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Anna Cordelia's avatar

That Aaron Bushnell is being criticized for things like including his pronouns in his message is dwarfed by the enormity of the sacrifice he made.

Bradley/Chelsea Manning doesn't fit "our" narrative very neatly either - does that mean he should be dismissed, despite committing the courageous act that saw him incarcerated and tortured, the act of leaking information about US war crimes in Iraq to Julian Assange?

One of the things I always hated about "The Left" when I was still part of that crowd was that there was always this tacit requirement to be "all in" on everything. Any small slip in your thinking or actions made you a target for not being PC enough. It was asinine.

So I'm not impressed when I hear about people who claim to eschew The Left condemning Aaron Bushnell either. As Craig so lucidly points out, who among us had everything figured out in our mid-20s? I certainly didn't.

Aaron has the heart of a lion - and I use the present tense intentionally, since that is the aspect of Aaron, and each of us, that is immortal. He wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed in - literally stand, in flames, and proclaim "Free Palestine."

I think he changed the world the day he did that. And for that I am eternally grateful.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

The more I think about it, the larger role I believe guilt plays in the reaction against Bushnell. The whole Left/Right dichotomy is already practically meaningless, anyway, but, applied to this incident, it couldn't be more incongruent and useless. That @jjinUK64 guy claimed that people were supporting or opposing his act based on what "team" they were on--like, if you were left wing you were cheering his action because it really stuck it to the right wing. or maybe it was vice versa--who even knows, it's so stupid.

Bushnell's action was exactly what he said it was. It was a big mirror with bright lights and a magnifying glass held up to the face of the American people--the West, but especially to Americans--and he forced us to look. And the reflection is ugly indeed. Our whole people look just like that picture of John Hagee I always post. Indescribably revolting. And all our precious leftists and all our precious rightists screech with rage at the horror he forced us to look at.

I've even come across American pigs who denounce him on the grounds he gave his life for brown people, if that can be believed. Anything, absolutely anything, but acknowledge that he gave his life for us, and most of us are unworthy of it.

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

I get as frustrated as anyone else by the shamefully criminal behaviour of too many Blacks in the US and elsewhere right now - but I constantly remind myself that the conditions that have nurtured that criminality come from outside the Black community.

It's the old Hidden Hand, intentionally getting us all to fight against each other, instead of addressing the root problem - the Jewish Question.

It wasn't lost on me that, in the video of Aaron's immolation, it is what appears to be an Israeli security guard pointing a gun at Aaron, even as he is succumbing to the flames - and it's a Black cop running over to Aaron with a fire extinguisher and calling out desperately for more help.

That moment in time will be forever frozen in my mind.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

So true. "Let's you and him fight." England and Germany. Germany and the US. The US and Russia. Russia and Ukraine. The Persians and the Babylonians.

I used to always notice that; generally, in day-to-day life, blacks and whites get along just fine. Then, every so often, Hollywood puts out another racially inflammatory, Jewish produced movie absolutely calibrated to gin up black hatred of whites and you could feel it in the street. Then the movie fades away and relations return to amicable between whites and blacks, and then along comes another movie.

When your goal is genocide, of course, that's just what you do.

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Aria Veritas's avatar

There are four specific tendencies in the closing of the olde age and the dawn of the new, which are torture, disease, sudden death and GUILT.

So that stands to reason.

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MrsS's avatar

Thank you. I have cried multiple times about what this young man did. I cry because I think it was in vain. I cry because of the reaction to what he did.

I saw today how Representative Cotton is asking the Pentagon to explain how Aaron was allowed in the military. My anger and sadness over how this country behaves is hopefully something more people are feeling. Something has to change. But I have no hope.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

I think Dostoevsky's claim that one memory from childhood may be enough to save someone from evil can be applied to our people, too. Perhaps not to our country, but to our people. And you, MrsS, are like that one memory from childhood. So there is hope.

Tom Cotton is a Christian Zionist, so write him off. He will side with bejamin netanyahu against Aaron Bushnell every time.

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

I'm not sure how to give you hope, MrsS.

