A coal-fired power station in Witbank, South Africa, that is owned by Eskom, the country’s main energy producer, is pictured on Oct. 21, 2021. (Themba Hadebe – File / AP)
American residents of South Africa are being warned of the chaos that could follow the failure of the nation’s energy grid.
The U.S. Embassy in South Africa released a security alert warning that likely outages could precede a wave of violent crime.
The embassy cited a South African energy policy known as “load-shedding,” in which a state energy utility enacts mass blackouts to relieve pressure on the nation’s crumbling energy grid, according to CNN.
Entire city blocks were deprived of lighting and power after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of disaster over the energy shortage, according to Euronews.
BREAKING: Urban Square, Cape Town, South Africa goes dark as the country's energy grid collapses
The embassy is warning that crime may accompany the state-mandated power outages.
“Additionally, power outages have the potential to increase crime; for example, traffic jams when lights are out provide opportunities for smash and grab crime, and residences can be targeted when lights are out and security systems are not functioning.”
The embassy cautioned against traveling to South Africa due to the security considerations — even going so far as to warn Americans to stockpile food and water.
“The U.S. Embassy would like to take this opportunity to remind U.S. citizens traveling to or living in South Africa that South Africa has a Travel Advisory Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution due to Crime and Civil Unrest.”
“Maintain 72-hours’ worth of supplies at home by stockpiling non-perishable food, 3 liters of drinking water per person per day, and medicines and first aid supplies,” one “Emergency Preparedness” tip read.
The blackouts have led to unrest in the troubled nation before.
Thousands protested the policy underlying the rolling blackouts last month, according to France 24.
One Marxist anti-white South African political party, Economic Freedom Fighters, has already begun organizing protests against Ramaphosa in response to the crisis.
We call on the people of South Africa to join us in their numbers for the #NationalShutdown to demand our electricity back.
We can never allow and should never allow to be led into dark ages by an incompetent and useless President!! Ramaphosa Must Go pic.twitter.com/6z58HmOhQv
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a “serious public health” alert, warning of a nationwide spike in “extensively drug-resistant” shigellosis.
The highly contagious shigella bacterial infection attacks the intestines and causes inflammatory, sometimes bloody diarrhea, according to the CDC’s “emergency and preparedness response.”
There are about 450,000 shigellosis infections every year in the US, resulting in an estimated $93 million in direct medical costs, according to CDC data. The agency also reported that 5% of all infections in 2022 were extensively drug-resistant, or XDR — a jump from zero drug-resistant cases in 2015.
An infection is considered XDR when it doesn’t respond to antibiotics that are typically used to treat it, such as azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone, among others.
“XDR shigellosis is resistant to all generally recommended antibiotics in the United States, making it difficult to treat,” according to the new report. XDR shigellosis is a serious public health threat: XDR Shigella bacteria have limited antimicrobial treatment options, are easily transmissible, and can spread antimicrobial resistance genes to other enteric bacteria.
Children younger than 5 years old and travelers to places “where water and food may be unsafe and sanitation is poor” are at highest risk of shigellosis infection. AP
Health-care providers “should understand the nuances of testing and managing infections, especially when treating patients from populations at increased risk of drug-resistant shigellosis including: young children; gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; people experiencing homelessness; international travelers; and people living with HIV.”
Children younger than 5 years old — as well as those in day care and educational settings — and travelers to places “where water and food may be unsafe and sanitation is poor” are at additional risk of contracting a shigellosis infection.
Medical professionals treating XDR shigellosis “should consult with a specialist knowledgeable in treating antibiotic-resistant bacteria to determine the best treatment options,” the CDC wrote in its statement.
The CDC recommends that all patients with suspected or confirmed shigellosis should: • Stay home from school or from health care, food service, or child-care jobs while sick or until the health department says it’s safe to return. • Abstain from sex. • Wash hands often for at least 20 seconds. • Do not prepare food for others, if possible. • Stay out of recreational water, including swimming pools, hot tubs, water playgrounds, oceans, lakes and rivers.
This latest infection strain arrives as more mainstream stomach “bugs” are spreading across the US. Also known as the stomach flu (though unrelated to influenza), the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness is typically caused by norovirus infection, prompting days of vomiting, diarrhea and fever in children and adults — which could even lead to death if not properly treated.
Isn’t this what we’ve always called the “Stomach Flu?” They say it is unrelated to the Flu. We’ve always known that this Stomach malady is resistant to drugs. It has to run its course!
South African billionaire Elon Musk embroiled himself Sunday in the controversy surrounding “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams’ recent racially charged remarks and resultant cancellation, suggesting that the same media outfits now crying racism are hardly guiltless, having themselves long peddled division in America.
