Pantarbe

Engineer by profession, Atheist by thinking. Avid science reader. Family guy. Low carber. South Africa. Retired.

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@miladreaamy 50

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@onlyskypace X = 30deg

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@_Aria_2210 144

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Actual quotes from President Trump:

Trump’s “victory timeline” claims.

Mar 3: "We won the war."
Mar 7: "We defeated Iran."
Mar 9: "We must attack Iran."
Mar 9: "The war is ending almost completely, and very beautifully.
March 10: practically nothing left to target
Mar 11: “You never like to say too ⁠early you won. We won. In ​the first hour it was over.” Mar 12: "We did win, but we haven't won completely yet."
Mar 13: "We won the war."
Mar 14: "Please help us."
Mar 15: "If you don't help us, I will certainly remember it."
Mar 16: "Actually, we don't need any help at all."
Mar 16: "I was just testing to see who's listening to me."
Mar 16: "If NATO doesn't help, they will suffer something very bad."
Mar 17: "We neither need nor want NATO's help."
Mar 17: "I don't need Congressional approval to withdraw from NATO."
Mar 18: "Our allies must cooperate in reopening the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 19: "US allies need to get a grip - step up and help open the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 20: "NATO are cowards."
Mar 21: "The Strait of Hormuz must be protected by the countries that use it. We don't use it, we don't need to open it."
Mar 22: "This is the last time. I will give Iran 48 hours. Open the strait"
Mar 22: "Iran is Dead"

Mar 23: "We had very good and productive talks with Iran."
Mar 24: "We’re making progress."
Mar 25: “They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.” Mar 26: "Make a deal, or we’ll just keep blowing them away."
Mar 27: "We don’t have to be there for NATO."
Mar 28: No major quote
Mar 29: Claimed talks were progressing
Mar 30: "Open the Strait of Hormuz immediately, or face devastating consequences."
Mar 31: Claimed a deal was "very close" and that Iran would "do the right thing"
Apr 1: "We’ll see what happens very soon."
Apr 2: Repeated that a deal was likely, while warning of continued strikes if not
Apr 3: "Something big is going to happen."
Apr 4: Said Iran must comply "immediately" or face further consequences.

Apr 5: "Open the fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."
April 6 :a whole civilization will die
April 7: total and complete victory
April8: objectives were met

A true disaster

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Glad to see Khamenei and Ahmadinejad gone, but odds lean against the establishment of democracy in Iran. My colleague Steven Levitsky, looking at the historical record, concluded, “State failure brings violence and instability; it almost never brings democratization." (Levitsky, S., & Way, L. 2015. The myth of the democratic recession. Journal of Democracy, 26, 45–58.) Let's hope this is an exception.

[Lee Brown @leebrown2]

Goosebumps! People often ask, is Shakespeare still relevant? Here is a great example, from the Steven Colbert Show, in which Sir Ian McKellen delivers an extraordinary speech. Shakespeare’s words are timeless, urgent and important.

#Shakespeare #ianmckellen #stevencolbert

[I ❤️ Cape Town ~ I Stand with Russia🇷🇺 MAGA @Lolita721611021]

🔴 MALEMA, YOU ARE A COWARD — AND THE LAW HAS CAUGHT UP WITH YOU🔴

⚠️Please share!⚠️
24 January 2026 - By Paul Hattingh

There is nothing revolutionary about evading responsibility.
There is nothing brave about hiding behind crowds, slogans, and intimidation when consequences arrive.
And there is nothing heroic about a man who shouts that he fears nothing, yet visibly trembles when the law finally answers back.

Julius Malema is not being persecuted.
He is being sentenced.

That distinction destroys his entire narrative.

🔴 THE LEGAL REALITY HE CANNOT ESCAPE

The facts are settled.

A firearm was discharged at a public political rally.
The act was captured on video.
Charges followed.
A trial took place.
A conviction was secured.

This hearing is not about innocence.
It is not about politics.
It is not about race.

It is about sentencing.

Every attempt to relitigate guilt at this stage is not legal defence. It is cowardice dressed as activism.

🔴 THE COWARD’S PLAYBOOK ON FULL DISPLAY

A leader with integrity says:
“I did it. I was wrong. I will face the consequences.”

A coward does something else entirely.

He blames the courts.
He blames white people.
He blames “supremacy”.
He blames politics.
He blames everyone except the man who pulled the trigger.

When denial fails, he pivots to sympathy.
When sympathy fails, he unleashes intimidation.
When intimidation fails, he hides behind chants.

This is not resistance.
It is evasion.

🔴 WHEN “MITIGATION” BECOMES SELF-INCRIMINATION

We were told he is a father.
We were told he is a husband.
We were told he is a leader.
We were told he is influential.

Exactly.

Those are not mitigating factors.
They are aggravating ones.

If you are a father, you teach responsibility.
If you are a leader, you model obedience to the law.
If you are influential, your recklessness multiplies harm.