But believe me when I say that whenever I see your name pop up in the comments here or elsewhere, I have hope. I have hope because I am reminded that there is a mother with a heart like yours and a mind like yours raising three beautiful children.

That gives me hope.

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MrsS's avatar

Wow. Thank you Anna.

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Feb 29, 2024
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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Unless those lenses prevent us from being able to read The Brothers Karamosov! In the part of the novel I quoted above, notice how Alyosha answers the sudden question: will we all be resurrected one day? Yes, of course, he answers... half laughing and half enthusiastic. Notice the difference between Alyosha's Christianity and John Hagee's. Alyosha's Christianity is loving and kindhearted and concerned for the well-being of the boys and their souls and the lives they will lead. And Alyosha's Christianity is wondering. Life after death is bedrock Christian doctrine, but Dostoevsky has his deeply Christian hero respond to Kolya's question half laughing, as if to say, let's not try to pin that down with too much serious dogma, shall we? Let's leave the unknowable on the table and the mysterious in the mystery of life.

Doestoevsky was deeply, profoundly, and explicitly Christian. He is the only reason I still consider myself more than culturally Christian. Certainly, if the prole John Hagee with his dollar store dogmas and peel-and-stick eternal truths were the highest type of Christian, I never would have retreated from the atheism I adopted as a teen.

And unlike Hagee and the Christian Zionists, who are so confident in their proclamation of God's Word that God Himself can't get a word in edgewise, Dostoevsky wasn't defenseless against the hatred of the Jews. When Lise asks Alyosha (paraphrasing), "Is it true that Jews practice ritual murder of Christian children?" Alyosha answers, profoundly, "I don't know." (https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-oddities-of-the-jewish-religion/) Can you imagine John Hagee or Tom Cotton or anyone within a hundred miles of Washington, DC answering that question so righteously?

This is what makes Dostoevsky, in my opinion, the greatest literary artist of all time, the Brothers Karamazov one of the five greatest novels ever written, and Russians, for having produced him, our natural and permanent allies.

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MrsS's avatar

Thank you. It’s reading these types of things that gives me hope.

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

Hi again MrsS. I don't know if this video will interest you, but I thought of you while I was watching it last night. Perhaps you've already seen it? If you have time to view it (it's 45 minutes long), I think you'll find it really interesting.

In this video, Tucker Carlson interviews a Chinese-American woman named Xi Van Fleet. She is the author of a new book called "Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning." She grew up in Maoist China and remembers going through the Cultural Revolution - and she recognizes that we are going through the same process here and now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIay3uL17Jg

Somehow, Xi reminded me of you. I think she's at least a generation older than you (she's about 63), but I think you will be able to relate to her. (I did!)

A light bulb that came on for me during her interview was when she paraphrased George Orwell from 1984: "Who controls the present controls the past, who controls the past controls the future." The way she contextualized that quote, I found myself truly understanding it for the first time.

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MrsS's avatar

Thank you for thinking of me Anna! I will watch this tonight. It sounds like a great one.

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

80% of the stooges on substack are saying it was a false-flag event done with AI, nobody wants to admit that USA is killing people in GAZA

"Aaron" knew and did the only thing he thought could do that wouldn't hurt other people

https://bilbobitch.substack.com/p/zog-cotton-usa-senator-demands-that

Here's my post on the subject, in this case about "ZOG Cotton" a USA senator calling for all US-MIL too take an oath to Israel or get out of the USA military.

To those that say this was 'fake' I say, look how Israel, Iran, is reacting; Only in the USA are they either silent, or calling it a false flag;

Israel is terrified there will be copy-cats; Iran is saying "Just a case of chickens coming home to Roost"

Reports from friends is that "Aaron" was mad that his air-force team was killing people on the ground in Gaza, they say he had proof, and his friends will be releasing the evidence, obviously this is very embarrassing for US-GOV

...

In the meantime yesterday Israel shoots 1,000 people and kills 120 after it called them out in the open for 'free food' over-head gun-ships slaughtered them, the survivors hid under cars and later they said "Come get your free food" and then they shot even more;

Much of this is done now with robots & drones that are all AI, by the Occulus guy "Lucky Palmer" who took his facebook $3 billion USD and started a company that makes & sells autonmous killing machines to US-MIL; The USA is using GAZAN's for target practice to prove the concept

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Anti Communist's avatar

Uncle A was too nice.

