portal shows ANC gaining 43.1% of the vote which would translate to 172 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly with the Democratic Alliance holding 25% and the socialist Economic Freedom Fighters trailing with 8.7%.

Former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe party also has around 8% but is surging ahead of the ANC in Zuma's home KwaZulu-Natal province 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg where the party he quit in December has won 21% of the vote so far, compared with 43% garnered by MK.

A court banned Zuma from running in yesterday's poll due to a 2021 contempt of court conviction -- but the ruling came too late to remove his name from ballot papers.

As the second most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, is a must-win due to the 41 seats it returns to parliament, second only to the capital province of Gauteng.

The ANC's majority in Gauteng, the county's economic heartland, is also under threat with the main opposition Democratic Alliance at 29%, compared with the ruling party's 36%.

The party of Nelson Mandela could end up with as little as 42% of the vote, according to South Africa's News24.

However, with only just more than 2 million votes counted out of 27 million registered voters and final results not expected before Sunday, the situation could change and no party is claiming victory.

"Under my leadership the ANC ran a formidable and clean campaign with our volunteers covering the length and breadth of our country. The democratic process is going to emerge victorious," President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote on social media late Wednesday.

The ANC's share of the vote has been on the decline in recent years, falling below 60% in the 2019 election for the first time amid growing disillusionment over its failure to tackle poverty, huge income inequality, soaring crime, corruption scandals and regular blackouts.

Losing the comfortable 60-seat majority it held in the last parliament would compel the ANC to look to rival parties for support and potentially a coalition in which it would be forced to share power.

A loss could negatively impact foreign investment.

Institutional investors, in particular, have been historically supportive of the party's progressive economic policies aimed at improving the standard of living of the country's Black majority -- despite 33% unemployment, low pay and lack of access to opportunity and services that led the World Bank to call South Africa "the most unequal country in the world."

South African stocks were down across the board on Thursday with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index falling 2.1% to 76,923 although the currency, the Rand, was holding up trading slightly higher at 18.61 to the dollar.

[news-of-the-day]

6/9/22

The House panel on investigating the January 6th riot is starting literally right now. Actually just today the FBI arrested Ryan Kelley, a Republican candidate for the gubernatorial race in Michigan, for his role in the riot. (NBC, Yahoo)

In response to so many shootings recently, Biden made a plea for stricter gun laws. The House did pass bills that would ban semiautomatic weapons to people under the age of 21, ban large-capacity magazines, and allow courts to confiscate guns. Those bills will undoubtedly die in the Senate. On that note, there was a shooting at a manufacturing plant In Maryland today that killed three. (NYT, Washington Post)

Russia is making a PR move to justify its war in the Ukraine, and interestingly today Putin has likened himself to Peter the Great, saying Russia must take back its territory. It has sentenced two Briton and one Moroccan fighters to death for their involvement. Cases against over 1000 POWs have also been opened up. Although the war was not as easy as Russia believed it would be, it's still gaining territory. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is saying about 200 Ukrainian troops are lost per day. (Al Jazeera, NYT, DW, BBC)

Atul and Rajesh Gupta were arrested in the UAE and will be extradited to South Africa. These two brothers, along with one other brother, are accused of using their influence with former South African President Zuma to further their business interests and take public money amounting to more than $6.5B. After Zuma's fall in 2018, the brothers left the country and have been on the run. (Washington Post)

Biden is at the Summit of the Americas in LA, but there is tension because he didn't invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, so many leaders didn't come. (Reuters)

Back in April an officer named Christopher Schurr fatally shot Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop. Today he was charged with murder. (Michigan Live)

I can’t cover everything I missed, so I’m just doing today’s news and will go from there. Feel free to contact me if you’d like me discuss something in the past. Thank you for your patience with me.

