Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington today. He said he did it in protest of the genocide in Gaza. Independent journalist Talia Jane reports that she was able to obtain footage of the incident, which the unnamed man apparently recorded himself. Jane reports that the man said he is “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force” and that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.” After igniting he repeatedly yelled “Free Palestine.”
War will not end until we all come together, black, white, red, blue, Israeli and Palestine and recognise the true enemy, the CIA Pharma Military Industrial Complex. We need to all refuse to fight. Refuse to join. Refuse to die for their profit.
And then there are the twisted ideologies, like Zionism, that are also part of the problem. However evil big pharma is, and it is extremely evil, it isn't responsible for the ethnic and religious chauvinism that characterizes Zionism. Just as an example. And sadly, people are wedded to their ideologies.
Yeah, fully agreed. That's one of the key points, that is for the common people to refuse to fight and sacrifice ourselves for the ruling class' harmful and destructive agendas.
It's very simple to solve if you wanted to. Close all the military bases, bring all the troops home. Close the CIA. Close the "Diplomatic Immunity" loophole and voila. Peace at last and politicians we can lock up when they turn mental. And I just saw a flying pig.
Close all the bio labs world wide. Raze the Health agencies and start over from Brick One. Make debate Great Again. Overturn the Prep Act and The Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Yes, no immunity for any politician and NGO. Scum like the WHO are above the law. There is currently no court in the world you can take them to no matter how many people they kill.
I contend that in the age of autonomous killer drones and remote controlled smart bombs simply refusing to fight as citizens is not enough to end the mass murder for profit and eugenics that is the war racket.
In order to cripple and starve the military industrial complex we have to dissolve all involuntary governance structures (which includes "democracies") as government sanctified theft ("taxation") is the main source of funding for these murderous campaigns and as technology advances, they will be able to continue to kill and oppress people in far away lands using our tax dollars whether or not most people are are willing to pick up a gun.
That is why I advocate for the abolishment of all forms of government that use violent coercion.
More on the age old racket of War and the true nature of involuntary governance structures here:
I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised. So far the psychological divide and constant brainwashing seems to be working remarkably well but the Covid pandemic is waking up the useless eaters. The peasants are revolting.
American's came together strongly after 9/11. That got us the War on Terror, the Patriot Act, the invasion of Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq which spawned the creation of ISIS.
Ok, maybe that's not the example you were looking for.
I sure as hell didn't "come together" with anyone after 9/11, except perhaps Ward Churchill in Boulder, who was crucified in the media. At most I was indifferent. And what happened didn't surprise me at all.
When did you see this happening? I know eventually something will happen in our Country. I just read that JOE is signaling Congress for the Big Bucks again. What a joke and farce. I just read a person talking about her recent trip to Ukraine. The
US is being fed a bunch of lies. Well, would we expect anything less!
The breakup of the USSR. Romania shooting Ceaușescu. Havel revolution in Czech Republic. Tunisia. Egypt. American Revolution and Civil war. French Revolution. Russian Revolution. 1918 overthrow of Kaiser. Oliver Cromwell.
Thanks for explaining. My Husband was born in Budapest, Hungary. He and his Mother came to US and became citizens. He said USSR occupied Hungary for 45 years. The US was coming, but never showed up. But, US sure showed up for that phony of a war in Ukraine. My
Husband said Ukraine was never nice to Hungary. But, Victor Orban was good enough
to take in many Ukrainian people. He's never given credit for that happening.
Yes you nailed it - cop pointing a gun, presumably as a threat to……shoot him to death….unless he stopped commuting suicide?
That indeed says it all about US cops and the US as a country: mentally incapable of comprehending reality, let alone responding to in any human manner.
That’s how you get to the point where they shovel money and free weapons at the Israeli’s committing genocide for them - while at home MILLIONS of their own people are starving and homeless. And an estimated 60 percent of those shot dead by police in the US each year, are people with mental illness problems - in short people who need help and humanity, not bullets to their heads.
There is a reason why American cops are trained by Israel. They are trained to see the public as the enemy.
Maybe it’s all our endless wars abroad that have made too many Americans become so insensitive to violence against others. And maybe it’s the reason why America is steeped in violence and there are so many mass shootings.
I’m saddened to say I agree with you. I’m not very proud of my country right now, with all its interventionist wars and this horrific genocide going on in Gaza with the full support of my government. I don’t want to sing the national anthem and I don’t want to say the pledge of allegiance with my hand over my heart b/c it makes me feel like I’m agreeing with the complicity of my country in this genocide. I feel like I’ve been lied to most of my life about what this government has been doing for decades. It’s frightening.
I live in the US and that really is weird for a cop to be pointing a gun at a man who set himself ablaze, and no doubt is mentally ill. On another site, Mersheimer, a man who sounded like a troll was listing all the horrible things Hamas did, burning babies, raping women, cutting off women's breasts, all of which has not been shown to be true, and he used those lies to justify all of Israel's carnage, and not a word of empathy for all those who died in Gaza, and will die. His name was Richard so I called him genocide dick when he just got to be too much. I think he was a troll, not sure, but I gave it right back. Their total one sided perspective makes them come across as scary because it is so devoid of feelings for the other. His message was no Palestinian life matters.