To argue that status excuses criminal conduct is to argue that power replaces law. That argument cannot be allowed to stand.

🔴 THE ORDINARY CITIZEN TEST

Ask a simple question.

What would happen to an ordinary South African who fired a weapon above a crowd?

There would be no buses.
No chants.
No political speeches.
No manufactured outrage.

There would be handcuffs.
There would be a sentence.

Equality before the law means exactly that — or it means nothing at all.

🔴 THE CROWD REVEALED THE TRUTH

Outside the courtroom, the real story unfolded.

Threats replaced argument.
Chants escalated.
Violence was normalised.
Intimidation was celebrated.

This was not support.
It was pressure.

And pressure on the judiciary is not protest.
It is an admission that the law is winning.

🔴 FEAR HIDING BEHIND BRAVADO

For years, Malema has claimed to fear neither death nor prison.

But when the proceedings turned against him, the performance collapsed.

The bravado disappeared.
The slogans rang hollow.
The body language betrayed the truth.

This was not a revolutionary prepared to sacrifice himself.
This was a man terrified of being treated like everyone else.

🔴 THIS CASE IS BIGGER THAN MALEMA

Julius Malema is not the real subject of this moment.

The real question is whether South Africa still believes that:

the law applies to leaders,

intimidation does not override courts,

and consequences are not negotiable.

If crowds decide sentences, the republic is finished.
If politicians are exempt, justice is fiction.

🔴 THE LINE THAT MUST NOT MOVE

The law does not exist to comfort the powerful.
It exists to restrain them.

If Malema is sentenced according to the law, justice is not being cruel.
It is being consistent.

And consistency is the last defence of a constitutional state.

History will not remember the noise outside the courtroom.
It will remember whether the law held its ground.

And for once, it must.🔴

[Mmusi Maimane MP @MmusiMaimane]

The other major crisis is that these achievements are reported on the basis of 30% and 40%. If you got 30% you have not passed anything except for time.

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@Jason2bartlett @POTUS @CyrilRamaphosa @MYANC Neither do you represent me nor white South Africans.

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

Sentiments of Venezuelans

I’m going to say this once, and I don’t care if it makes people uncomfortable.

If you have never lived in Venezuela
If you did not grow up there
If you did not watch your country collapse in real time
If you did not stand in food lines
If you did not watch your parents lose everything they built
If you did not have to leave your home with nothing

Then shut the fuck up.

You do not have an opinion.
Your opinion does not matter.
And you don’t get to lecture anyone about what’s happening there.

I’m Venezuelan.
I lived there most of my life until my early twenties.
I watched my country go from a functioning democracy to full blown socialism right in front of my eyes.

This is not politics to me.
This is trauma.

Before socialism, Venezuela was not perfect, but it worked.
There was trade.
There was money coming in.
There was investment from the US.
There were jobs.
There was food.
There was medicine.

My family had five businesses.
We had our home
We had investments.
We had a future.

Then the government started nationalizing everything.
Private companies were taken.
Foreign investors were pushed out.
Imports were blocked.
Price controls destroyed production.
Corruption exploded.

And everything died.

Not slowly.
Violently.

People didn’t suddenly become poor because of “capitalism” or “the US” or whatever bullshit slogan people like to repeat online.

They became poor because socialism destroyed incentives, destroyed production, destroyed trust, and destroyed hope.

People today in Venezuela are not debating ideology.
They are trying to survive.

They are trying to find food.
Trying to find medication.
Trying to keep their families alive.

So when I see people in the West posting from comfortable homes, full fridges, stable currencies, and safe streets talking about “imperialism” or “US bad” or “Trump this or that”

No.
It’s not complicated.
You’re just ignorant.

China is not rebuilding Venezuela.
Russia is not rebuilding Venezuela.
Cartels are not rebuilding Venezuela.

They are stealing.
They are extracting.
They are draining what’s left.

If the US comes in and reinvests
If refineries get rebuilt
If infrastructure gets restored
If imports open back up
If food, water, and medicine become accessible again
If people can work and earn with dignity

Then yes.
Let them take all the oil they want.

Because at least something gets built instead of destroyed.

This is something to celebrate.
Not because it’s perfect.
But because for the first time in a long time, there is hope.

Hope that families can eat.
Hope that people don’t have to flee their country.
Hope that Venezuela can function again.

If you’ve never lived through a country collapsing
If you’ve never watched socialism destroy everything around you
If you’ve never had to leave your home because staying meant starvation

Then again
Shut the fuck up.

This isn’t theory.
This isn’t politics.
This is lived experience.

By Stephen Subero

[Michelle Maxwell ™ @MichelleMaxwell]

From a Venezuelan

“As a Venezuelan, I can say this plainly: much of the left leaning media is going to aggressively twist this story. What needs to be understood is that when the bombs fell, they struck only military bases and an international airport that had already been closed, with all international flights suspended.

