What is the issue

Well there will be some very happy people with the news of the Con Court ruling about the personal use of marijuana in your own home, and this is a great signal to the people who will now feel much better about using the herb for medicinal purposes, even though mood enhancement can be construed as a medical issue.

A warning to the not so wise, it is still illegal in public and you cannot smoke and fly, or drink and drive either.

Israel really dropped a stinky one when Syrian military forces downed a Russian aeroplane while trying to shoot Israeli aircraft that were bombing military installations in Syria. I am so impressed with Putin, his reaction to the event has been so level headed, however that does not meant that he is just going to make a cup of tea and move on. The Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu saidthat Moscow "wont leave the Israeli actions unanswered." I just hope that sanity prevails, because this comes at a time that is so sensitive in the Syrian conflict and the human massacre at Idlib looks to have just been prevented. Could it be that there are those who don't want peace because war brings big bucks Gross!

While all that has been going down, China announced that they will impose tariffs on US goods to the value of sixty billion Dollars, starting on the 24th of September. Dump is up in arms, accusing China of meddling in the US election process because they targetted American farmers in their sanctions. You see, the world really does revolve around Donald Dump. He raised tariffs on Chinese goods to the value of two hundred billion Dollars. Dump is livid, he is now threatening China with more retribution if they target American agricultural or industrial workers. It's his voter base man, can't the Chinese just leave them alone

This probably means that China will buy even more gold to keep as reserves given their troubled relationship with the US.

Back home in this gold producing region of ours, the issue of state capture is still under investigation and Blade Nzimande spoke out against Jacob's utterances when he insisted that there was no state capture. If not state capture, then what would we call the total collapse of state responsibilities and the wholesale stripping of state coffers and the unabated corruption involving almost every single state enterprise What term could we use for that

I was tickled on my ticklish spot when I heard how Jacob and friends met to plot and plan the overthrowing of our current President. Smiling inwardly I wondered how it would have played out if they got it right. Would we all just stand back and look on with blank expressions like we did when state capture was happening under our noses

But then why capture a state when you can just buy it Is that what China is doing with the 33 Billion Rand loan to Eskom, which is so heavily over extended I am not sure how they will ever repay their existing deficit never mind this new bunch of money, and the R370 Billion stimulus package. Talk af a China town being established here in SA is rife and colonialism takes on a new meaning.