Fran, let’s hold off on the judgement that Aaron Bushnell was “…no doubt mentally ill.” You don’t need to do the government’s dirty work for it. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that smear is going to start making the rounds in a day or two. Some USAF psychiatrist is probably doctoring a psych evaluation right now to make the case. The “He must have been mentally ill to do such a thing to himself” idea is already in circulation; a statement that allows cowards to look away and shrug Aaron Bushnell off as 1) crazy and 2) an unfortunate victim of said craziness. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS. JUST KEEP MOVING ALONG.
He's fine, like him a lot, and your right he's very knowledgeable. I left his site because I can pick him up on any number of shows on the computer on one topic or another and just got his book on AIPAC. I like a site with more personal interaction then hanging with what sound like a bunch of lawyers. Maybe just me.
Kudjoe some cops are bad, but not most. They get really bad press, and the US press has latched on to portraying them as all bad, not true. Not fair either. You have bad teachers, bad doctors and they kill people too and hundreds of thousands die in our nursing homes from lack hygiene lack of care, etc, etc, Lots of bad going around, but good too.
The only thing more irrational than a guy that would set himself on fire is a guy that is feeling the pain of being on fire. At that point, the soldier had no control over his thinking or his actions.
The cop was probably afraid the guy on fire would run at him and try to grab him the way a drowning swimmer grabs their rescuer and pulls them both under the water.
I didn't watch the video and I am not going to watch the video, but I bet the cop seeing that happen directly in front of him was probably a combination of shock and horror.
“… Spotlight uncovered that in Massachusetts, between 2005 and 2015, more than 40 percent of people killed by police were suicidal or showing clear signs of mental illness. One third of all police shootings, about 165 fatal and nonfatal incidents, involved an apparent mental health crisis. At least seven of the 55 people with mental illness shot by police were deemed by the investigation to have committed suicide by cop, meaning provoked police to shoot them with the goal of being killed. In most cases, the families of the victims called the cops themselves. In 10 cases, police were responding to a 911 call by someone whose family member or friend was threatening or attempting suicide, because they had nowhere else to turn.….”
Sure you start to grasp the problem. The country and the people are freaking obsessed with guns. These idiots are given a gun and licence to shoot it - and it is ALL they think about in every interaction. The gun. The gun the gun.
That’s it is for the police. That’s how it is for the infantry men they send abroad. That’s how it was for those pilots that Assange revealed to be murdering civilians with air fire, for no good reason whatsoever. That’s how it is for Blinken, Nuland, Biden: the gun, the gun, the gun - they just only want to use the gun they have command of. Actual thinking or diplomacy does not exist, only the gun.
Part of the issue is the police departments' habit of giving hiring preference to front-line vets. They get a few afternoon sessions on conflict resolution, but under stress their four year-plus training and experience in meeting threat with overwhelming aggression will come out.
I remember the monks who set themselves on fire in Vietnam. We all know how long that conflict went on. I hope this one is over as fast as possible so we don't witness more of these kinds of protests. But Caitlin is so right--we are serious. This isn't "brunch". #FreePalestine
There used to be a saying that if everyone refused to join the military, there would be nobody to fight the wars for those who wanted war, the rich aka the elite. It is horrible beyond belief that someone would be so broken by what their country requires of them, i.e. be part of a genocide, that they would set themselves on fire.
It would be good if it were that simple, but Russia (convicts / mercenaries) and Ukraine (grab young people off the street and throw them in the Scooby van) show that's not the way it works. If the rich want the poor children of the country to fight, they will fight. Nepo babies will be excluded of course and everyone else will not get a choice.
There’s practically a news blackout on this. I never heard of the previous incident in Atlanta. Keep pushing! Keep pushing! Expose the fraud! Expose the lies! We cannot allow this man’s sacrifice to be covered up!
During the Vietnam war, a buddy watched a Buddhist monk set himself on fire to protest the war. "It was the most amazing thing I ever saw," my friend said, "the guy never made a sound." US military leaders missed the message entirely. They put their faith in howitzers instead of ideas. But as Stalin said, "Ideas are more powerful than guns." Gaza genocide is now generating new ideas, new forms of understanding, but our political and military elite remain as oblivious as they were during Vietnam and Afghanistan. No surprise that sandal-wearing peasants using hand-down AK47s push us out of one colonialist mistake after another. Soldiers who believe in what they are doing prevail in the end.
The problem with your analogy is that the Palestinians are not soldiers. Aside from the infiltration by Hamas, the Palestinians are unarmed civilians facing slaughter with no way of defending themselves.
Me? I agree with the Chinese view of the situation. The Palestinians absolutely, positively have the right to make a war of liberation against their oppressors. No thinking adult (who isn’t a Zionist) would disagree with that position. No person who grew up in the West would deny that the Palestinians have a right to be free of an oppressive and coercive regime that denies them basic human and civil rights, and which subjects them to unprecedented levels of violence and political terror. The United States waged a war of liberation because we didn’t want to be taxed. How many hundreds of thousands of dead and missing reasons for a war of liberation do the Palestinians have?