[neuroticphysiologist]

On This Day in PAW Patrol: November 20

Don't you feel like it's getting colder here, or is it me? Because on this day in 2014, the whole of Adventure Bay's road has been slippery and slick in today's episode. It's a nice time to slide for some people, but not when you're in a vehicle. The ice managed to stuck Mayor Goodway and Chickaletta in a car accident, and also pieces of branches and some snow pile blocked the train track. The pups must act fast and carefully in order to save the day. In another segment, Mayor Goodway challenged Mayor Humdinger for a basketball game, without knowing that Adventure Bay has no basketball team. Coincidentally, the pups have been training, and they settled in for a match against Foggy Bottom's "Boomers". A foul play that caused both Rocky and Zuma to be taken out from the game forced Marshall to jump into the match, despite how bad he thought he is in the game.

What'd be your wish if you ever found a genie in the lamp? Today in 2015, Rubble sure had some when he found one. One of them would be bathing in warm bubbly water and the Genie made that wish come true. However, it was a matter of time before his own wish backfired... kinda. But hey, is it even real, or did Rubble eat a lot of snack before sleeping again? Who knows! In the other segment, Francois shows his tightrope walking skills. Things went smooth until he faced some trouble with his balance stick thanks to some seagulls. It's up for PAW Patrol to keep him balanced, or at least catch him before he falls.

Pups and the Big Freeze, Pups Save the Basketball Game, Pups Find a Genie, and Pups Save a Tightrope Walker premiered today in the US.

And of course, today in 2020, Mayor Humdinger is being naughty this Christmas Eve. US fans, catch Pups Save a Bah-Humdinger today!

[arcticdementor]

By now, the spectacle that is South Africa’s insurrection has been dominating the attentions of just about every political junkie on twitter, drawing the best minds from every corner of the world to bear witness to the fall of the rainbow nation into a predictable quagmire of irresolvable chaos. At home, the pessimism comes in many flavours, and the denialism in many, many more.

The brute facts are now well-known. After dodging prosecution for extreme corruption for over a decade, the former president Jacob Zuma was finally arrested for the relatively minor charge of contempt of court, for not appearing when summoned. While he held out for several days as his supporters (who comprise about half the ruling party including several senior cabinet ministers) picketed outside his palatial compound (bought with the UK foreign aid budget of 2017) and blocked police from entering, he eventually handed himself in. So concluded a long factional battle between Ramaphosa and Zuma that claimed hundreds of lives in burned freight trucks, assassinated councillors, and billions of Rands in legal fees, patronage and PR. Or so it appeared.

On the 8th of July, the president disbanded the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans Association, essentially the continuation of the old military wing of the ANC, and fiercely loyal to Jacob Zuma. The next day, together with assistance from elements within state intel and security, they deployed to major transport routes, food depots, retail outlets, police stations, power stations, water treatment plants, and ports, to shut down and burn what they could, crippling the Johannesburg-Durban trade artery that carries 65% of our trade volume and half our economic capacity.

After encouraging looting targeting white-owned businesses or ���white monopoly capital”, the MK vets could watch as riots burst out to take advantage of the chaos and everything was stripped to the bone by opportunistic looters. In the shadows, organised and disorganised elements blurred together, as even the wealthiest elements of black society got in on the fun of looting, packing luxury sportscars with groceries and appliances before watching the flames tear down the shops and factories.

The police and the military did nothing, and the president was silent, paralysed. Soon the violence spread to the suburbs, and residents cobbled together militia to guard their homes. Proof of address was required to buy groceries. This received wails of agony from the press class and black social media. Slogans calling for the slaughter of Indians (who form a large minority in Durban) and whites became common, and soon the newspapers were joining in on the scapegoating, accusing the citizens’ militia of racism.

…

Everyone here saw this coming, but for decades now, it has been an unacceptable thing to do, to remark upon the inevitable future we find ourselves in. Why it came to all this, and why it matters to Americans and Europeans, is the point of this essay. It will be uneasy to stomach, but it must be swallowed. We live on the brink of barbarism, and the West is following us every step of the way.

