• Re: Nazi White Supremacist Trump Seizes On Videos Of A Fringe South Afr

    From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to atropos@mac.com on Thu May 22 17:32:15 2025
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own >>political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years >>elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense words >>in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of the systematic >>killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed a video of white >>crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden throwing open >the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the country unchecked and >unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major cities, are suddenly running for >the fainting couch over 59 people for no other reason than that they're >white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a
    burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against >>white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly >>stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't >happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BTR1701@21:1/5 to All on Thu May 22 18:00:52 2025
    On May 22, 2025 at 10:32:15 AM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com>
    wrote:

    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President
    Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being
    targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>> meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>> is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own
    political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years
    elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense words >>> in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of the systematic >>> killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed a video of white
    crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>> South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>> Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden throwing
    open
    the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the country unchecked and >> unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major cities, are suddenly running for >> the fainting couch over 59 people for no other reason than that they're
    white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    South Africa passed a law that allows for the seizure of land from white people, without compensation, and its transfer to black people. That's government oppression on the basis of skin color. It's exactly what the
    refugee system was designed for.

    The murdering and raping and violence (encouraged by a significant number of the country's politicians with a wink and a nod) are just the cherry on that shit sundae.

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against >>> white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>> rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly
    stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't
    happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to atropos@mac.com on Thu May 22 19:17:47 2025
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 10:32:15 AM PDT, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com>:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>>>Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>>>targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>>>meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>>>is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own >>>>political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years >>>>elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense >>>>words in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of
    the systematic killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed
    a video of white crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers
    who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>>>South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>>>Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden
    throwing open the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the >>>country unchecked and unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major
    cities, are suddenly running for the fainting couch over 59 people
    for no other reason than that they're white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a >>burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    South Africa passed a law that allows for the seizure of land from white >people, without compensation, and its transfer to black people. That's >government oppression on the basis of skin color. It's exactly what the >refugee system was designed for.

    That makes them asylum seekers, which is different than a refugee. Now
    that I've said that, I should have said that the Venezualans are asylum seekers, at least the many there were here due to oppression by the
    Marxist government.

    Since you brought this to my attention, I found a BBC news article that confirms that the law is as you describe it. Maybe they do meet the
    definition of asylum seekers.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg9w4n6gp5o

    Here's an explainer.

    https://www.jurist.org/features/2025/02/11/explainer-understanding-the-south-africa-land-reform-law-that-provoked-trumps-ire/

    If land reform and not Zimbabwe-style land redistribution, which led to
    almost complete economic collapse and starvation, is what was desired,
    there's no need for eminent domain. There are fair and straightforward
    ways to put potentially productive land back into productive use without expropriation which is literally the name of the new law. Pay a portion
    of economic rent -- the land's potential income due to natural resources
    and access to markets -- to society. Then there can be tenant farmers.

    Obviously I don't want land held out of productive use, but to use it as
    an excuse for eminent domain without just compensation is unjust.

    The murdering and raping and violence (encouraged by a significant number of >the country's politicians with a wink and a nod) are just the cherry on that >shit sundae.

    I found an article about this, too. People are suspicious that there is
    an attack upon the food production sector of the South African economy
    and, indirectly, descendants of Afrikaaners still holding much of the
    best tracts of land. But if there is a violent attack, they've found
    that the family will stop production within five years.

    The implictation is that a crisis is being deliberately precipitated
    and, with the new law, the justifications for the land expropriations
    have been artificially created.

    Ok. I'm starting to sound paranoid.

    FARM SLAUGHTER
    Female farmers sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered
    in latest horrific attacks on South Africas white farm workers
    by Jon Rogers and Jamie Pyatt
    The Sun
    Published: 18:24, 5 Oct 2020
    Updated: 18:24, 5 Oct 2020 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12852875/farm-workers-torture-murder-south-africa/

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey >>couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    I'd like you to make a comment here.

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against >>>>white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>>>rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly >>>>stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't >>>happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    Seems that there have been reports in the news. Perhaps Trump could have
    put them all together to justify what he's been doing.