Well-said. As to soldiers, Hamas and Hezbollah are gutsy guerilla fighters who aren't afraid to take on the combined might of Israel and the US. The IDF clearly views unarmed women and children as "soldiers." It is, in fact, written Israeli war doctrine to initially target civilian populations and civilian infrastructure. Those were precisely the tactics used by the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front during WWII. In both cases, it results in fierce blowback from guerilla cadres. Attacks from Hezbollah during the 2008 Lebanon war drove the IDF back to Israel. It also taught guerillas how to disable Israel's Merkava tank, toted as the best tank in the world. That knowledge is being put into play by Hamas in Gaza. The Israelis say they've lost 50 tanks. Given that lying is national policy, they have lost many more than 50. In any case, this is OUR war. WE are the real culprits. The war criminals in the Biden administration and our military are entirely responsible for the slaughter.
Black Swans rather than chickens. Far less common. Far more dangerous. My career blended commercial fishing in Alaska with engineering contracts in the computer industry. I witnessed "unexpected" catastrophes in both. Managerial types, including politicians, NEVER properly assess the risk of blowback and system collapse. Take a look at the defense "advisors" guiding the foolish policies of the bumbling, stumbling buffoon in the White House. Not ONE has worn a uniform or been in combat. Their worldview is based on classes they took at an Ivy League school, not on personal experience. In what industry would that be tolerated?
Your response would give me hope if the situation was not so dire. Take out as many tanks as you like, death rains from the skies, and the sky over Gaza is undefended.
The Zionists learned everything they know about war from the Nazis. Like the Nazis they also kill every Palestinian with a university degree, or murder anyone who might prove to be a leader - the Einsatzgruppen were tasked with the same instructions during the invasion of Poland. The Nazis and the Zionists will forever be permanently linked in my mind. There is nothing to distinguish them, one from the other. Both murder, destroy, and savagely wipe out civilian populations in their quest for Lebensraum. One was the Master Race; the other is the Chosen People. Chosen by the angry, bitchy, tyrannical temper tantrum they created in their image and likeness.
100% correct and surgically accurate. Zionist Israelis are a case study in Identification with the Aggressor. I know a fair amount about the tactics of the Waffen SS and the Einsatzgruppen. Their antics in Ukraine set the stage for the current crisis there as well. Sadly, our politicians and military planners distain history, As a consequence, we throw billions at corrupt regimes like Ukraine and racist bullies like the Israelis, thereby setting the stage for the nasty events that lie ahead. America's current leadership void is an incredibly dangerous security threat, both in the Middle East and here at home. I've never seen anything like it in my life.
Israel is a pariah state, whether the ruling class and the American Israel first lobby has awoken to that fact yet. Sometimes the truth takes a while to sink in but sink in it will.
A pariah state that is conducting a Nazi like genocide, including summary executions of civilians, barbarous torture, and starvation.
And we have a corporate, billionaire owned main stream media and a government doing its best to justify and normalize it. I don't think its completely sunk in with myself - the horror of it all.
I do believe we are all capable of it - including murder or self-murder. The rage can be really alarming at times, so strong, you become alienated from yourself.
Carl Jung once said a neurosis can take complete control of one in great detail. The ego is in far less control of the psyche than it assumes.
Not surprising since many Americans supported Hitler’s eugenics program. And I wonder if American businesses hadn’t supported Hitler and helped fund his campaign if the 2nd world war would have happened?
I've thought that myself at times. Good take. You would think, after decades now of a review of the Holocaust - enough people, or at least the leaders of countries, would have risen above the level of allowing a genocide or aiding in one - yet again.
But here we are - with Biden, Blinken and Nulen. And we even have Trump bleating he will support this sadistic Zionist state ...
"Hitler’s eugenics program" - as I understand it's not a German invention per se, rather they picked it up from others: English? French? Their own German "research"? Or some other combined "enlightened European" idea.
Of course, it suited Nazism perfectly. Nazism as a definition can backdate many others' behaviors.
It's sunday night, when I normally limit myself to maximum one drink before bed - but tonight it's going to be one more for this fella, and a few (ok maybe many) more to dim all this fucked up shit out so I can fall asleep and face it all again in the morning.
It's gotten pretty bad these last few decades. Apparently helping homeless people is a crime in America. Wanting Universal Health Care - that is enjoyed in every other advanced country in the world - is asking for a handout. Asking that the rich pay their fair share of taxes - means you're pro-government! The list goes on and on.
And now we have a literal Nazi like genocide and obvious ongoing torture of thousands of Palestinian prisoners including summary execution - and the world just talks about it, while a senile US president who should be nowhere near the nuclear button, tells us he cares and wants to do more to help the Gazans - while at the same time supplying the 2000 pound bombs to Israel and whatever else the fuck these sadist, savages want. It's a real fucked up world for sure.
Does any of it make any sense? Why do we even exist at all? For this??
Social Security could have been fixed back in the Obama years simply by removing the income cap. The wealthy pay SS on only the first $168,000 of income, nothing is taken out after that limit. Of course our "great liberal hope" made absolutely no move in that direction, even with control over both the Executive and Legislative branches, since the Party's corporate donors would be unhappy.
Fixing Social Security is easy. Medicare is what is going to sink us. We are not getting any younger or healthier. And Pharma execs gotta make the payments on their beach houses somehow.