A nation may have a lot of ruin in it, but a poor nation has less ruin in it than a wealthy one. When a state collapses or undergoes revolution in the distant reaches of Africa or Asia, there is a certain social distance which prevents Westerners directly apprehending the significance of the social dynamics, the closeness of the dangers, the universality of the lessons, the pain and the tragedy of the loss.

But South Africa is different. South Africa is at once Western and alien to Westerners. Our constitution is Western. Our revolutionaries and our reactionaries and our racial cosmology is Western. Our highest aspiration is that of the West at large – a universal state which recognises no difference of class, race, or creed. And that is why when we observe South Africa, we stare into the abyss of Western civilisation and its global future. Each Westerner sees himself reflected in that void, from the national-socialist, to the anarcho-communist, to the black-nationalist and the bleeding-heart liberal.

And they are right to.

…

Watching any graph of any indicator in South Africa sees every resource drying up, every indicator of health taking a nosedive, and the population booming beyond control, kept in check only by the enormous and perennial pandemic of AIDS and tuberculosis that take many times the number of victims supposedly taken by the SARS-CoV2 virus, every year. We are the rape capital of the world, have seen over half a million homicides since 1994, and the state has not replaced any of the infrastructure built by the Afrikaner nationalist government. The graphs just spell doom in their trend lines, and have for years now, as the Centre for Risk Analysis’s I-told-you-so’s often repeat.

When they came to power, the ruling party was a coalition of communists, black nationalists, organised criminals and common thugs. However, their patrons in the Soviet Union were disbanded, and the Western state apparatus was still composed of law-abiding institutions and competent civil servants. So they purged the minorities, and placed party members at all key posts throughout, to ensure ideological and partisan loyalty – this was called cadre deployment. This crippled the institutions. When the last of the old guard experts were ushered into the wilderness in 1998, they made several systematic departmental reports, which declared the need for replacing infrastructure immediately, to cope with the increased dependent population. This was ignored, largely because the experts were white.

…

While many see the doom as setting in after 1994, it in fact began much sooner. The means by which the ANC gained power was not through civil disobedience, but through a long and sustained campaign of totalitarian violence called the Peoples War, which raged from 1979 until 1993. Black wage increases increased faster than white until this period (51.3% vs 3.8% since 1970), economic growth was over 5%, inequality was falling and blacks enjoyed the highest standard of living of any black population on the continent.

The addiction to cheap black labour meant that industry was irritated with state policies, and in the end, it was the local plutocrats like Harry Oppenheimer and the old secret societies like the Afrikaner Broederbond who opened secret negotiation to end apartheid. And while SA may have had a robust economy once, nothing survived the People’s War. It aimed to “make the country ungovernable”, and largely succeeded. Controlling migration from the black homelands became impossible, and maintaining law and order as the bodies piled up became harder and harder.

…

But the liberal establishment could not bring themselves to believe there were systemic reasons for this state of affairs beyond “corruption” or “inequality”, and the struggle to blame the status quo on the previous regime became ever harder. So they blamed Zuma. The lost decade, they called it. So when Cyril Ramaphosa, a man largely blamed for the Marikana massacre, finally took the party leadership in 2017, after a long, expensive battle of assassination, bribery and skulduggery, he billed himself as a liberal reformer and anti-corruption campaigner, and the international community fell for it hook line and sinker, and local liberals worshipped him like the coming of a new Mandela. He promised the 4th Industrial Revolution. He promised the reigning in of BEE. The Economist endorsed him over the liberal DA.

But he was lying.

…

There are only three sources for non-socialist print media coverage of politics in South Africa. Politicsweb, where all the old senior analysts go when they become persona non grata, the Institute of Race Relations (a venerable old classic-liberal institute with a daily paper, the Daily Friend, and a consulting business, Centre for Risk Analysis), and Maroela Media, an Afrikaans-language publication run by Afriforum, the civil rights activist organisation which sprung from the Afrikaner-national Solidariteit movement.