What is the background?
A host of newspapers across the United States — including USA Today, the Washington Post, and the New York Times — have dropped Adams’ long-running comic strip, suggesting that his remarks on a Feb. 22 episode of the YouTube show “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” were hateful and “discriminatory.”
TheBlaze previously reported that Adams had cited videos of black people beating white people and a Rasmussen poll indicating that only 53% of black respondents agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to be white.”
“That’s a hate group and I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” said Adams. “And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people.”
“Just get the f*** away,” Adams emphasized, adding, “Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed, right. … I’m gonna back off from being helpful to black America, because it doesn’t seem like it pays off. I’ve been doing it all my life, and the only outcome is I get called a racist. … It makes no sense to help black Americans if you’re white. It’s over. Don’t even think it’s worth trying. Totally not trying.”
This is the absolute truth what @ScottAdamsSays is saying here. He had to have known that all the coward newspapers would drop his Dilbert comic strip. I admire Scott Adams for doing it anyway. pic.twitter.com/sy0vhHutV2
The Miami Herald reported that Adams attempted to clarify his remarks on Saturday, suggesting that he had been making a point that “everyone should be treated as an individual” without discrimination.
“But you should also avoid any group that doesn’t respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine,” said Adams.
The cartoonist claimed that CNN’s Don Lemon was of a similar mind, sharing a 2013 video wherein the scandal-plagued news-reader detailed five things he believed black people ought to do to “fix the problem.” Among the host’s suggestions were recommendations to black Americans to hold off having kids and to emulate “predominantly white neighborhoods” by picking up litter.
Adams also suggested that what he had proposed was not dissimilar from former Vice President Mike Pence’s personal policy, according to which the politician would never dine alone with any woman other than his wife.
“The Mike Pence rule would say you wanna get some distance. Now is that racist? Yeah, by definition,” said Adams. “But it’s racist in a personal success context, which is completely allowable.”
Despite his attempts at clarification, Gannett, which publishes over 100 papers in the U.S., indicated it would drop “Dilbert,” reported the Daily Mail.
The Los Angeles Times, various Hearst Newspapers (e.g., the San Antonio Express-News), certain Advance Local media publications, and other outfits are similarly ditching the comic strip, which has been in circulation since 1989.
The San Antonio Express-News indicated it was curbing “Dilbert” because “of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.”
Chris Quinn, editor of the Plain Dealer, wrote of the decision, “This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve. … We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”
John Hiner, VP of content for Michigan’s MLive Media, wrote Friday, “MLive has zero tolerance for racism. And we certainly will not spend our money supporting purveyors of it.”
The papers doth protest too much
Following Adams’ initial cancellation and in response to a comment contextualizing the cartoonist’s remarks, Twitter CEO Elon Musk wrote, “The media is racist.” Musk added in a subsequent post, “For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.”
For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.
Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America.
The tech magnate then concurred with Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, who tweeted, “Adams’ comments weren’t good. But there’s an element of truth to this. … It’s complicated. Mainly we’ve leaned into identity with predictable results, and power today is complicated. We were on the right path with colorblindness and need to return to it.”
Musk may have arrived at this opinion having glimpsed the kinds of headlines below that routinely appear in the liberal media, advancing identity politics and sifting complex issues through the singular lens of race:
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, suggested that the leftist media’s use of “‘Black’ and ‘White’ to describe people” is evidence of a “pernicious racialism with which the South African apartheid system would be quite comfortable. #CriticalRaceTheory.”
CNN news-reader Oliver Darcy asked whether media organizations should “respond to Musk the same way they did to Adams?”
In response, Adams wrote, “Who stoked racial division for the past five years? Was that me? Or Musk?
The Rabbit Hole elicited an “interesting” from Musk by suggesting that the terms “Racist” and “Racism” saw a significant spike in media usage over the past decade:
The term “Woke” is certainly a Joke, and I’m sick to death of reading about people who have jumped aboard the Woke Train! But these mindless folk are obvious lost in their sins and desperately in need of prayer!
A Massachusetts Democrat has been caught saying the left’s quiet part about abortion out loud with his cruel suggestion that special needs babies should be aborted in the womb, so government schools can save money at a later date.
Michael Hugo, the chair of the Framingham Democratic Committee, is taking major heat, and rightfully so, for a shocking recommendation that the city use abortion to save money in school budgets.
Hugo delivered his horrific suggestion during a Feb. 7 Framingham city council meeting, where he spoke up about a draft proclamationconcerning the city’s support for unfettered access to abortion at any time, for any reason. The proclamation denounced crisis pregnancy centers where at risk women are urged to choose life, labeled these centers “misleading” and “deceptive,” and claimed they dole out “false medical claims.”