Many Venezuelans did not panic, they cheered from their homes when they saw the helicopters. This was not random or uninformed support. Roughly 75% of Venezuelans voted for María Corina Machado, backing her platform and her openly stated plan to pursue cooperation with the United States, including the possibility of U.S. intervention, to remove Nicolás Maduro from power in exchange for reopening Venezuela to free trade.

This was a calculated choice. Venezuela has resources the United States wants, and the United States has the leverage and support Venezuela needs. It was a path we knowingly chose, fully aware of the risks involved.

Love it or hate it, do not accept the narrative at face value. This was not imposed on us. We chose this path.”

Author: Crhia Michel San Martin

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@elonmusk If we had Internet in KwaZulu-Natal there might well be less ignorant voters punting for Zuma

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

The RMS Queen Elizabeth pulling into New York with servicemen returning home after the end of World War 2, 1945.⁣ ⁣

She could carry 15,000 people at a time, including 900 crew members.

The trip from The British Isles to the east coast of the United States usually took 5 to 7 days. During her service in World War 2, the RMS Queen Elizabeth transported more than 750,000 troops and sailed a total of 500,000 miles (800,000 km).⁣ ⁣

See more photos: https://t.co/FRrL4hIDpN

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

The woman who founded a South African sweets empire out of her kitchen https://t.co/6nOgEqphrF

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@SecRubio @POTUS The farmers live in relative isolation amidst thousands of poor, indigent, uneducated blacks. The farmers are seen as a source of riches and naturally become targets. There is no genocide but the farmers need extra protection since they are vital to our our food source.

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@misshelenamy Please brush your teeth

[Ian Cameron @IanCameron23]

I introduce to you, Lieutenant General Patrick Mbotho, who appears before the Madlanga Commission this week. His story sums up the deep crisis in SAPS/DPCI leadership and why trust in the system keeps falling apart.

@ParliamentofRSA and specifically the Police Portfolio Committee, flagged his promotion months ago. We raised concerns about his conduct, his fitness for office and the risk his appointment posed to the integrity of the Hawks. But those warnings were ignored, in fact, defended by retired Lt Gen Lebeya . The Hawks went ahead and promoted him anyway.

Let’s be clear about who we are talking about. Mbotho is the same officer who was previously accused of sharing explicit sexual content on an official SAPS WhatsApp group while serving as a senior detective commander in the Western Cape. Completely incompatible with the standards expected of a senior police officer.

He was also linked to meetings with alleged underworld figures, including Nafiz Modack, who faces serious charges of extortion, racketeering and murder. For a police general to be anywhere near such individuals is a severe red flag (As with the likes of Lt Gen Shadrack Sibiya too).

Yet, instead of being disciplined, Mbotho was basically slapped on the wrist, shifted to the Hawks in North West and after just a few years, promoted to his current rank of Lieutenant General.

When questions were raised about his integrity, the matter was referred to the Public Service Commission (PSC) by Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Police.

But, the PSC refused to act, claiming it lacked jurisdiction over SAPS. This has exposed a major accountability vacuum. If the PSC cannot act, and IPID’s mandate stops short of dealing with administrative misconduct, then who holds the most powerful police officers in the country to account?

Suspended Minister Mchunu also defended the promotion.

This goes to the heart of why the public has lost faith in policing. When Parliament raises red flags and they are ignored, when oversight bodies step back because of “jurisdictional limits,” and when allegations as serious as these are brushed aside in the name of rank, the message to the public is that the rules don’t apply to the powerful.

The Hawks are meant to lead the fight against organised crime and corruption. But when the integrity of their own leadership is compromised, that mission becomes hollow. Every honest officer inside SAPS deserves leadership that is clean, credible and accountable. Every citizen deserves a justice system they can believe in.

Lieutenant General Mbotho’s rise through the ranks, despite his record, is not a story of rehabilitation. It is a story of failure, failure of vetting, failure of oversight, and failure of accountability. Parliament warned against it. The Hawks ignored it. And South Africa is left paying the price.

IC

(Photo: Antonio Muchave)

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@eNCA This ad hoc committee has a useless chairman.

[Mor Edge Insight @MorEdge_Insight]

“Once a conviction is secured, the executive branch retains powers to commute or reduce sentences in the national interest (under Presidential pardon powers, סעיף 11(ב) לחוק יסוד: נשיא המדינה). This furnishes Israel with leverage in its diplomacy with the states of foreign nationals that could ultimately strengthen cooperation on counterterrorism and sanctions enforcement, rather than harm relations. Moreover, it’s not too late. The foreign ministry can issue a fair warning statement today that openly states this is the last time a flotilla and its crew will be permitted to skate the law in Israel: activists are on notice, next time the consequences will be real.”

I 100% agree

[Pantarbe @BryanNGriffiths]

@StandUpForFact ❤️