Aside from this, every other publication leans further to the left than a man with his left leg blown off, and due to a hangover of apartheid-era Cold War politics, “left and right”, terms only applicable among the educated classes, roughly align with a black-vs-white friend-enemy distinction. The Mail & Guardian, for instance (indirectly owned by the Open Society Foundation), has refused to cover any rural homicide committed against a white victim in nearly a decade, despite a global magnifying glass being placed on the barbaric torture and murder spree that has slowly been smouldering across our rural hinterlands. When a white person commits a crime, it is milked dry every day until the journalists get carpal tunnel. But against the ocean of violent depravity committed by the racial majority, which has taken half a million lives since the fall of apartheid, we receive virtual silence. Swaziland, seeing the same kind of violent uprising as KwaZulu Natal is, is treated as a democratic revolution against a tyrannical absolute monarch, despite the opposition being mainly violent communists receiving support from South African parties like the EFF.

…

I was a communist when I was at university. I was delivered a faithful belief in progressivism, nonracialism, revolution and universal democracy, through the national curriculum in South Africa.  I was introduced to Marx and Mill as an A Level student in the UK, and when I returned to my native country, I was exposed once more to the poverty and desperation and racial tensions. I assumed all the positions one would expect. More democracy, more repudiation of Christianity and white people, more redistribution, more socialism. But the political waters were calm in those days, and this was mere posturing. Then in 2015 my friends began a campaign to topple the statue of Cecil Rhodes overlooking Cape Town from the university his will founded.

#RhodesMustFall mushroomed rapidly, and became the romantic darling of not only us horny little revolutionaries, but leftists worldwide, who exported the new iconoclasm to Oxford and South Carolina. It is now remembered as #FeesMustFall, a campaign to make tertiary education free (for blacks). But I watched it grow from the inside, and partook in the occupation of admin buildings, touring other college protests in the Cape out of solidarity. But it became clear that it was first and foremost about racial hatred and the purging of Western influence, under their holy trinity of Steve Biko, Franz Fanon and Kimberlé Crenshaw – segregation, national-socialism and a metaphysical racial hierarchy, in new nation called Azania, synonymous with the basketcase fictional nation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Black Mischief.

This movement, while it began as nonracialist, soon became openly genocidal. Student leaders who called for genocide went unpunished, even praised by the VC of the University of Cape Town. This movement spread to every single university in the country, and despite prominent student leaders praising Adolf Hitler and calling for whites to be swept into the sea, singing genocidal songs at every protest, white students still offered themselves as human shields before police. Dining halls were segregated, classes were violently shut down, nonparticipants in some universities were beaten in their dormitories, staff were chased with buckwhips, buses were burned, paintings were burned, even security guards were burned, and more recently, so was the continent’s largest library. But no big newspaper offered moral criticism, just worries about whether the tactics were effective.

These young people defined a new era, and a new consensus – all struggles are one, and all are about black vs white, and whites must hand over everything and beg for their lives. The only lecturer in the entire country who stood up in public against this cultural revolution was the antinatalist philosopher David Benatar. All others kept their heads down, dithered, or joined the fray, calling for the heads of their less enthusiastic colleagues. Now the Fallists’ ideology is the official pedagogy of the entire university system. But this agitation had been the nature of political life at the poorer “bush colleges” for years now, just without the presence of minority students to trigger resentment or the ideas to build ideology: shut down every exam season to extract more lenient standards and increases in student grants.

And much like the explosion of violence seen at the national level today, South Africa’s poorer areas have been an unremitting hell for all those living in it below a certain class divide. 15% of all women are prostitutes, and the homicide rate is among the highest in the world, and some areas experience permanent civil war level violence. The old apartheid era town planning meant that black areas and minority areas were clearly separated, and this has meant a geographical buffer, where violent protest, which is again among the highest in the world, has largely left the middle classes out of it, even while it occasionally diverts traffic. Protests flare up constantly, as rival factions of the ANC, hamstrung by a corrupt internal promotions process and forbidden from dragging out dirty laundry in public, instead mobilise violent protests to contest wards and civil service posts, often burning down public infrastructure while the mob on the ground chants for “service delivery”.

