PSYeah, the bantu in South Africa claim that all the land was taken from them, that they suffered the most from Apartheid, etc, etc. Meanwhile its all nonsense. South African bantu weren't even slaves in South Africa, the majority of the slaves came from the Malaysian, Indonesian part of the world, plus the Khoisan who were enslaved, even though it was supposedly illegal undet the Dutch to enslave the Khoisan. Yet who cries that they suffered the most, the bantu. Small numbers of bantu from West and East Africa were enslaved and brought to the Cape, mostly via shipwrecks along the Cape of Storms as they were en-route to the Americas, but next to zero South African bantu. Who cries the most that all the land is theirs', the bantu, even though the original inhabitants were the Khoisan, as evidenced by the bushman cave paintings across southern Africa.

The Free State and Transvaal were depopulated by the Zulu wars, enabling the boers to walk in there. The Xhosa were too numerous for the boers to fight, both those black powder weapons and later cartridges were too slow and too expensive for extensive use. Only after the gold and diamond discoveries in the interior did the boers have enough ammunition to burn. So going through the Xhosa at that stage was impossible, things were much easier in the interior. Crop agriculture enables huge population numbers, plus the Xhosa were not impacted by the Zulu wars and had reinforcements from tribes fleeing those same wars. The Americans had things easy against those Red Indian tribes as they weren't that much into crops, they depended on the bison, so their numbers were small. Since the bantu came from Africa north of the equator it meant that they probably had encountered smallpox previously, so were more resistant to it. The KhoiSan were the most impacted by smallpox. In fact it was British who comprehensively defeated the Xhosa, Zulu, Matabele and Pedi. The boers only won like round 1 against those tribes, the Brits came in to deliver the knockout punches in round 2, though the Brits certainly didn't cover themselves in glory at Isandlwana.

Whites have as much right as blacks to be in South Africa.

PS: R3D3, the US is an entity. Not all of *US* were down with that huge anti-Apartheid campaign. It was all over the West, as you probably know, with sanctions and broken relations and all kinds of ways to isolate the country politically, socially, and financially. I remember those times. I'm not Bono, let me put it that way... and, come to think of it, he's not American anyway.

Though I didn't have the wisdom I have now, being a whole lot younger, I can tell you that I did not have a good feeling about what would happen to the country, especially by 1993/4 when the turnover happened. By then I knew better.

Even during the '80s, I heard about and saw even some of the protests, as if this was the worst thing in the world. I'd already had a decent share of exposure to black people, so I had somewhat of an understanding of why the White S. Africans wanted to run the place in that manner. I supposed I'd have been a "No comment" on the issue if asked in 1985, but a decade later I would have been in favor of keeping Mandela in jail, or putting him back, as the case may have been.

PS: ":Was always wondering where this business about the boer being in South Africa before the bantu comes from. It comes from peakstupidity." Mr. Vol, I can't take responsibility for spreading this apparent falsehood, as the site is not the big... yet. However, I thank you for the correction, though mine was a basic simplification.

How big were the numbers of the Bantu in the eastern cape or anywhere in the region then, before they entered the civilization of the White Boer?

I'll change my sentence above. The main point, as you state, is that it's not like the Boer took land from these Bantus that claim such (as does much of the world, as you stated).

Thanks for the correction.

PS That's the Farmers the glorious US (and many others) sanctioned for being racist.

PSWas always wondering where this business about the boer being in South Africa before the bantu comes from. It comes from peakstupidity. When the Dutch arrived in the Cape the bantu were like 1500km away from Cape Town, somewhere in the Eastern Cape. As a consequence of the Sahara drying the Bantu in Nigeria turned increasingly south migrating all the way down to South Africa over the course of some 2000 years. They were in the Eastern Cape when the white man reached Cape Town.

PSSo the bantu are settlers in South Africa just like the white man, except the whole western world seems to think the bantu are the original inhabitants of the region. That's black worship for you. The original inhabitants of the region are the Khoi and the San, pastoralists and
hunter gatherers respectively, so they had no crop farming agriculture so were few in number. The bantu had agriculture, they got it from up north, probably from the Egyptians, their circumcision business as well, and once the white man gave them maize from South America the bantu numbers really exploded. The boers couldn't move eastwards as the Xhosa were in the way, but towards the north east, the Free State and Transvaal regions were nicely depopulated by the Zulu. Except after the boers moved into the Free State and Transvaal they invited numerous bantu in to do all the farm work for the boers, resulting the bantu majority we see in those regions today.

PSBut yes, the bantu can't get anything right, they just break everything. And they insist on sticking their noses into every sector of the South African economy, as is their right as the "original natives", so everything just ends up broken. Trump has done South Africa a great service by damaging the black worship business in the West, hopefully the process continues until blacks are universally recognized as being a liability to every country they reside in.

PS: Good afternoon, Achmed!

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/500083859-18406715635103895-6309121676800199140-n.jpg?q=w_1160,c_fill/f_webp

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1000w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2025-05/250523-norway-mb-1156-b058bd.jpg

Looks like he's pretty lucky that the ship didn't hit his house.