Have faith, Gregory. Humans are the cause of all our problems and suffering. They are also the solution. Try and spend more time outdoors and away from your screens. Animals are a good source of happiness.
My God, most of us like posts or pass comments on little seen blogs, in the greater scheme, and yet there are people so disturbed by what they see they would go through the horror of setting themselves on fire in protest. No doubt the MSM will ignore it.
Unjust States of Amerikkka (USA) cops are trained to act before thinking. Act 1 is always draw gun; Act 2 is always to shout "Gun, gun, gun"; Act 3 is always to shout "Get on your stomach on the ground"; Act 4 is always to aim at the target's back regardless of whether the target is actually armed and poses a threat; Act 5 is always to shout "Don't fucking move or I'll fucking blow your fucking head off!"; Act 6 is always to pull the trigger as many times as there are bullets in the magazine while shouting "I fucking warned you asshole!" ; and Act 7 is always to exhale heavily while saying to a shell-shocked colleague "Did you fucking see that? I'm fucking lucky to be alive, but fucking praise God, at least she's not". That's the 7-Mountain Principle of Amerikkkan Police Thought Preparation.
When it turns out this guy has nothing to do with the military, I'm going to laugh my ass off.
In any case, the headline is bullshit. What's happening in that part of the world is horrible, but fuck you for trying to tar all Americans with the same stupid "it's bad on purpose to make you click" brush.
This conflict deserves better than your Buzzfeed level horseshit.
"When it turns out this guy has nothing to do with the military, I'm going to laugh my ass off." - cowardly as you didn't offer what you'd do in case he does.
"Law enforcement responded, putting out the fire with three fire extinguishers. Law enforcement also drew a gun on the burning man during the incident, while he was screaming in pain. After emergency services transported the man to a hospital, authorities searched the area around the embassy. The Metropolitan Police Department responded and sent its Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to the scene to search a nearby car; nothing was found in it. Bushnell’s current status is unknown."
(2) Do a search on "man burning israeli embassy" - and you will see multiple corroborating pieces of evidence that supports Caitlin Johnstone's article.
(3) Maybe let a little time pass, do your own research on the topic, and verify your own information and opinions before accusing others and commenting?
Yeah except it didn't turn out that way. I agree, the conflict deserves better than the kind of horseshit you're pedaling. And it isn't a "conflict" at all - it's a massacre of unarmed children and the elderly, by a bunch of sadist pussies who wouldn't know how to fight a real war if it hit them in the ass.
War will not end until we all come together, black, white, red, blue, Israeli and Palestine and recognise the true enemy, the CIA Pharma Military Industrial Complex. We need to all refuse to fight. Refuse to join. Refuse to die for their profit.
And then there are the twisted ideologies, like Zionism, that are also part of the problem. However evil big pharma is, and it is extremely evil, it isn't responsible for the ethnic and religious chauvinism that characterizes Zionism. Just as an example. And sadly, people are wedded to their ideologies.
Yeah, fully agreed. That's one of the key points, that is for the common people to refuse to fight and sacrifice ourselves for the ruling class' harmful and destructive agendas.
It's very simple to solve if you wanted to. Close all the military bases, bring all the troops home. Close the CIA. Close the "Diplomatic Immunity" loophole and voila. Peace at last and politicians we can lock up when they turn mental. And I just saw a flying pig.
Iwas wondering how much of the missing military triĺlions is payments to other countries for them to allow our bases on their land. 🤔
You just saw a flying pig Robert? You mean you just got to attend a Roger Waters concert? You lucky bastard.
I am luckily slightly too young to have been there, more Rage Against the Machine, Orbital and Underworld for me...
Close all the bio labs world wide. Raze the Health agencies and start over from Brick One. Make debate Great Again. Overturn the Prep Act and The Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
You mean qualified immunity?
Yes, no immunity for any politician and NGO. Scum like the WHO are above the law. There is currently no court in the world you can take them to no matter how many people they kill.
Their acronym is wef, backwards spells few, and that is not by “chance.“
Here some more on Gaza
https://mywisdom.substack.com/p/from-gaza-the-spark-which-brought
The army mutinied in 1918 Germany. Might happen again soon in Ukraine.
I contend that in the age of autonomous killer drones and remote controlled smart bombs simply refusing to fight as citizens is not enough to end the mass murder for profit and eugenics that is the war racket.
In order to cripple and starve the military industrial complex we have to dissolve all involuntary governance structures (which includes "democracies") as government sanctified theft ("taxation") is the main source of funding for these murderous campaigns and as technology advances, they will be able to continue to kill and oppress people in far away lands using our tax dollars whether or not most people are are willing to pick up a gun.
That is why I advocate for the abolishment of all forms of government that use violent coercion.
More on the age old racket of War and the true nature of involuntary governance structures here:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/lest-we-forget-war-is-still-a-racket
Amen, boycott the Military Meat Grinder !!!!
Unfortunately, all coming together will never happen.
I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised. So far the psychological divide and constant brainwashing seems to be working remarkably well but the Covid pandemic is waking up the useless eaters. The peasants are revolting.
Yes...revolting is a good thing.
American's came together strongly after 9/11. That got us the War on Terror, the Patriot Act, the invasion of Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq which spawned the creation of ISIS.
Ok, maybe that's not the example you were looking for.