    It took me two seconds of Googing to find one article.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rhino@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Thu May 22 15:35:02 2025
    On 2025-05-22 1:32 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President
    Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being
    targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>> meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>> is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own
    political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years
    elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense words >>> in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of the systematic >>> killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed a video of white
    crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>> South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>> Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden throwing open
    the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the country unchecked and >> unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major cities, are suddenly running for >> the fainting couch over 59 people for no other reason than that they're
    white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Do you know that for a fact or are you just assuming because Musk was
    born in South Africa and obviously has Trump's ear on some matters?

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    I can't help but agree with you on that. The Venezuelans are at risk if
    they go home. (The Haitians are too.) I don't know if the Venezuelans
    will get a chance to skedaddle over the border into adjacent countries
    like Columbia like so many of their compatriots or if Madura will arrest
    them when they land and put them straight into jail.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against >>> white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>> rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly
    stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't
    happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    Challenge accepted (even though it wasn't me challenged ;-)

    Take a look at this for starters:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgb3sn4-bhw [6 minutes]

    Notice the date on the video: 6 years ago. That law allowing
    uncompensated expropriation is NOT new.

    And here's one of the South African delegation telling it like it is now:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REI3lLU0FPs [1 minute]

    Here's another older video in which a woman whose husband was murdered
    before her eyes describes what happened:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzu-JzApLc8 [4 minutes]

    I think you will also find this video interesting. It is an interview of
    a professor describing the workings of the expropriate act and when compensation is (and isn't) required. It does NOT address the crimes
    against farmers cited in the other videos but I think it will appeal to
    your interest in law:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8lfg3F2YxM [11 minutes]

    --
    Rhino

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to Rhino on Thu May 22 19:47:09 2025
    Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
    2025-05-22 1:32 PM, Adam H. Kerman:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>>>Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>>>targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>>>meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>>>is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own >>>>political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years >>>>elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense >>>>words in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of
    the systematic killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed
    a video of white crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers
    who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>>>South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>>>Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden
    throwing open the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the >>>country unchecked and unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major
    cities, are suddenly running for the fainting couch over 59 people
    for no other reason than that they're white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a >>burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Do you know that for a fact or are you just assuming because Musk was
    born in South Africa and obviously has Trump's ear on some matters?

    Anything Trump does that ends up being in the interest of justice is
    mere happenstance.

    There have been plenty of news reports that Musk had personally lobbied
    Trump on this issue. No, I don't believe Trump learned of these reports independently of Musk or would have cared if not for Musk.

    I'm toning down my own rhetoric here. Since BTR1701 raised a couple of
    points, I looked for and read newspaper coverage. Yes, there does appear
    to be a very serious issue.

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey >>couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    I can't help but agree with you on that. The Venezuelans are at risk if
    they go home. (The Haitians are too.) I don't know if the Venezuelans
    will get a chance to skedaddle over the border into adjacent countries
    like Columbia like so many of their compatriots or if Madura will arrest
    them when they land and put them straight into jail.

    They're screwed.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against >>>>white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>>>rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly >>>>stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't >>>happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    Challenge accepted (even though it wasn't me challenged ;-)

    Take a look at this for starters:

    Heh. My challenge was to Trump, not BTR1701. But in writing a subsequent followup, I had found newspaper stories.

    I'll watch the stuff you found later. Thank you.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rhino@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Thu May 22 16:03:21 2025
    On 2025-05-22 3:47 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
    Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
    2025-05-22 1:32 PM, Adam H. Kerman:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>>>> Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>>>> targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>>>> meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>>>> is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own
    political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years
    elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense
    words in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of
    the systematic killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed
    a video of white crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers
    who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>>>> South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>>>> Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden
    throwing open the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the
    country unchecked and unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major
    cities, are suddenly running for the fainting couch over 59 people
    for no other reason than that they're white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a
    burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.

    Do you know that for a fact or are you just assuming because Musk was
    born in South Africa and obviously has Trump's ear on some matters?

    Anything Trump does that ends up being in the interest of justice is
    mere happenstance.

    That may be a little harsh. Then again, maybe not....

    There have been plenty of news reports that Musk had personally lobbied
    Trump on this issue. No, I don't believe Trump learned of these reports independently of Musk or would have cared if not for Musk.