But the Democratic committee chair had far more to say than that which appears in the anti-life proclamation. In his comments aimed at supporting the proclamation, Hugo proffered the eugenics-based policy of killing babies that may suffer disabilities after birth.
Hugo began his personal proclamation saying that he was “speaking on behalf of the Framingham Democratic Committee,” and said it is the committee’s duty to “work for the common good by promoting racial, ethnic, social, and economic equality for the people of Framingham,” the New York Post reported.
During his comments, Hugo went on to say that crisis pregnancy centersare a threat to Framingham because in some cases they might prevent women from aborting babies that will be born with special needs. Hugo further claimed that people with special needs are a financial burden on the system.
“Our fear is that if an unqualified sonographer [at a CPC] misdiagnoses a heart defect, an organ defect, spina bifida or encephalopathic defect, that becomes a very local issue, because our school budget would have to absorb the cost of the child in our special education budget,” Hugo said, according to The Blaze.
Hugo had sent the text of his remarks to the council ahead of time. And in that written statement, he asked if the state would “cover the medical costs for a fetus that had sound medical reason to be terminated,” the Daily Mail reported.
He also asked if the state or city council “would cover the costs of special education for a Down syndrome-affected child” or “pay the extraordinary medical expense of a child with a (serious heart condition)” and implied that such children should be aborted before those expenses are realized.
According to the Post, Hugo then wondered, “How much does Framingham’s Public School Department pay for unreimbursed special needs school transportation, specialized education and durable supplies?”
These outrageous and heartless comments were widely criticized not only by local residents, but even members of his own, anti-life party.
One woman, who is the mother of a special needs child, felt as if Hugo was targeting her quite directly.
“I saw what Michael had said as a personal attack against my own children,” said Sheryl Goldstein, the chair of the Framingham Disabilities Commission, according to Fox News. “That my children who had special needs were not worth the expense in the school system.”
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life and mother of two special-needs children, was aghast at Hugo’s statements, saying that his policy suggestion was no less than “eugenics,” the Post reported.
“This is discrimination plain and simple,” Hawkins exclaimed. “I think people who say that the sick cost too much for our society better find the fountain of youth real quick because someday that’s going to be them, it’s going to be their family members.”
“This is eugenics. This is eugenics in 2023 America. This is an argument that sadly we’ve heard before and throughout American history, just regurgitated using a bunch of fancy lingo or support for abortion,” Hawkins said.
Jon Fetherston, a special needs advocate, said he was shocked by Hugo’s heartless comments.
“As a parent of an autistic child, I read those comments and go ‘What?’” Fetherston said. “A peer of mine thinks that I should’ve aborted my child because he was going to be a burden to a school budget?”
Another critic, former Framingham School Committee member Pat Dunne, even blasted Hugo’s comments during the meeting saying that he had gone “off the rails” with his policy suggestion.
“I’m a lifetime member of the Democratic Committee, and the person who wanted to represent us went off the rails on a different direction that was never brought before the Democratic Committee,” Dunne said, the Post added. “We’re not talking about eliminating special education students and the like. We’re talking about getting out good information to the people in Framingham. And he’s casting a bit too wide for me, and that’s why I did want to say something.”
Hugo eventually posted an apology letter and claimed that the other members of the committee did not see the text of his prepared comments even though he sent it out the night before the meeting. He also admitted that is words were “offensive and hurtful.”
“I am writing to offer my most sincere and humble apology to members of the Framingham Democratic Committee, but more especially my fellow members of Framingham’s disability family community, for comments that I made at the last City Council meeting which were offensive and hurtful,” Hugo wrote.
Laura Green, a disability advocate in Framingham, was not convinced by the apology letter.
“I feel that it was generic and lackluster. I feel like after a statement like that is made, you can’t just pretend that it didn’t happen or take it back because it’s damaging to a community of people,” Green said. “The disability community is the only minority group that you can become a part of at any time.”
Despite the mounting calls for his resignation, Hugo has insisted that he has no intentions of vacating his political job as FDC chairman. He is also reportedly the director of policy and government affairs for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. And just think, in that latter position he is just where he needs to be to push for the abortions of special needs children. Hawkins, though, is 100 percent correct. This is no less than a policy of eugenics meant to weed out those Hugo feels are undesirable. And we already know such policies lead to the mass extermination of an ever-widening group of people cast into that category as advocates continue to find even more people that they feel need to be labeled as undesirables.
Every life has value. To think otherwise is to suggest that “value” is so subjective that no life really has any value at all.
The Leftists have no regard for human life.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