I sure as hell didn't "come together" with anyone after 9/11, except perhaps Ward Churchill in Boulder, who was crucified in the media. At most I was indifferent. And what happened didn't surprise me at all.
Keep it going. What do we have now thanks to a stolen Election? We have
O behind Dementia JOE running things. Putin just came out with a message.
JOEBAMA keeps poking the Bear. You can take it from there.
Such has happened many times in history. A number in my lifetime. People get fed up and BOOM.
When did you see this happening? I know eventually something will happen in our Country. I just read that JOE is signaling Congress for the Big Bucks again. What a joke and farce. I just read a person talking about her recent trip to Ukraine. The
US is being fed a bunch of lies. Well, would we expect anything less!
The breakup of the USSR. Romania shooting Ceaușescu. Havel revolution in Czech Republic. Tunisia. Egypt. American Revolution and Civil war. French Revolution. Russian Revolution. 1918 overthrow of Kaiser. Oliver Cromwell.
And so forth.
Thanks for explaining. My Husband was born in Budapest, Hungary. He and his Mother came to US and became citizens. He said USSR occupied Hungary for 45 years. The US was coming, but never showed up. But, US sure showed up for that phony of a war in Ukraine. My
Husband said Ukraine was never nice to Hungary. But, Victor Orban was good enough
to take in many Ukrainian people. He's never given credit for that happening.
Yes you nailed it - cop pointing a gun, presumably as a threat to……shoot him to death….unless he stopped commuting suicide?
That indeed says it all about US cops and the US as a country: mentally incapable of comprehending reality, let alone responding to in any human manner.
That’s how you get to the point where they shovel money and free weapons at the Israeli’s committing genocide for them - while at home MILLIONS of their own people are starving and homeless. And an estimated 60 percent of those shot dead by police in the US each year, are people with mental illness problems - in short people who need help and humanity, not bullets to their heads.
A very sick place.
There is a reason why American cops are trained by Israel. They are trained to see the public as the enemy.
Maybe it’s all our endless wars abroad that have made too many Americans become so insensitive to violence against others. And maybe it’s the reason why America is steeped in violence and there are so many mass shootings.
A very sick country indeed.
I’m saddened to say I agree with you. I’m not very proud of my country right now, with all its interventionist wars and this horrific genocide going on in Gaza with the full support of my government. I don’t want to sing the national anthem and I don’t want to say the pledge of allegiance with my hand over my heart b/c it makes me feel like I’m agreeing with the complicity of my country in this genocide. I feel like I’ve been lied to most of my life about what this government has been doing for decades. It’s frightening.
I live in the US and that really is weird for a cop to be pointing a gun at a man who set himself ablaze, and no doubt is mentally ill. On another site, Mersheimer, a man who sounded like a troll was listing all the horrible things Hamas did, burning babies, raping women, cutting off women's breasts, all of which has not been shown to be true, and he used those lies to justify all of Israel's carnage, and not a word of empathy for all those who died in Gaza, and will die. His name was Richard so I called him genocide dick when he just got to be too much. I think he was a troll, not sure, but I gave it right back. Their total one sided perspective makes them come across as scary because it is so devoid of feelings for the other. His message was no Palestinian life matters.
Fran, let’s hold off on the judgement that Aaron Bushnell was “…no doubt mentally ill.” You don’t need to do the government’s dirty work for it. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that smear is going to start making the rounds in a day or two. Some USAF psychiatrist is probably doctoring a psych evaluation right now to make the case. The “He must have been mentally ill to do such a thing to himself” idea is already in circulation; a statement that allows cowards to look away and shrug Aaron Bushnell off as 1) crazy and 2) an unfortunate victim of said craziness. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS. JUST KEEP MOVING ALONG.
The real Professor John Mearsheimer is a hero (on both Ukraine and Gaza):
https://mearsheimer.substack.com
He's fine, like him a lot, and your right he's very knowledgeable. I left his site because I can pick him up on any number of shows on the computer on one topic or another and just got his book on AIPAC. I like a site with more personal interaction then hanging with what sound like a bunch of lawyers. Maybe just me.
Bravo Fran for giving it right back to that TROLL. Some people have no soul.😢🙏
Thanks Sylvvia. You meet all kinds on these sites.
Kudjoe some cops are bad, but not most. They get really bad press, and the US press has latched on to portraying them as all bad, not true. Not fair either. You have bad teachers, bad doctors and they kill people too and hundreds of thousands die in our nursing homes from lack hygiene lack of care, etc, etc, Lots of bad going around, but good too.
The only thing more irrational than a guy that would set himself on fire is a guy that is feeling the pain of being on fire. At that point, the soldier had no control over his thinking or his actions.
The cop was probably afraid the guy on fire would run at him and try to grab him the way a drowning swimmer grabs their rescuer and pulls them both under the water.
I didn't watch the video and I am not going to watch the video, but I bet the cop seeing that happen directly in front of him was probably a combination of shock and horror.
You didn’t watch the video and are just making up fairytale scenarios. The cop pulled a gun on him and was going to shoot him.