    So you're not asserting it as a fact. Good, then I won't need to ask you
    where you read that ;-)

    Look, I don't know what happens in a typical day at the White House.
    Trump may get all kinds of different people approaching him about
    things. He may even scan news sources on his own for all I know. I *do*
    know that this issue of violence experienced by farmers (and their
    families and employees) has been going on for years and even Trump may
    have heard about it by now.

    I'm toning down my own rhetoric here. Since BTR1701 raised a couple of points, I looked for and read newspaper coverage. Yes, there does appear
    to be a very serious issue.


    Indeed, it is.

    Trump ended the special status for Venezuelans. Why the fuck is he
    sending people back who were forced to leave, REJECTING communism? THey
    couldn't be said to be coming to America to change our society. They
    would have thrived here. Many of them would have met refugee status
    better than these farmers.

    I can't help but agree with you on that. The Venezuelans are at risk if
    they go home. (The Haitians are too.) I don't know if the Venezuelans
    will get a chance to skedaddle over the border into adjacent countries
    like Columbia like so many of their compatriots or if Madura will arrest
    them when they land and put them straight into jail.

    They're screwed.

    It's fair for you to call out hypocrisy in others, but you might have
    also called out Trump's hypocrisy with regard to the Venesualens,

    Freedom Fighters to argue that South Africa is engaged in genocide against
    white farmers, a contention that seemed to baffle Malemas main political >>>>> rival, Ramaphosa, during his Oval Office visit. Ramaphosa repeatedly >>>>> stressed that EFF is a small minority party.

    That doesn't mean the murders and rapes and arsons and theft aren't
    happening.

    Where are the reports? It's just hand waiving right now.

    Challenge accepted (even though it wasn't me challenged ;-)

    Take a look at this for starters:

    Heh. My challenge was to Trump, not BTR1701.

    Ah, that wasn't clear to me; I thought you meant BTR1701. In either
    case, I just happened to be in a mood where I wanted to find some hard
    proof backing up these assertions, which I first heard years ago.

    But in writing a subsequent
    followup, I had found newspaper stories.

    I'll watch the stuff you found later. Thank you.


    --
    Rhino

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to atropos@mac.com on Fri May 23 02:24:05 2025
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 3:59:12 PM PDT, "super70s" <super70s@super70s.invalid> >wrote:

    On 2025-05-22 17:12:13 +0000, BTR1701 said:

    On May 22, 2025 at 9:00:45 AM PDT, "super70s" <super70s@super70s.invalid> >>> wrote:

    In article <100ncn3$3gior$2@dont-email.me>,
    Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> wrote:

    Foolish old Orange Grandpa playing "fake news" while churlishly >chastising
    an experienced reporter. An international embarassment, every fscking day.

    No world leader is going to want to meet with him (with the exception of >>>> autocracies like the one he's hellbent to turn the US into). They don't >>>> want to be a pawn in his messaging to his base. Also they have their own >>>> constituents back home to consider.

    Maybe him and Vance and Rubio can sit around in the Oval Office alone >>>> and lament the tragedy of American democracy.

    Despite your inaccurate description of the U.S. as a democracy,

    <roll eyes> One of those "America is a republic not a democracy" freaks.

    <burps> Yeah, one of those "let's call things what they actually are" freaks.

    The U.S. is much more preferable than a democracy. Democracy as a form of >government is only slightly better than a dictatorship. Reduced down to its >essentials democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. >The sheep isn't gonna like the result of that election even though it was >arrived at democratically.

    last I checked, we're still having elections and the current crew are there
    because
    they were voted in 'democratically'. I see no evidence that 'democracy' has
    disappeared.

    The US is now classified as a "deficient democracy," number 36 in a
    ranking of 176 countries.

    Classified by whom? What are their credentials? What are their biases? Why is >their opinion supposed to be considered fact?

    They put it to a vote.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BTR1701@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Fri May 23 02:55:17 2025
    On May 22, 2025 at 7:24:05 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 3:59:12 PM PDT, "super70s" <super70s@super70s.invalid>
    wrote:

    On 2025-05-22 17:12:13 +0000, BTR1701 said:

    On May 22, 2025 at 9:00:45 AM PDT, "super70s" <super70s@super70s.invalid>
    wrote:

    In article <100ncn3$3gior$2@dont-email.me>,
    Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> wrote:

    Foolish old Orange Grandpa playing "fake news" while churlishly
    chastising
    an experienced reporter. An international embarassment, every fscking day.

