Som'n ain't right with that Trump boy, seriously.

I don't know how many times Ivana Trump must've dropped Donald Trump Junior on his head when he was a child, but in the interests of furtherance of public discourse, and with a view to deterring any other right-wing bounders out there who've still got their trousers bunched up in the crack of their butts like the Neanderthals that they are, and to enlighten Donald Trump Junior who for the life of him can't seem to be able to tell the difference between two black women, a stripper, or even bedazzling, well here's a visual aid that even Donald Trump Jr's cat would be able to understand. Starting left and moving anticlockwise; Frederica Wilson, mentor, motivator, change maker, and career educationist; next, a stripper, whom junior may or may not recognise from somewhere, posing in the nude naturally; and finally, Donny Jr's dumbass tweet confusing a decked out but dauntless Frederica Wilson for a fiesty Maxine Waters and not Watters (sic).

Whether good man serving evil man or bad man serving evil man; asked, and not answered, General.

Recently, Miss Huckabee Sanders got a bit cross with a reporter who seemed to be labouring under the illusion that a reporter, any reporter, fully has the intrinsic capacity to question anything that a four star General says. Now, it matters precious little whether General Kelly is a good man who just happens to be serving an evil man or a bad man who's knowingly serving an evil man, all that matters is the capacity in which General Kelly has now undertaken to serve America, and that's in a purely civilian capacity. For as White House Chief of Staff these days, it's become the General's sworn duty to articulate a civilian president's point of view, and in that civilian capacity, the General is perfectly at liberty to take a swipe at a Congresswoman and to label her as a loud empty gong, free to embellish facts and to impugn the character of that very same Congresswoman by accusing her of seeking unecessary kudos when she spoke at the dedication of an FBI building, and free to continue standing by his alternative facts even when video evidence shows clearly that the Congresswoman said none of the things which the General accuses her of having said. However, now more than ever before, it's urgently incumbent upon the likes of Huckabee Sanders dispenser of quaint Southisms, to remember at all times that the press are not now and should never be General Kelly's cowering cadets. And so to conclude, one must reiterate once more that General Kelly, or more precisely John Kelly, shall to his ease or to his chagrin find that he is fully expected to continue fielding questions from the press, especially just so long as he remains in his present civilian post, a post that quite obviously places the "awkward" demands of transparency upon the General's "reluctant" shoulders.

Transition, Zimbabwe style; watch out, here comes horrid Grace Mugabe coz nobody works harder for what they've got than entitled demagogues and the vultures that profit in the wake of entitled demagogues - and it's all done in the name of public service, dont'cha know.

Who you might ask, would ever think that it's a good idea to make Robert Mugabe a goodwill ambassador for anything, anything at all? The answer, WHO, that's who, although I hasten to add that down at WHO they've already re-thought that woeful decision in a hurry. And say, how catastrophic would it be for the World Health Organisation to fête the man who has almost single handedly presided over the collapse of an entire country let alone its health care system? And, with an ambassadorial role that best befits a responsible statesman no less! Zimbabweans have suffered Robert Mugabe long, several decades in fact, and in that time they have had opportunity to watch as a once promising nation dwindled in its economic and social fortunes. A culture of wanton cronyism, hereditable entitlement, and political thuggery, has all but silenced any legitimate political dissent within Zimbabwe, even whilst impoverishing the people of Zimbabwe so much so that many of them have fled abroad just in order to make a living. And just when Zimbabweans thought that their long walk to freedom was looking like it might have a happy ending after all, what with the nonagenarian Mugabe now living out what must surely be his twilight years, well, here comes Grace Mugabe. And in keeping with the time honoured tradition of Africa's big men rewarding their eager groupies with perks and things, Grace Mugabe is not just a first lady, no, Grace Mugabe aspires to the highest political office in the land, which is to say the same Grace Mugabe whose taste for the finer things in life is only contrastable to the poverty of the average Zimbabwean. And while the average rural Zimbabwean is forced to make do with less than a dollar a day, Grace Mugabe's idea of a wedding anniversary gift -that is in addition to all the other finer things that she's already squeezed out of Robert Mugabe like luxury mansions in various foreign capitals and a rolls royce - well it turns out that Mrs Mugabe's idea of a romantic anniversary gesture is a 100 carat diamond ring, you'll recall that a while back Sotheby's auctioned off a similar ring at a cool US $22 million. And make no mistake about it, Grace Mugabe believes in being visible at all times, even when such public visibility includes physically assaulting a young Johannesburg woman whom she recently found cavorting with her dullard spendthrift sons. And now that Grace Mugabe is firmly in the driving seat of the Women's wing of ZANU-PF, it seems that her path to the throne is getting clearer by the day, and if ever Mrs Mugabe should manage to tear herself away from her luxurious shopping trips and her illicit love affairs just long enough to rally the dark forces that have so ably propped up her husband's regime all these years, particularly with a view to convincing such dark forces that she's the best chance for them to continue with their pillaging of Zimbabwe's diamonds and stuff, well then I'm afraid that chances are exceedingly good that Zimbabweans will soon trade in one horrid Mugabe for another equally horrid Mugabe.