Yes they are dumb:
https://www.kqed.org/news/147854/half-of-those-killed-by-san-francisco-police-are-mentally-ill
https://www.govtech.com/em/why-the-mentally-ill-are-most-often-injured-by-police
Really dumb enough to even kill suicidal people:
https://www.vera.org/news/shining-a-spotlight-on-mental-health-and-police-shootings
“… Spotlight uncovered that in Massachusetts, between 2005 and 2015, more than 40 percent of people killed by police were suicidal or showing clear signs of mental illness. One third of all police shootings, about 165 fatal and nonfatal incidents, involved an apparent mental health crisis. At least seven of the 55 people with mental illness shot by police were deemed by the investigation to have committed suicide by cop, meaning provoked police to shoot them with the goal of being killed. In most cases, the families of the victims called the cops themselves. In 10 cases, police were responding to a 911 call by someone whose family member or friend was threatening or attempting suicide, because they had nowhere else to turn.….”
Sure you start to grasp the problem. The country and the people are freaking obsessed with guns. These idiots are given a gun and licence to shoot it - and it is ALL they think about in every interaction. The gun. The gun the gun.
That’s it is for the police. That’s how it is for the infantry men they send abroad. That’s how it was for those pilots that Assange revealed to be murdering civilians with air fire, for no good reason whatsoever. That’s how it is for Blinken, Nuland, Biden: the gun, the gun, the gun - they just only want to use the gun they have command of. Actual thinking or diplomacy does not exist, only the gun.
As I said, a very sick place.
Part of the issue is the police departments' habit of giving hiring preference to front-line vets. They get a few afternoon sessions on conflict resolution, but under stress their four year-plus training and experience in meeting threat with overwhelming aggression will come out.
Escalation is a staple of US law enforcement.
It’s a police state.
Cop/soldier worship is pushed, HARD.
But, the cops are hated/feared by the rank and file, for their gestapo tactics.
Largest prison population, per capita, and in whole numbers, on earth.
And, the US jails folks all over the globe, practically.
Lotsa guns in the US.
Lotsa pissed off people.
A presidential election looming?
Shit’s gonna get interesting.
Trump’s cops were assassins.
Same guys work for Biden.
How do you spell fucked?
If you ain’t acquainted, at least somewhat intimately, with the US criminal injustice system, you ain’t got a clue.
That pig with the pistol, he’s no outlier.
Let me take you on a tour of Wisconsin, or Minnesota Nice, home of George Floyd, and show you around.
You gotta see this shit live.
A video don’t cut it.
Totally fucked up country.
Sure has rotted out from the inside in seventy years.
R.I.P. - Aaron Bushnell
Mike Fish - another beautifully worded comment. Thank you.
Thank you.
Can’t let this kid’s sacrifice go for naught.
I can’t!
May Lord have mercy on his soul. Aameen.
Your words cut deep through the heart, but it must bleed in order to feel and cry out for the injustices done to fellow humans
It happens all over the fucking country.
Especially with military vets, in and out of the military.
It was on video Mike. You aren’t required to believe or disbelieve an actual recorded event.
Not in my EXPERIENCE.
I remember the monks who set themselves on fire in Vietnam. We all know how long that conflict went on. I hope this one is over as fast as possible so we don't witness more of these kinds of protests. But Caitlin is so right--we are serious. This isn't "brunch". #FreePalestine
Yes, that is the first thing that came to mind.
This is so sad. And so powerful.
Powerful yes absolutely, sad we're not worthy to judge
go burn yourself show us how it's done. As Caitlin pointed out, none of you gutless swine are going to do anything approaching this.
Fuck off you sad piece of shit
This MacGuffin is a Zionist troll and a total shit-smear. Ignore his sorry loser ass. In fact, block him.
Fuck you
There used to be a saying that if everyone refused to join the military, there would be nobody to fight the wars for those who wanted war, the rich aka the elite. It is horrible beyond belief that someone would be so broken by what their country requires of them, i.e. be part of a genocide, that they would set themselves on fire.
No he's working fine it's everyone else that's broken
US military personnel commit suicide everyday, after they wake up and see through the illusion they signed up for.
War is a racket by general smedley d butler short and some interesting thoughts and methods to resolve
It would be good if it were that simple, but Russia (convicts / mercenaries) and Ukraine (grab young people off the street and throw them in the Scooby van) show that's not the way it works. If the rich want the poor children of the country to fight, they will fight. Nepo babies will be excluded of course and everyone else will not get a choice.
It takes a lot of courage and belief that war is wrong to go to jail rather than fight.
There’s practically a news blackout on this. I never heard of the previous incident in Atlanta. Keep pushing! Keep pushing! Expose the fraud! Expose the lies! We cannot allow this man’s sacrifice to be covered up!
People that think this funny are the reason I hate people.
Some horrible person on Reddit wrote: Another day, another album cover”. Goddamn him to hell!
During the Vietnam war, a buddy watched a Buddhist monk set himself on fire to protest the war. "It was the most amazing thing I ever saw," my friend said, "the guy never made a sound." US military leaders missed the message entirely. They put their faith in howitzers instead of ideas. But as Stalin said, "Ideas are more powerful than guns." Gaza genocide is now generating new ideas, new forms of understanding, but our political and military elite remain as oblivious as they were during Vietnam and Afghanistan. No surprise that sandal-wearing peasants using hand-down AK47s push us out of one colonialist mistake after another. Soldiers who believe in what they are doing prevail in the end.