Over the years I've collected quite an array of different size ratchets. I'm somewhat of a connoisseur. I have tiny little ratchets for hard to reach places...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334204138480
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275747854858
https://www.ebay.com/itm/166963021031

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLX_VId27Tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EcG31sXHXs

All the way up to a giant ratchet that I use as a breaker bar...

https://www.harborfreight.com/34-in-extendable-ratchet-70293.html

And all points in between. Seriously. I think I have about 30 different ratchets in the shop. And then I bought some tools for the house too. You know, just in case I want to work on something here without going and getting my tools.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/376233571226
https://www.ebay.com/itm/286577242000

*I payed about $200 for the 1/2" drive tightspot master set.
$135 out of Hong Kong is a pretty good deal if the seller's legit.

One of my favorite ratchets is this guy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooAahJNeX28&t=98s
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335826994172

So useful. I wish I could find one in 1/2" drive.

And as long as we're talking tools, check these out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_sMeis0yV8

I bought a set a couple months back. I've only used them a couple times, but they are so nice for getting into tight spots. I wish I would have known about them sooner.

So yeah. Cheers to a Happy Friday! ☮️

PS: That's some story, about the container ship. "Neighbour Jostein Jorgensen ..." Actual Norwegians too, in Norway. I was kind of taken aback.

PS: Cornelia was pretty close, Adam! Close but not close enough, as it bounced back to the midwest, then bounced back but not as far, and then slid down some Rube Goldberg slide thingy down to Jacksonville.

Florida does seem to be the place where you send stuff when you don't know where it should go. I had a rifle with a knife in the box (cause the A/P security guy - long before the TSA - figured the knife shouldn't go on-board the plane) go down and back to Florida twice before it finally came to my local airport.

BTW, I have a bunch of extra ratchets and sockets in a bag in my garage. I can't even remember where I got them from.

PS: Good morning, friends!

This is totally off topic, except I think it could be filed under the stupidity or incompetence topic key...

I have a set of these...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224569572463

that I ordered a while back. But a couple weeks ago I realized that the 1/4" ratchet doesn't hold sockets. The little ball is defective or something. So I ordered another from the same seller. It was supposed to arrive on May 15. Check out the tracking...

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?qtc_tLabels1=9400150206219000464375

Lincoln Nebraska to Omaha to Atlanta. So far so good. From Atlanta to Covington GA to Cornelia GA and then... Greensboro NC on May 18. Whoopise... And then back to Omaha? Where it sat a few days. Then back to Atlanta. Yesterday.

I checked the tracker this morning...

Jacksonville, FL.(?) What the heck?

I may never get my replacement ratchet. 🙁
Or maybe they'll deliver it to The Alarmist's place in Florida.

(Mrs. Smith recently had a package bounce around the postal system for many months until it was finally delivered. To an address in Illinois.)

Oh well. Maybe next week.(?)

Meanwhile, in Norway...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/europe/norway-container-ship-garden-intl-hnk-scli
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8nk279ydyo

I hope you guys are all having a wonderful Friday! ☮️

PS

I thought it was Robert Young (Marcus Welby MD), but the phrase was from '80s commercials for Vicks, with a couple doctors from soaps... GH & some other.

🕉️

PS: Thanks for the, uh, advice, Alarmist.

PS: What is new in my "BTW" is that there is a seat reserved, or however that works, for a ZH reporter, not just all the usuals. I thought Trump-45 was going to do that, but he never got around to it. This time is different.

As for the commercials, I can remember one oldie in which the guy who played the "Trapper John, MD" lead part would start off "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV". So? Why then, would I want to keep listening to the commercial?

PS: Yeah, that was a little later I think, SafeNow, when the reporter started asking him about that Qatari jet - whatever, not some story I personally give a rat's hootie about, and it was a way to change the subject.

Yes, he did say that.. It's not the best of insults, as everyone knows you don't have to be smart to be one of these "journalists".* I don't know, hwo about "Ok, airplanes are one thing, but how about these thousand of crosses there by the road. Would you like to ask me about those?"


* BTW, ZeroHedge has a reporter - forgot his name - who has gotten some good questions in to Trump. Of course the exchanges appear on the site.

PS

The B-61 is a "gravity bomb," so i guess you could do a retarded free-fall or a lay-down delivery if you don't want to ride out the shock wave.

I dunno, I flew heavies.

🕉️

PS
My favorite moment was when Trump told the black reporter: You are not smart enough to be a reporter.

I have spent the past 20 years silently* shouting at the tv screen’s drug ads: “Lady, you are not smart enough to be a doctor; I am not fooled by the fact that you are wearing dark-framed oversize spectacles, and you have a stethoscope slung around your neck; you are an affirmative-action pretend-doctor who is not smart enough to be a competent doctor.”

Finally, someone in authority - - the President! - -plays the “not smart enough” card…out loud!

*Silently, because I am a coward? No, I have risked my life for strangers, so I guess I am probably not a coward. I will instead say I am practical; - - I want to live-out my dotage in peace.