…

Whatever else Nick Land writes, the lasting impact he had on me was in the very first essay at the opening of Fanged Noumena. He wrote it in 1989, when nobody beneath the highest reaches and darkest recesses of the Atlantic power structure had any awareness that South Africa was about to change forever.

Apartheid still seemed undefeatable to outsiders. The NP had recently smashed the heart of the ANC’s military campaign, creating a bloody hurting stalemate that observers at the time had no expectation would result in any pleasant outcome. Tens of thousands had already been massacred in the Peoples War to give the ANC a monopoly over the black liberation movements, but they seemed to be running out of steam. And so did Pretoria – influx from the Bantustans was unstaunchable, dependence on black labour was firm, and confidence in local cultural hegemony collapsed in 1976.

Nick Land, watching this, noticed something peculiar.

For the purposes of understanding the complex network of race, gender, and class oppressions that constitute our global modernity it is very rewarding to attend to the evolution of the apartheid policies of the South African regime, since apartheid is directed towards the construction of a microcosm of the neo-colonial order; a recapitulation of the world in miniature. The most basic aspiration of the Boer state is the dissociation of politics from economic relations, so that by means of 'Bantustans' or 'homelands' the black African population can be suspended in a condition of simultaneous political distance and economic proximity vis-a-vis the white metropolis. […] My contention in this paper is that the Third World as a whole is the product of a successful - although piecemeal and largely unconscious - 'Bantustan' policy on the part of the global Kapital metropolis.

…

When the British seized the Boer republics in 1900, they drew up the limits of control of the native African tribes where they already lived, and displaced a few thousand of them to tidy up the borders. These eventually became the Bantustans. Immediately, a long slow trickle of immigration was encouraged, not just from the Bantustans, but from British possessions in Asia. The migrant labour created a dense network of diffident ethnicities who demanded fences between them and their neighbours, while attempting to pursue economic exchange.

Black men, who could achieve far greater material wealth from working in the white economy than raising cattle and sorghum in the homelands, flowed steadily into white farmland areas and mining towns. In 1922, the South African Communist Party launched a general strike to demand the enforcement of a colour bar – “CPSA for a white South Africa!”. They were put down in a hail of gunfire by Jan Smuts, the architect of the unitary constitution, which allowed no devolved powers for regional self-governance.

Smuts was a member of Cecil Rhodes’s Round Table club, and shared Rhodes’s ambition to create a grand state where all literate English-speaking men and women south of the Zambezi would have the vote regardless of colour, and all the resources would belong to one grand cartel controlled by a British-American elite of enlightened natural aristocrats. Rhodes used money from his diamond empire and loans from Nathan Rothschild to fund the Jameson Raid and other means to instigate war with the Boer republics, which eventually resulted in the second Boer War and the creation of the Union of South Africa.

…

Smuts, architect of the Union of South Africa, also had a grand philosophy not unlike Nick Land’s – Land treats all matter and life as being ontologically the same, driven by “machinic desires” – all tendencies to motion and behaviour, whether in living or non-living material being fundamentally the same. All matter seeks more complex and integrated forms over time as a result of the force of entropy. Smuts’s grand philosophy, of which he wrote at length in Holism and Evolution, envisaged a means of looking at the world in which all of nature and society could be apprehended and governed as a single holistic system – all organisms, all cultures, all individuals, were destined to evolve into a greater whole, in which each part had its natural place, and that the common teleology of all matter and spirit was the global state, embodied in the League of Nations, the constitution of which he penned himself.  Together with his extensive biological knowledge, Smuts and his London interlocutor Arthur Tansley gave birth to the modern systems theory of ecology, and hoped to see a central global technocracy overseeing a holistic ecological management system.

The aims of the United States since the Second World War have some remarkable similarities in approach. The post-war order saw the US employing a philosophy of “defence in depth,” controlling a defensive frontier from the China Sea in the East to the very edge of the Warsaw Pact countries, to ensure freedom of trade throughout this entire region. But this extended beyond military control. The use of embedded CIA operatives meant that those democratic representatives who resisted the grand plans of Atlanticism were swiftly dealt with under insidious operations like Gladio.