The problem with your analogy is that the Palestinians are not soldiers. Aside from the infiltration by Hamas, the Palestinians are unarmed civilians facing slaughter with no way of defending themselves.
Me? I agree with the Chinese view of the situation. The Palestinians absolutely, positively have the right to make a war of liberation against their oppressors. No thinking adult (who isn’t a Zionist) would disagree with that position. No person who grew up in the West would deny that the Palestinians have a right to be free of an oppressive and coercive regime that denies them basic human and civil rights, and which subjects them to unprecedented levels of violence and political terror. The United States waged a war of liberation because we didn’t want to be taxed. How many hundreds of thousands of dead and missing reasons for a war of liberation do the Palestinians have?
Well-said. As to soldiers, Hamas and Hezbollah are gutsy guerilla fighters who aren't afraid to take on the combined might of Israel and the US. The IDF clearly views unarmed women and children as "soldiers." It is, in fact, written Israeli war doctrine to initially target civilian populations and civilian infrastructure. Those were precisely the tactics used by the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front during WWII. In both cases, it results in fierce blowback from guerilla cadres. Attacks from Hezbollah during the 2008 Lebanon war drove the IDF back to Israel. It also taught guerillas how to disable Israel's Merkava tank, toted as the best tank in the world. That knowledge is being put into play by Hamas in Gaza. The Israelis say they've lost 50 tanks. Given that lying is national policy, they have lost many more than 50. In any case, this is OUR war. WE are the real culprits. The war criminals in the Biden administration and our military are entirely responsible for the slaughter.
I fear all of our chickens are coming home to roost in my lifetime.
Black Swans rather than chickens. Far less common. Far more dangerous. My career blended commercial fishing in Alaska with engineering contracts in the computer industry. I witnessed "unexpected" catastrophes in both. Managerial types, including politicians, NEVER properly assess the risk of blowback and system collapse. Take a look at the defense "advisors" guiding the foolish policies of the bumbling, stumbling buffoon in the White House. Not ONE has worn a uniform or been in combat. Their worldview is based on classes they took at an Ivy League school, not on personal experience. In what industry would that be tolerated?
Your response would give me hope if the situation was not so dire. Take out as many tanks as you like, death rains from the skies, and the sky over Gaza is undefended.
The Zionists learned everything they know about war from the Nazis. Like the Nazis they also kill every Palestinian with a university degree, or murder anyone who might prove to be a leader - the Einsatzgruppen were tasked with the same instructions during the invasion of Poland. The Nazis and the Zionists will forever be permanently linked in my mind. There is nothing to distinguish them, one from the other. Both murder, destroy, and savagely wipe out civilian populations in their quest for Lebensraum. One was the Master Race; the other is the Chosen People. Chosen by the angry, bitchy, tyrannical temper tantrum they created in their image and likeness.
100% correct and surgically accurate. Zionist Israelis are a case study in Identification with the Aggressor. I know a fair amount about the tactics of the Waffen SS and the Einsatzgruppen. Their antics in Ukraine set the stage for the current crisis there as well. Sadly, our politicians and military planners distain history, As a consequence, we throw billions at corrupt regimes like Ukraine and racist bullies like the Israelis, thereby setting the stage for the nasty events that lie ahead. America's current leadership void is an incredibly dangerous security threat, both in the Middle East and here at home. I've never seen anything like it in my life.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein
Israel is a pariah state, whether the ruling class and the American Israel first lobby has awoken to that fact yet. Sometimes the truth takes a while to sink in but sink in it will.
A pariah state that is conducting a Nazi like genocide, including summary executions of civilians, barbarous torture, and starvation.
And we have a corporate, billionaire owned main stream media and a government doing its best to justify and normalize it. I don't think its completely sunk in with myself - the horror of it all.
If I let it in I might follow that man.
I do believe we are all capable of it - including murder or self-murder. The rage can be really alarming at times, so strong, you become alienated from yourself.
Carl Jung once said a neurosis can take complete control of one in great detail. The ego is in far less control of the psyche than it assumes.
Not surprising since many Americans supported Hitler’s eugenics program. And I wonder if American businesses hadn’t supported Hitler and helped fund his campaign if the 2nd world war would have happened?
I've thought that myself at times. Good take. You would think, after decades now of a review of the Holocaust - enough people, or at least the leaders of countries, would have risen above the level of allowing a genocide or aiding in one - yet again.
But here we are - with Biden, Blinken and Nulen. And we even have Trump bleating he will support this sadistic Zionist state ...
"Hitler’s eugenics program" - as I understand it's not a German invention per se, rather they picked it up from others: English? French? Their own German "research"? Or some other combined "enlightened European" idea.
Of course, it suited Nazism perfectly. Nazism as a definition can backdate many others' behaviors.
It's sunday night, when I normally limit myself to maximum one drink before bed - but tonight it's going to be one more for this fella, and a few (ok maybe many) more to dim all this fucked up shit out so I can fall asleep and face it all again in the morning.
I hear you. Man. :(
I hate this world so much.