Distinction without a difference; methinks the General doth protest too much.

When General Kelly recently told Americans that Donald Trump's tweets do not get in the way of him doing his job as much vaunted White House Chief of Staff, the only thought that crossed sane minds was, well, the General must not have read too many of Mr Trump's tweets, coz if he had, no way he'd be so blasé about a single one of Mr Trump's infamous verbal disptaches. And to"clarify" any inherent logical confusion in his disavowal of reality whilst also simultaneously debauching further from virtue, the General went on to state that he hadn't been brought into the White House to stem the unquenchable tide (tirade) of tweets emanating from the Oval Office, but rather that he'd been brought into the White House to minimise on systemic entropy by controlling the flow of information that's made available to the president, ostensibly so that the president could do an effective job. And so on the one hand, General Kelly seemed to be saying that Donald Trump's tweets were the kind of innocuous literature that should be liberally availed to first graders, and on the other hand, the General seemed to be tacitly admitting that a huge part of his job includes sifting through information that's destined for the president's desk with a view to shooing away such individuals as might be tempted to bend the president's ear for evil, perhaps because the president cannot be trusted to be left to his own devices especially when it comes to the hourly execution of simple tasks that have been performed before by other American presidents and with a minimum of daily drama.

"The Pan-Africanism that envisaged the ideal of wholeness was gradually cut down to the size of a continent, then a nation, a region, an ethnos, a clan, and even a village in some instances. But Pan-Africanism has not outlived its mission. Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering pratices." - Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

The good professor who just so happens to be one of Africa's pre-eminent literary scholars in exile, is not just stirring up the ghost of a dead ideology when he reminisces so, for indeed such was the heady philosophical talk of Pan-Africanism that was rife in a newly independent Africa, but Pan-Africanism soon ran into some uncomfortable realities. Notably, Pan-Africanism as envisaged by the AU and its predecessor the OAU became mainly self-serving political Pan-Africanism, and thus turned a once idyllic philosophy into a forum that gave platform to men like Robert Mugabe so he could from time to time mount up his soapbox and lecture the world on its declining moral values, and this, even while his own people were growing poorer by the day and were crossing borders to go seek a life and a living in surrounding nations and even farther abroad. And quite frankly it's not easy to explain how a mindset of inclusion like Pan-Africanism soon mutated into the isolationism of regionalism and then devolved all the way down to the self-serving chauvinsim of clannism, except to say that it obviously suited Africa's post independence rulers well to superimpose an ethnically fractious dimension onto their national politics, which was how many of them assured their own political survival, albeit at the expense of nationhood or even Pan-Africanism.

My notes.

Mwalimu's lasting legacy.

On a continent where founding fathers are sadly best remembered for living behind them little else besides the gift that keeps on giving, also known more politely as an enduringly divisive legacy of tribalism, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who was often referred to by the simple honorific, Mwalimu, or Swahili for teacher, set himself apart from many of his continental contemporaries by refusing to show favouritism or to grant boons to those close to Tanzania's seat of power. Indeed, such was his fastidiousness against shady dealings, that Mwalimu wouldn't even be persuaded to prioritize and to skew newly independent Tanzania's development agenda in order to establish better infrastructure in his own hometown ahead of the rest of Tanzania. And though he was not the most astute man when it came to managing Tanzania's economy, there's little doubt that Mwalimu's cohesive legacy of nationhood is the reason why one hardly ever hears of the slightest whiff of electoral or post election violence following any one of Tanzania's elections. And whilst other founding fathers on the continent were busy planting the first seeds of cronyism, as well as lining their pockets with the fledgling fruits of capitalism including grabbing vast tracts of land and other national resources for themselves and for the benefit of their offspring, Mwalimu took a different tack on the road that now sees history describe him as a dedicated pan-africanist, who, for instance, put his money where his mouth was in as far as the ANC's struggle against apartheid was concerned, that, in addition to being a dear and close friend of Nelson Mandela's as well as being a supporter of many freedom movements on the continent. And if Mwalimu expected frugality of others, it was only because unlike many of his contemporaries who were to be found amongst the rank and file of the continent's founding fathers, Mwalimu himself did not form the discomfiting habit of speaking out of both ends at once. And for men like Mobutu, Mugabe, Iddi Amin, and countless others of similar ilk, an emerging jaw dropping opulence that was best juxtaposed against their own people's spiralling poverty, soon became the familiar calling card of Africa's post colonial politics.