    No world leader is going to want to meet with him (with the exception of
    autocracies like the one he's hellbent to turn the US into). They don't >>>>> want to be a pawn in his messaging to his base. Also they have their own
    constituents back home to consider.

    Maybe him and Vance and Rubio can sit around in the Oval Office alone >>>>> and lament the tragedy of American democracy.

    Despite your inaccurate description of the U.S. as a democracy,

    <roll eyes> One of those "America is a republic not a democracy" freaks. >>
    <burps> Yeah, one of those "let's call things what they actually are" freaks.

    The U.S. is much more preferable than a democracy. Democracy as a form of
    government is only slightly better than a dictatorship. Reduced down to its >> essentials democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. >> The sheep isn't gonna like the result of that election even though it was
    arrived at democratically.

    last I checked, we're still having elections and the current crew are there
    because
    they were voted in 'democratically'. I see no evidence that 'democracy' has
    disappeared.

    The US is now classified as a "deficient democracy," number 36 in a
    ranking of 176 countries.

    Classified by whom? What are their credentials? What are their biases? Why is
    their opinion supposed to be considered fact?

    They put it to a vote.

    Ah, the joys of democracy!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Sat May 24 14:19:27 2025
    Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 10:32:15 AM PDT, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com>:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome
    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>>>>Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>>>>targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>>>>meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>>>>is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own >>>>>political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years >>>>>elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense >>>>>words in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of >>>>>the systematic killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed
    a video of white crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers >>>>>who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>>>>South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>>>>Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden >>>>throwing open the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the >>>>country unchecked and unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major >>>>cities, are suddenly running for the fainting couch over 59 people
    for no other reason than that they're white.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees >>>lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a >>>burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been >>>killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    South Africa passed a law that allows for the seizure of land from white >>people, without compensation, and its transfer to black people. That's >>government oppression on the basis of skin color. It's exactly what the >>refugee system was designed for.

    That makes them asylum seekers, which is different than a refugee. Now
    that I've said that, I should have said that the Venezualans are asylum >seekers, at least the many there were here due to oppression by the
    Marxist government.

    Since you brought this to my attention, I found a BBC news article that >confirms that the law is as you describe it. Maybe they do meet the >definition of asylum seekers.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg9w4n6gp5o

    Here's an explainer.

    https://www.jurist.org/features/2025/02/11/explainer-understanding-the-south-africa-land-reform-law-that-provoked-trumps-ire/

    If land reform and not Zimbabwe-style land redistribution, which led to >almost complete economic collapse and starvation, is what was desired, >there's no need for eminent domain. There are fair and straightforward
    ways to put potentially productive land back into productive use without >expropriation which is literally the name of the new law. Pay a portion
    of economic rent -- the land's potential income due to natural resources
    and access to markets -- to society. Then there can be tenant farmers.

    Obviously I don't want land held out of productive use, but to use it as
    an excuse for eminent domain without just compensation is unjust.

    The murdering and raping and violence (encouraged by a significant number of >>the country's politicians with a wink and a nod) are just the cherry on that >>shit sundae.

    I found an article about this, too. People are suspicious that there is
    an attack upon the food production sector of the South African economy
    and, indirectly, descendants of Afrikaaners still holding much of the
    best tracts of land. But if there is a violent attack, they've found
    that the family will stop production within five years.

    The implictation is that a crisis is being deliberately precipitated
    and, with the new law, the justifications for the land expropriations
    have been artificially created.

    Ok. I'm starting to sound paranoid.

    FARM SLAUGHTER
    Female farmers sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered
    in latest horrific attacks on South Africas white farm workers
    by Jon Rogers and Jamie Pyatt
    The Sun
    Published: 18:24, 5 Oct 2020
    Updated: 18:24, 5 Oct 2020 >https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12852875/farm-workers-torture-murder-south-africa/

    Once again, I'm going to have to back off a little, having read this.

    South Africa police minister says Trump 'twisted' facts to push baseless genocide claims
    By GERALD IMRAY and MICHELLE GUMEDE
    AP
    Updated 5:39 PM CDT, May 23, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-africa-white-farmers-crosses-9bda023de5e8aefe1e5d3564aeb9f3ba

    I don't think it's controversial that Trump, in showing the field of
    crosses, simply made shit up that it was a graveyard of white farmers.
    It's not logical to think that they'd have been brought to this location
    for burial from other parts of South Africa.