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

The answer to the question is most emphatically - NO

As Deace has pointed out multiple times: in 2022 after years of lockdowns, mandates, etc - incumbents were reelected. Thank you sir, may I have another was the message.

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

Funny how suddenly we get all these ZOG boys ...

Gates, zuckerfucker, musk, lucky-palmer ... that use their billions to make high-tech AI killing machines

they get rich in software, and then go to become trillionaires by getting into the MIL industrial complex, I think this is just a narrative, these poster boys never actually created these CIA-NSA companys, but then later they make weapons to kill ZOG enemys ,...

Who knew

anti-commie always has a hard-on for 'uncle-a', while the rest of us has a hard-on for 'uncle-schmuel'

ZOG brought uncle-A to power and AC can't handle that simple truth; But then ZOG has brought every asshole in history since 1200AD to power;

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Anti Communist's avatar

You are Hasbara. The Tel Aviv accent is apparent.

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

Just for the record uncle-bilbo is an emma-goldman "Communalist' aka anarchist, where she defined 'anarchism' as communalism in its finest form, like having a kibbutz on the moon, 280,000KM from any fucking satanic ZOG government.

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

I didn't say you were hasbara AC, I just say that your re-play of uncle-A whose mother is/was an ashkeNAZI is monotonous;

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Anti Communist's avatar

And your Hasbara talking points, and crassness are standard issue. It's OK, the 4th Reich will have standards, you will not like.

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Satanyahu's avatar

Amen to this article. It's so refreshing to discover an "anti-semitic" site of professional quality now and then. Thankfully they seem to be proliferating. Even informationliberation.com is "anti-semitic" now!

While painfully grateful for every one of Aaron Bushnell's final words and all the passion for righteousness that drove him to end his life, I have to admit it disturbs me he summed up moral courage with those politically correct examples -- slavery, the Jim Crow South and apartheid.

Yes -- "everybody" does nowadays. And it's got to stop.

My boomer generation, Bushnell's and every one in between have grown up on subversive, jew-driven "anti-racist" propaganda, a situation at least equal to any of those things for pure evil. I could write a book about why slavery, Jim Crow and apartheid weren't what people think but don't want to risk seeming arrogant.

One could explore the extent to which white people suffer under slavery, Jim Crow and apartheid today. Alas, millions of them consider it a badge of honor.

Am intrigued at your picture of two linemen kissing -- yeah, I see the fun, apt caption. If by chance you're gay consider it normal, natural and Biblical.

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

I appreciate what you've said here, but especially the comments about Apartheid.

My husband grew up in South Africa. He lived there until he was about 16, when his family immigrated to Australia.

We met after he'd been living in the West for several years, and so he'd learned what to say and what not to say to a young indoctrinated woman like me when we met.

Over the years, he has helped me to understand that the Apartheid system of South Africa was not the evil system it is portrayed to be. Yes, it had its flaws, but it was a form of governance that was trying to be both fair and responsible, and to deal with the realities of the racial differences between South African Blacks and Whites (neither of which is a homogeneous group, as I'm sure you know).

It's not something you can teach people about overnight because the indoctrination runs so deep. But a simple way to look at it is to compare how Blacks were doing under Apartheid, and how they are doing now in the "Rainbow Nation." The answer is stark: everyone was better off under Apartheid.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

In defense of the Rainbow Nation, they and Yemen are the global standouts against the genocide in Gaza. No white-run nation, to the extent there even exists such a thing, has done anything but acquiesce or worse. It's shameful, but true, and I can't help but suspect apartheid SA would have been no better.

If SA can still be considered a Western nation, and I think it can be, even if it's only coasting on fumes, the stark reality is that it is the lone Western nation to defy world Jewry. South Africa is an argument that we will be free of Jewish power when whites are disempowered. Yet another example of what a catastrophe it was for our people when some theologians in the 5th century attached the Old Testament to the New and pronounced them of "equal divine authority." It appears that that blunder will end up destroying us, but that, after all, may be the only way to free us of our enslavement by the Jews.