…

As these ideas bled into the old left, who were increasingly disillusioned from the failures of the Soviet Union. They turned, as Laclou and Mouffe did, to the notion of using sectional grievances to deconstruct the nation state, leading to the birth of intersectionalism under Kimberlé Crenshaw. The very foundations of nationhood and capitalist Christian civilisation could be toppled if only we united our struggles by leveraging our historical grievances, creating acrimonious divisions in the body politic on the basis of sex, sexuality, race and religion. Thus, the universal loyalties of the nation state that supposedly upheld capitalism would fall, and revolution would arise. This fell right into the plans of the American ruling class.

However, when the social morality of the postwar American colonial project in Europe met the plans of the military and the Malthusian tendencies of the RAND corporation, everything took on a far more ambitious character, with the help of a concept called “environmental security”. The first reference to ES in the sense of protecting the natural environment comes from the US EPA Technical Committee in 1971, as part of an ambitious attempt to quantitatively measure total social wellbeing. This EPA committee was the first to make environmental regulation part of a comprehensive plan for social wellbeing, driven by Holism and cybernetic ecology. They were exceeded in scope by the UN’s 1972 Stockholm Conference, where the idea of “comprehensive” (today, “human”) security emerged, and further, the Palme, Brundtland and Brandt Reports.

…

Under these new umbrella concepts came “human security” and environmental security, the Social Sciences Department of UNESCO and the SSRC found the unifying principles and programs they had sought since the 1950s, and pushed a proselytising program grounded in cross-discipline application of avant-garde ideas to seek “new ways of knowing”, promoting not scientific objectivity, but a synthesis of diverse perspectives. A wholesale transformation of the rules and discipline of social sciences followed, in service of global governance (see the works of Perrin Selcer).

UNESCO even deliberately set about creating a new world religion, in the words of its founder Julian Huxley, and formed the United Religions Initiative, to mould the world’s spiritual beliefs in line with international Anglo progressivism. Feminism and sexual libertinism formed a crowbar against the community cohesion that couldn’t be attacked by means of anti-nationalism, and into this soup of value inversions (erosion of disciplinary distinction, inter-subjectivity [i.e., truth-by-consensus over objectivity], and utopian welfare ideals like “freedom from fear”; “freedom from want”), dropped three wonder pills: Poststructuralism, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Global Warming. Now the great power-narratives of the Atlantic empire were consolidated – Malthus-by-proxy, anti-traditionalism, international diversity-and-inclusion, and the free-trade, open-borders paradigm of the 90’s.

In the same moment as de Klerk gave up on apartheid, the West gave up on the nation state, and handed control to the internationalists, under hegemony of the Atlantic community. A new empire was being consolidated from the territories captured by the Allies in WWII. Thirty years later it is becoming transparent –  the new centralised global tax regime has cemented it. Just as the ANC funds the influx of black voters into urban minority areas to build shacks on squatted land, the West welcomes mass migration from the third world, total open-borders, to transform the electoral system against the interests of the native population who might have their own desires, against the grain of global empire. Every corporation and state in the Western world discriminated against whites in hiring. The CIA peddles Critical Race Theory and actively recruits sexual minorities. Colour revolutions can be spotted whenever the rainbow flag or black fist makes an appearance.

Today, the Democratic Party in the US openly looks to South Africa for inspiration in dealing with what Yarvin called the “outer party” – all conservatives are being purged from every institution, in a vast cadre deployment program to ensure the core of the establishment becomes forever untouchable. On the streets they have even begun to use the same tactics for control – deploying huge mobs to destabilise cities when election season is approaching.

Minimum wage rises funnel employment into companies in public-private partnerships with the state, like Amazon, who is part of the Enduring Security Framework partnership of the CIA (which includes Facebook and Google). The analogies between their experimental management strategies and collectivised central-planning are no accident – any company that aims for a total retail monopoly through state-subsidised negative-profit growth is merely another route to total control.

