A cold wind gonna blow

South Africans brace for an onslaught of cold and wet weather – potentially “the most eventful winter weekend in Southern Africa in many years.”
It’s expected sometime tomorrow although temperatures have already dropped – albeit not yet low enough to cover plants overnight.

News blues…

Whispers, the latest Lincoln Project ad targets Donald Trump’s core vulnerabilities: his narcissistic paranoia, fear of not being adored, and his obsession with sycophantic displays of loyalty. The Lincoln Project’s promotional material for Whispers:

Donald Trump is sinking in the polls. He's tried to ignore COVID-19 and the Russian bounty scandal, but he can’t ignore the whispers.
Now the sharks are circling and his staff keeps leaking to the press about how mentally weak and physically weak he is, how he can’t focus, and why he hides in a bunker when it matters most.
Their whispers are only going to get bolder and louder before November.
This is just what a few of them would say on the record.

• "We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
          —Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, The Atlantic, June 3, 2020
• “Remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House.”
            —Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, The Room Where it Happened
• “An idiot.”
             —Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House
• “A racist, misogynist, and bigot.”
              —Former Assistant to the President Omarosa Manigault Newman, Unhinged
• “A f***ing moron.”
              —Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, NBC News, Oct. 4, 2017

In an interview, Trump is asked how he responds to people “wounding” him. He explains, “I unwound myself.” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I paid ZAR15 (US $0.88) to a roadside vendor for 20kgs of “kraal manure” to use as compost amendment. (FYI: a “kraal” is a traditional African enclosure for cattle, goats, and sheep.) A year ago, the last thing on my mind was poop…or a pandemic… or Lockdown.

***

What’s known as a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the US is known, in South Africa, as a Protection Order (of Section 2(1) of the Protection from Harassment Act).
Today, our newly hired security services provider team dropped by to process the paperwork, reconfigure the security system hardware, and help me fill out and prepare documentation to apply for a Protection Order against further death threats.
My impression is Protection Orders are not a slam dunk. Perhaps that explains why South Africa has “the highest number of cases of violence against women in the world… [and] one in four men [having] committed sexual crimes.”
I’ll approach the court on Friday, armed with Form 2 – 11 pages that include application, information regarding acts of harassment, particulars of respondent, and information regarding urgency of application – along with a description of the episode and my email correspondence with the US Consulate in SA.
The Consulate can’t/won’t do much as “it is a civil matter” but suggests I file a police report and “insist on opening charges against your abuser.”
The use of “insist” is instructive.
I doubt more insistence would have moved either the police or the former security services provider any closer toward warning, never mind charging, my abuser.
Both gave the impression they couldn’t have cared less – and intended to spend no time on trivial threats of death and great bodily harm.

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