    Instead, it was a memorial put up in 2020 to protest killings of all
    farmers across South Africa, and it was put up in time for the funeral
    of a white couple who had been murdered on their farm by robbers. Their
    son confirmed it wasn't a burial site and that it was taken down after
    the funeral. Other neighbors have confirmed this too.

    Here's the article's most important detail.

    South Africa struggles with extremely high levels of violent
    crime, although farm killings make up a small percentage of the
    countrys overall homicides. Both white and Black farmers are
    attacked, and sometimes killed, and the government has condemned
    the violence against both groups.

    It's uncited but for the purpose of this discussion, let's presume it's
    true.

    Let's think about this. There are extremely high levels of violent crime
    versus farmers affecting both black and white families that own farms.
    My guess is that the crime is one of opportunity, for I doubt very much
    that the violent murderous robbers care about the family's race.

    Trump could have gotten the politics right by NOT misrepresenting the
    memorial as a grave site, and NOT made it about race by granting asylum
    to black farmers as well. That would have embarassed the government
    which, if they aren't sweeping the problem of crime under the rug, have
    been failing to address it in the decades since apartheid ended.

    This violence, literally killing off farmers, is actively discouraging
    farming, South Africa cannot afford to lose productive agriculture. As I pointed out, the problem of leaving farmland fallow can be addressed economically WITHOUT land expropriation without compensation, which may
    indeed be administered in a discriminatory manner.

    But land expropriation with or without compensation isn't the answer to
    the question of whether crime can be dramatically reduced. Why would
    there be a tenant farmer or some family buying a subdivision of farm
    land to farm if they think they'll be killed?

    The defense against Trump's lies and rhetoric distracting from the
    underlying issue is analogous to an accused criminal whose alibi is that
    he couldn't have done it as he was in the midst of committing an
    unrelated crime.

    It's a matter of degree, not that it's not happening at all.

    . . .

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to hk@chinet.com on Thu May 29 04:30:46 2025
    hk@chinet.com wrote:
    BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
    On May 22, 2025 at 6:32:48 AM PDT, "Marmalade King" <x@y.com> wrote:

    Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
    By Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson And Mogomotsi Magome The Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump confronted South African President >>>Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with claims that white farmers are being >>>targeted and killed in the country.

    Trumps main evidence, compiled in a video shown during their Oval Office >>>meeting: Speeches by a politician who was kicked out of Ramaphosas party, >>>is not part of the coalition that governs the country and whose own >>>political movement garnered less than 10% of the vote in last years >>>elections.

    President Donald Trump and South Africa's president exchanged tense words >>>in the Oval Office Wednedsay over Trump's baseless claims of the systematic >>>killing of white farmers. At one point Trump showed a video of white >>>crosses, which he said memorialized white farmers who were killed.

    The Trump administration has used the rhetoric of a fringe politician and >>>South Africas endemic violence as justification for allowing white South >>>Africans to apply to become refugees in the United States

    Fifty-nine people. The same people who had no problem with Biden throwing open
    the border and allowing 15 *million* to flood into the country unchecked and >>unvetted, breaking the budgets of the major cities, are suddenly running for >>the fainting couch over 59 people for no other reason than that they're >>white.

    It's because Democrats, as much as they accuse others, are the racists.

    It doesn't matter if Trump let them in. I am in favor of immigration,
    and deporting immigrants convicted of felonies.

    Trump can and should be criticized for claiming they were refugees
    lacking evidence of ethnic cleansing or whatever. The crosses weren't a >burial site but a makeshift memorial to a local family that had been
    killed in a disaster, not ethnic cleansing,

    He's doing it as a favor to Elon Musk.


    TROLL-O-METER

    5* 6* *7
    4* *8
    3* *9
    2* *10
    1* | *stuporous
    0* -*- *catatonic
    * |\ *comatose
    * \ *clinical death
    * \ *biological death
    * _\/ *demonic apparition
    * * *damned for all eternity



    [Kerman's incorrect formatting not fixed]

    --
    Not a joke! Don't jump!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)