And as the nation and the state are decoupled, the liberal-democratic institutions are being geared toward the concentration of power and wealth, and a strategy of divide-and-rule, to create a cannibal economy. Only a few, like Denmark, have realised what they have gotten themselves into.

…

Much as Aristotle said, a democracy can only function beneficially when steered by the middle class, as it was in Rhodesia and the old Cape, which restricted the vote to property-owners of all races. The middle class’s needs are the core of the productive community, and as Marx observed, they are loyal to the requirements of productive industry and local trade. With the combination of the proliferation of the welfare state and globalisation, the middle class has been whittled away in the West, just as it has here in southern Africa.

Reliance on the state for services means they can’t be sacrificed – in the UK, the NHS has become essentially a religious cult, feeding the civil service, medical contractors, immigrants and the poor alike, in a financially unsustainable way, for decreasing returns. As Philip Bagus observed, the democratic pressures to maintain institutional support via this sort of patronage forces modern western states to take on ever more debt and expand taxation to the limits. This then must be offset by QE, which must be guaranteed by the central state at a rate that benefits the most fragile provinces of any empire so that the whole system does not collapse.

…

What Robert Mugabe did was pursue the universal extension of a first-world welfare state to every peasant in the hinterland, praised by the global left. This required taking on an enormous amount of national debt. Once the IMF tried to impose austerity, Mugabe found this politically unsustainable – his support depended on the handouts, corrupt and legitimate, that he was delivering. So he had to switch to printing money to pay the debts. When inflation became too much to handle, they replaced the core of the economy with dollars, and only elites could survive, much like Venezuela today. As the national treasury ran dry, the military and the civil service became restless. To placate them, they were fed the farms and businesses of the remaining white minority, as well as many areas formerly occupied by black peasants. The state had to cannibalise itself to sustain the predatory ruling class.

During this time, Mugabe attempted to control every aspect of the environment and economy through price and capital controls, suffocating every aspect of social life with red tape. It only accelerated the process. While the vast global network of UN subsidiaries extract compliance from the US client states

In South Africa today, the state coffers are empty. Even the ruling party is feeling it, as their headquarters Luthuli House was attached by the court to pay for a crooked PR contract they refused to deliver on. We have since taken out an IMF bailout, which is being poured into infrastructure, mostly Durban’s port, which is now choked by smoke and looting. Our president’s advisors are pushing for land reform, and remarkably, one of them, Ruth Hall, was advising Robert Mugabe how to liquidate his pale kulaks back in 2002. Other advisors, like Thembeka Ngcukaitobi, call for the fulfilment of the genocidal prophecy of Makhanda, and have whites deprived of all land and all moveable and liquid assets. This is deliberate Zimbabwefication.

The same economic dynamics are present in the world at large – the share of GDP spent on welfare keep increasing, as does the debt-GDP ratio. Capital formation has been falling for decades, and chronic inflation is treated as a static phenomenon, which nobody dares reign in, because the entire system is dependent on low interest rates to keep the constant corrosive consolidation of the global market going full steam ahead. This arrangement results in the inflation of property prices as along term hedge against inflation which, when the plebs followed suit resulted in the 2008 bubble, when they tried to play the elites’ asset accumulation game with borrowed money.

…

What has America been doing these past 18 months? It has been printing money so fast that it has kept pace with the plummenting Rand, and allowed Cyril Ramaphosa to tell investors that his economy is relatively strong – the Rand has “stabilised”. Error of parallax. Nor is it even just America printing money. While they certainly can afford to, as the holders of the world’s reserve currency, China is attempting to do the same, only they are directly funnelling the cash into commodities, rather than spreading it around a financial elite over which they have minimal control.