Food for thought, food for thought.

Anway, I responded earlier to Satanyahu (who I may have knocked off so I can steal his moniker) with a note, but it may be worth re-posting here:

LOL, those two linemen weren’t kissing (though it’s completely fine if they were). One was giving the other mouth-to-mouth to save his life after, I assume, he’d been electrocuted. At least, that’s how I took it. It reminded me of Aaron Bushnell attempting to breath life into our dead or dying civilization. And at enormous personal cost.

Regarding the all-white-on-black examples of national evil he used to communicate the moral lesson, you have to keep in mind that, as a 25-year-old American, those are the only examples of historical evils that he knows. With one exception, which is very, very noticeably absent from his list. He made no mention of what the taxpayer-milking atrocity monkeys at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance call (and I’m not even kidding) “the paradigm genocide.”

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

"In defense of the Rainbow Nation, they and Yemen are the global standouts against the genocide in Gaza. ... It's shameful, but true, and I can't help but suspect apartheid SA would have been no better."

You're absolutely correct to say that Apartheid SA would not have stood up for the Gazans. The old South Africa was very much an ally of Israel.

Which is very interesting in view of how it was Jewish communists who eventually groomed some of the young Black leadership to destroy South Africa.

It's a discussion that is a little beyond the scope of this discussion forum, but Douglas Reed's books, "The Battle for Rhodesia" and "The Siege of Southern Africa," give some really valuable background history on the whole very sad saga.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

I hope they don't try that here.

(gallows humor)

If we can only escape by being destroyed, like Russia and South Africa, it proves the power of Yahweh--i.e., the power of the Jews, which strengthens the power of the Jews, i.e., the power of Yahweh, which makes the destruction next time more complete. A cycle of destruction ever more utter. There aren't many things that can raise the power to derail that, it seems to me. A religious revolution could and, in some strange way, Aaron Bushnell sacrificing his life for us could.

Maybe Rene Girard had it right. It's the power of mimetic violence at the root after all and the blood sacrifice dispels it. I did notice the heavy emphasis today in the mainstream on Bushnell's childhood on the religious fringe.

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Stefatanus's avatar

Correct about the communists as evidenced by the Rivonia raid

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

Stefatanus, I am impressed. Had to look that one up... and yes, the Rivonia raid really exposed the deep ties of the ANC to the Communists.

From Wikipedia: "The Rivonia Trial [1963] took its name from Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. Various people and groups, including the African National Congress and Communist Party of South Africa, had been using Liliesleaf Farm, owned by Arthur Goldreich, as a hideout..."

Too bad that the Jewish-Lithuanian Marxist-Leninist ANC leader Joe Slovo was away from the farm when it was raided.

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Stefatanus's avatar

Yes and a lot of them conveniently escaped before the trial

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Satanyahu's avatar

All of keen interest, Craig -- thank you. The old SA was a virtual European nation -- "a good country in a bad neighborhood as they say of Chile.

We must hope that Aaron's sacrifice is having a good impact. The masses of idiots respond to great sensations, so maybe they're feeling something from it.

The 'paradigm genocide' -- is this, I take it, simply the jews' latest attempt to push the "uniqueness of the Holocaust"? The way they've basically patented it as the only (putative) genocide of any importance is sickening. In the monumental and lovable Israeli documentary 'Defamation', Abe Foxman is shown bullying the then-president of Ukraine about how the Holodomor is defined. Can't get more shameless than that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAjc1OSrmY&t=4846s

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

I looked at some papers from around the world today. The impact of Aaron's sacrifice seems to be gelling, at least globally.

The IHRA is the Swedish-based outfit in Berlin running the "definition of antisemitism" grift against the West.

https://craignelsen.substack.com/p/our-sincere-but-still-unanswered

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Satanyahu's avatar

Thanks so much for the reply, Anna -- my first ever here. Please tell your husband that many millions of Americans and others were horrified by the global lynching of his sensational country! It was of a piece with the rest of racial correctness since before Mr. Lincoln's War: all reason, facts and context must be swept aside because (((insane commies))) have this faux-idealistic thing they want to do TO OTHER PEOPLE. The result is always disastrous but forever presented as great Progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZM5sxJPZE

Apartheid (meaning SEGREGATION) was FINE in African context – and who were the US, UK or anybody else to point the finger?

