There Is No Explanation

 An active duty Air Force guy self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C, on February 25th. He sent out a bunch of statements on social media about his forthcoming suicide, then live-streamed it. According to the New York Times:

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” a man says in the video, echoing language that opponents of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza have used to describe the war. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all.”  

Standing in front of the gates of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he sets his phone down to douse himself in a clear liquid from a metal bottle. He then lights himself on fire while yelling, “Free Palestine!” until he falls to the ground.

I cannot fathom why anyone one in their right mind would think this kind of martyrdom is useful. His death is basically meaningless in that he dies; he can no longer fight for his cause. America is fickle on a good day, callously uninterested on most days, so after the initial news report, no one cares. 

The guy self-identifies on the video as Aaron Bushnell, 25, of San Antonio. Was he Muslim? Did he have family or other close ties to Gaza? If he's military, how does he not know martyrdom by suicide is basically pointless here? I'm not suggesting that he was not passionate about what was happening in Gaza. Clearly he was, but he was an American! How could he not know this is the home of the free to be apathetic? Did he think committing suicide while live streaming would actually change minds? 

Lots of us remember the days of self-immolating Buddhist monks during the Vietnam War era. And I remember asking my Dad about it. I'd seen photographs of burning monks and honestly? They terrified me. My dad explained that these people believed that sacrificing their lives in that way would help to bring about the end of the war. I asked how that would happen, hoping to find something I could latch onto. His answer, however, was less than satisfying. He said, "I don't know."

The horror experienced while watching his live stream (which has now been scrubbed from the internet) only lasts a few minutes. You can't unsee it. But we also know you can't unsee people being hunted in their houses and the streets by terrorists who live stream that. The difference is one is voluntary; the other is murder in cold blood. I get that it's a protest. I just can't see why anyone would think it would be useful.

But then again, useful isn't always very dramatic and clearly he was going for drama. Y'know, that's a shortcut. We know what he said in his posts, but do we really know what he was thinking? I don't have to agree with his opinions or his passion to say if you wanna make a difference, you have to work at it. In Mr. Bushnell's case, it's Poof! He's gone.  Any good he might have done is over. 

Talking to a friend in Israel this morning, I asked about Rafah. Her answer was, frankly, not surprising. "I'm losing my humanity over this." I don't blame her one bit; I know I'm losing mine. Hostages are yet to be released, UNRWA weapons caches are still being uncovered, and Hamas moves its population around their shrinking chessboard as human shields. Does it only stop when everyone is dead except the guys in Qatar?

I keep asking myself, what happens when it is over? Does Hamas rearm and go for round 2? Well, if Hamas is still controlling Gaza, you better believe they will rearm and attack again. 

But where does this leave the Palestinian people? Still starving in squalor because their government will continue to spend all capital on tunnels and arms, never giving their people a thought about an economy to actually have a self-reliant state? Who is responsible for their well-being?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."                                                                  

Rita Mae Brown in Sudden Death (1983)

For over 70 years, the Arab nations have been attacking Israel. Usually with armies, but not this time. The latest attempt to rid Israel of its indigenous inhabitants began on October 7th with an act of terror, not a declaration of war. There was no army involved...only marauders on motorcycles, in trucks, and cars murdering civilians in their homes, in their towns, and at a music festival. Attack, withdraw, repeat. Again and again and again. Insanity, no?

But now, the world says Israel isn't entitled to defend itself and its citizens, that the genocide attempted and failed on October 7th was really Israeli terrorism. That's like saying Ukrainians are terrorists. The difference between Israel and Ukraine is that Israel has been fighting to survive 70+ years. Give the Ukraine a little more time and before you know it, people will be protesting on behalf of the Russians. Wait for it, folks. It's coming. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

The news from North Carolina is curiouser and curiouser. My favorite soon to be ex-congressclown, Jeff Jackson, posted a video about possible tampering with the primaries in his state. Take a moment to listen before you read the rest. 

Remember this name:

And Justice For All PAC. From WRAL News:

As North Carolina’s 2024 primary elections heat up, it appears that at least hundreds of thousands of dollars have begun pouring in to influence some key races on the Democratic side from an unlikely source: Secretive outside groups tied to top Republican leaders. 

The Democratic primary for attorney general pits U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson against Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry and Tim Dunn, a lawyer from Fayetteville.On Friday Jackson accused an outside group — which has been heavily promoting Deberry as the more progressive candidate in the race — of being a fake liberal group that’s actually backed by GOP interests, based on a report by Charlotte public radio station WFAE. 

“It is now on track to spend $1 million just to beat me in the primary,” Jackson said in a social media video Friday. “But here's the kicker: It's funded by the other party. So I'm now running in a primary where the top spender isn't me or my opponent, it's the other party.”  

Jackson, Deberry and Dunn are running to replace Democrat Josh Stein, who’s running for governor to replace term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper, a fellow Democrat. The winner in the Democratic attorney general primary will face Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop in the general election. Bishop is running unopposed. 

Deberry criticized Jackson for attributing the mailers backing her candidacy to a secret GOP operation, noting that there's not currently any indication of who paid for the effort. 

"As any candidate for attorney general should know, it's wildly irresponsible to make assumptions about the source of funding without proof," she said.

There’s no direct proof the group behind the pro-Deberry ads, the And Justice For All PAC, is backed by Republicans. In part that’s because almost nothing is publicly known about it. The group only formed this month and has yet to submit paperwork that could show who’s funding it, or other identifying information. The political action committee’s physical address leads to a mail center in Washington, D.C., and its phone number goes straight to voicemail. The group’s listed contact did not respond to a request for comment. 

But there are some clues about who is behind it.  

The small, niche bank in Virginia it uses was founded by a former Republican U.S. senator and media reports indicate it serves a clientele made up largely of Republican politicians and political groups. The PAC’s ad buyer is Political Communications Advertising, which public records show has worked almost exclusively for Republican clients in the past — mostly the National Republican Congressional Committee, a group run by U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina and a colleague of both Bishop and Jackson in Congress. 

While that PAC is seeking to bolster the more progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for attorney general, a separate dark money group with deep ties to GOP leadership at the state level is taking the opposite tactic.

And you thought Putin was trying to buy elections.

The problem with Jeff Jackson is that he keeps posting these videos about how government really works for transparency's sake. The GOP in NC damn well better be afraid of him if he wins the AG job.

Frankly, I think he should be running for president in 2028.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If an opportunity arises to do something a little different, you should take it. 

Like hosting an impromptu mah jongg game on a Monday 

instead of writing the blog. 

It was more fun than you can possibly imagine...even if I did lose all my quarters.