It's gotten pretty bad these last few decades. Apparently helping homeless people is a crime in America. Wanting Universal Health Care - that is enjoyed in every other advanced country in the world - is asking for a handout. Asking that the rich pay their fair share of taxes - means you're pro-government! The list goes on and on.
And now we have a literal Nazi like genocide and obvious ongoing torture of thousands of Palestinian prisoners including summary execution - and the world just talks about it, while a senile US president who should be nowhere near the nuclear button, tells us he cares and wants to do more to help the Gazans - while at the same time supplying the 2000 pound bombs to Israel and whatever else the fuck these sadist, savages want. It's a real fucked up world for sure.
Does any of it make any sense? Why do we even exist at all? For this??
Yup. They are now calling Social Security "welfare" that will be bankrupt in less than 7 years, so order order your cat food now.
Ever buy cat food? That shit's expensive!
Social Security could have been fixed back in the Obama years simply by removing the income cap. The wealthy pay SS on only the first $168,000 of income, nothing is taken out after that limit. Of course our "great liberal hope" made absolutely no move in that direction, even with control over both the Executive and Legislative branches, since the Party's corporate donors would be unhappy.
Fixing Social Security is easy. Medicare is what is going to sink us. We are not getting any younger or healthier. And Pharma execs gotta make the payments on their beach houses somehow.
No, I have a dog and can't afford his food!
Cat food is more expensive than tuna.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated DON'T GIVE WAY TO HATING ...
This comes to mind frequently these days.
Beautiful - thank you.
You and me both.
That means propaganda bullshit, like this inexplicable glorification of violence, is working.
Have faith, Gregory. Humans are the cause of all our problems and suffering. They are also the solution. Try and spend more time outdoors and away from your screens. Animals are a good source of happiness.
Hate isn’t going to improve this human condition.
My God, most of us like posts or pass comments on little seen blogs, in the greater scheme, and yet there are people so disturbed by what they see they would go through the horror of setting themselves on fire in protest. No doubt the MSM will ignore it.
Huffpoo reported it, but their top story is about Trump. Of course.
I remember when the media sighed because he was leaving office and they wouldn’t have to cover him anymore….that might have lasted a week.
Read an article on Fox News so definitely not being ignored
were they giggling about it too?
Probably I know I was lol
Not funny. Not in the least.
By all the gods above, below, and in between, what the frack was that cop thinking?
Unjust States of Amerikkka (USA) cops are trained to act before thinking. Act 1 is always draw gun; Act 2 is always to shout "Gun, gun, gun"; Act 3 is always to shout "Get on your stomach on the ground"; Act 4 is always to aim at the target's back regardless of whether the target is actually armed and poses a threat; Act 5 is always to shout "Don't fucking move or I'll fucking blow your fucking head off!"; Act 6 is always to pull the trigger as many times as there are bullets in the magazine while shouting "I fucking warned you asshole!" ; and Act 7 is always to exhale heavily while saying to a shell-shocked colleague "Did you fucking see that? I'm fucking lucky to be alive, but fucking praise God, at least she's not". That's the 7-Mountain Principle of Amerikkkan Police Thought Preparation.
And were their flies unzipped? I thought that’s your primary focus.
Quite possibly nothing. Or "threat!!!".
I am unable to function if I think too much about Gaza.
This harrowing piece by Caitlin is brilliant.
When it turns out this guy has nothing to do with the military, I'm going to laugh my ass off.
In any case, the headline is bullshit. What's happening in that part of the world is horrible, but fuck you for trying to tar all Americans with the same stupid "it's bad on purpose to make you click" brush.
This conflict deserves better than your Buzzfeed level horseshit.
He was an active duty member of the US air force. Maybe your worldview is just dogshit.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/who-is-aaron-bushnell-us-air-force-member-sets-himself-on-fire-outside-israeli-embassy-in-washington/articleshow/107994857.cms?from=mdr
In a close election the dogshit vote can hurt you.
"When it turns out this guy has nothing to do with the military, I'm going to laugh my ass off." - cowardly as you didn't offer what you'd do in case he does.
Presumably his ass will remain pelvicly attached.
Phisto Sobanii, might I offer you some data to correct your perspective?
Data:
(1) Active-duty airman set himself on fire in front of Israeli embassy (https://taskandpurpose.com/news/man-sets-self-fire-israeli-embassy-air-force/)
"Law enforcement responded, putting out the fire with three fire extinguishers. Law enforcement also drew a gun on the burning man during the incident, while he was screaming in pain. After emergency services transported the man to a hospital, authorities searched the area around the embassy. The Metropolitan Police Department responded and sent its Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to the scene to search a nearby car; nothing was found in it. Bushnell’s current status is unknown."
(2) Do a search on "man burning israeli embassy" - and you will see multiple corroborating pieces of evidence that supports Caitlin Johnstone's article.
(3) Maybe let a little time pass, do your own research on the topic, and verify your own information and opinions before accusing others and commenting?
Yeah except it didn't turn out that way. I agree, the conflict deserves better than the kind of horseshit you're pedaling. And it isn't a "conflict" at all - it's a massacre of unarmed children and the elderly, by a bunch of sadist pussies who wouldn't know how to fight a real war if it hit them in the ass.
You mean a US president supporting genocide doesn't bother you?
And someone burning themselves alive is a bullshit headline?
WTF?