Trump and Arpaio, a tale of like minds.

And before you judge Trump too harshly for recently giving Arpaio a free pass on jail, always remember that it took plenty many vacuous minds to install into office the kind of ruler who'd be amenable to extending dubious favours to other equally sinisterly lawless characters. And not that Arpaio was ever trying to be tastelessly showy in his docket or anything, but what a lawman he was, at one point even taking to dressing his prisoners in pink underwear just to remind them of the cushy comforts of home. But sadly for this taskmaster who served Maricopa county with nothing if not pharisaical zeal, it turns out that the tent city which he'd erected as a grand monument to stupidity, and which had become a sinkhole that sucked down the taxpayer's dime faster than you could say erosion of common sense, shall, unfortunately now no longer be serving as the three ring circus that it was always meant to be. And when it came to reprising past follies within the criminal justice system, no one could do chain gangs like this pernicious relic of an ex-lawman who clearly harks back to civil war days if not to slavery days, and, who found a way of justifying the mistreatment of prisoners by putting them to work mowing the lawns of the senescent retirees who kept voting him back into office season after ceaseless season. And since dim minds should always coalesce around more than just periodic witch hunts like the birther movement or even the racially motivated subterranean evil of criminalising immigrants for a litany of flimsy if blatantly unlawful reasons, maybe Trump will give Arpaio a job after all, perhaps a rumbustious and suitably provincial post as befits the former sheriff's less than progressive sensibilities.

Antifa or no Antifa, no one can do worse than Nazis.

The main difference between Jihadists, Nazis, most Christians, and most liberals, is that Jihadists and Nazis know exactly who they are and know exactly what they believe and often are quite prepared to kill or be killed for their cause. And since opinions tend to turn on a dime, and none more so than the fickle angst-riven hand-wringing of liberals at any sight of blood, it's imperative to track the conversation that's beginning to take place around Antifa, especially ever since the peculiar events of Charlottesville which saw a deranged Nazi mow down an unarmed protester. And the story goes, or at least the new Breitbart narrative is being constructed as such, that Antifa are anarchists and insurrectionists who supposedly trace their undemocratic genealogy of illiberality all the way back to the 60s where it is said that such groups were particularly vocal in the anti-Vietnam war protests of the day. Indeed, some even trace back the history of Antifa-like anarchists to their vigorous opposition of men like Hitler and Mussolini, or even farther back than that to as long as there've been systems of government and those who oppose them. And it could very well be that Antifa are the most hardened of extreme anarchists, who knows, but in the current climate of chaos that's been deliberately and not inadvertently engendered by a sitting president and a party that's either unwilling or unable to rein him in, it's kind'a hard in such a setting to tell the difference between the anarchist who clashed with a Nazi at Charlottesville but ostensibly for no good reason, and the Nazi who enjoys the president's full backing because he'd taken great pains to obtain a licence to protest the removal of monuments that hark back to the dastardly ignominy of the KKK legacy. And clearly, nothing would be more satisfactory to and for those who oppose democracy in its truest sense than for them to begin to lay down a narrative which positions the idea that anarchist forces are out to paint Donald Trump as a fascist, as if he's not. And whenever some liberal bleeding heart, wracked with conscience and out to promote the idea that even Nazis have mothers too, begins to buy into the idea that inhibiting Nazi voices is equivalent to restricting the conservative voice, as if white men of any age form the vast acreage of the oppressed voiceless in America, then one can see immediately why the liberal is often cited as the liberal's own worst enemy, and also one can see why wishy washy Democrats might not have it as swimmingly as one might presuppose against an easy target like Donald Trump come 2020. And as for those hug-a-Nazi-today, extremely liberal types who would try to becalm any genuine debate that's to be had around the vileness of Nazis, and who've begun to imbibe the idiotic notion which posits that if only Antifa hadn't been present at Charlottesville then no violence would have occurred there, perhaps they've forgotten that the synonym of Nazi is not Antifa and that the two might actually have no ideologically correlative symbiosis whatsoever. And obviously there are still a great many Americans who constantly need to be reminded that the Nazi agenda does not exist off of opposition to Antifa, but out of odious racist ethos that are the complete antithesis of every human value known to man. And something tells me that if you were De' Andre Harris who was set upon by Nazis at their unite the right rally in Charlottesville, then perhaps the sight of some Antifa anarchists rushing to your aid would not have been such an unwelcome sight after all.