And yet their leverage is far worse than America’s – Kyle Bass, who has been shorting the Chinese market for years now, insists that the historically unprecedented levels of leverage in the Chinese economy are unsustainable, and that they cannot, even under miracle conditions, correct their shrinking population trends sufficiently to turn this ship around. But what many forsee in dreams of revolution and revolt, the breakups of massive crumbling empires, is not going to happen as they hope.

Instead, the state will protect the stability of the ruling class and its control over the levers of power at the core, bleeding everyone dry and terrorising them into submission. What happened to Zimbabwe is a warning, but it only happened the way it did because half the population could leave and send home remittances. The iron fist of a “democratic” government capable of rigging its elections and gagging the press and the courts is only as tyrannical as the cost of a bus ticket to the next country. After 900-member Zoom calls and election “fortification”, I shouldn’t need to gild the lily any more.

As many observers of China remark, an economic collapse of a country of its nature will not result in a breakup or a massive reform, but in the shrink-wrap tyranny of North Korea, an eternal sclerotic stagnation, fed by government dependency, held in place by state security. The West is losing control of its ability to provide the kind of total state security required for this however, and has been reaching for a far more sinister method of control – the financial system.

And this is where all analogies break down, because what is about to happen here is unprecedented. The international Bank of Settlements has recently announced that they intend to use Central Bank Digital Currency to control the spending of all global citizens, and have the tech and the power to control each and every expenditure, and to shut anybody out of the ability to feed themselves if they so choose. But this movement to kick away the ladder and consolidate total control follows the same logic as Zimbabwe’s – the poor can only be fed for so long, but the ruling elite must be fed forever, or else the whole house comes down.

…

The twin systems of China and Atlantis are both attempting to consolidate total control over their economic and social environment. And in order to achieve the kind of reforms that he wishes to, Ramaphosa has reached for the help of both power blocs. China has colonised our northernmost province, and receives special treatment from law enforcement that must learn Mandarin. Chinese are registered as black, to benefit from the racial privileges blacks enjoy under Black Economic Empowerment. While the government’s reports usually look like a dog’s breakfast, their reports on the UN sustainable development goals are always crisp, professional, and detailed. SDG 10 justifies the expropriation of property, according to their logic.

…

The erosion of the middle class, the working class, the institutions of law and order and even the substance of the informal economy was dry tinder to the Zuma-faction’s firebrands. To fulfil his mandate to end corruption, Ramaphosa had begun prosecutions proceedings into the Zuma faction – tentatively of course, since any too-wide-ranging investigation would unearth the corruption of all. But lawfare isn’t enough. They were cut out of party patronage systems as big figures like Ace Magashule were expelled from the party. Judges ruled that the state would not cover their defence costs anymore.

When the Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans association was disbanded and cut off from “pension” money, they finally put into action something that they would have had up their sleeve for months. Police armaments caches had been going missing for months. Firearms training for youths had been going on at the local branches for years. Every storage depot and major highway was targeted, petrol stations, power stations, water treatment plants were hit. They needed to make the country ungovernable, and they did. But this time they didn’t have the support of the Swedish, the Russians or anybody else.

Complicit elements are even inside the SSA, our central intelligence agency. What it will take for Ramaphosa to clear the state and party of seditious elements will give him the power of a modern dictator, cheered on my the press and everybody else, who despises Zuma and his people for what they’ve wreaked upon us. But with three months left of military deployment, all of the military capacity in one province, and the president fearing wielding lethal force on black mobs for fear of his Marikana ghosts coming back to haunt him, the rebels have three months to decide whether to act.

That leaves three months to see whether we become a black-nationalist disctatorship, or a new Yugoslavia. The Zulu, who form the backbone of the rebellion, have cheered for Zulu independence before, though their forces are split – the Zulu nationalist/traditionalist party the IFP have stood firmly against this chaos. Zuma’s people are still pushing black identity over tribal. Zuma may have been a traditionalist, a defender of the Swazi royal house when in crisis, an expander of chieftains’ rights, but his time in head of the ANC death squads in Zululand in the 1990s makes Zulu solidarity impossible.

So chaos it is.