Blacks from all over the continent were trying to move to SA because of the better jobs and life. Shortly before the 1994 catastrophe P.W. Botha spoke at an outdoor Easter gathering attended by more than a million enthusiastic blacks -- something like that. The way we’re lied to!

Do you folks know this great SA native and escapee?

https://www.youtube.com/@serpentza

The Chicoms' evils are his main focus but he's also covered SA's tragedy. I find his stuff very admirable, esp. considering the tragic life he's apparently had -- revealed piecemeal in his work.

Weren't pornography and abortion illegal in the old SA? Things were so good there, considering, I’ve heard that when arriving there by airliner the captain would get on the mike and say "We are now landing in South Africa. Please turn your watches back 30 years."

Turn back the clock 30 years – mmmmm ;)

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Anna Cordelia's avatar

My husband truly appreciated your reply, Satanyahu - as did I!

Yes, pornography and abortion were both illegal in the old SA. Overall, it was a much more morally conservative society. It almost seems quaint now.

Thank you for the links - we've lined up the George Lincoln Rockwell piece to watch, and I'll be checking out serpentza's channel - I don't think we've come across him before.

Interesting that you pointed out that Black Africans from all over the continent used to try to cross illegally into SA because of the better job prospects there. Learning that was one of many turning points for me - I had been under the false impression that the militarized South African border was aimed at keeping Black South Africans from escaping! LOL.

Of course, the old SA was not perfect. It was under a lot of Jewish influence - think about outfits like DeBeers. However, while there were Jews making a mint out of the place, there were others undermining the country by grooming young Black leaders to become communists.

It's a lot to wrap your head around. But not that different from the Jewish modus operandi elsewhere. Loot, then subvert and plunder. Then move on and do it again somewhere else.

Thank you for joining the comments forum! I look forward to hearing from you again.

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Billy Thistle's avatar

Such eloquent passion from Odysseus. Also liked the disclosure that you were an anarchist when you were AB's age. That bio bit helps me understand your stance v the local police better.

OK, I have doubts about the event, doubts not cynicism, not a black pill. I remember ISIS produced a few videos of their atrocities against captives and journalists during Iraq/Syria. All that I saw were dubious. Movies show stunt men burning and falling to the ground. Some of the recent examples may be AI, older ones were not. Burning can be staged. AB was in an intelligence unit. He was assisted by buddies in his undertaking. We've yet to hear from them. The redaction of the burning and denouement creates doubts about authenticity. The flames and smoke column might be out of proportion.

If it's real, it's an extraordinary act of courage. My jury's still out.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Thank you, man.

One of the benefits to the psyoppers of psyops is that, in addition to making the less discerning believe untrue things, it makes the more discerning disbelieve true things. Liars just suck, but in the case of Aaron Bushnell, as opposed to, say, 9/11, there is no benefit to staging this, that I can see, anyway, to the Talmudic cabal, the source of all psyops.

As Aelred said, I hope I'm wrong for the lad's sake, but I believe it was real.

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Billy Thistle's avatar

Granted motive is the weakest aspect in the case for psy-op. I've read several possibilities, none satisfying. Let me offer my alt-fantasy. AB was in an Intel unit. He was learning the craft. He was left-leaning, not favored by the dominant neo-cons, but their purges aren't focused on small fry, student soldiers. I'm sure there are still liberals in the CIA and they can't be too happy about Gaza. So what if this were a stunt, a kind of class project, psy-op meant to shame to the neo-cons. AB means what he says, Free Palestine! But his fate is disappearance not death. He sacrifices his career for his morals and honor.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Well, that's certainly more plausible than anything I was able to come up with in Altfantasyland. I still had to go down a few more floors before I came up with:

Seeing that the hivemind has perfected itself to the point that it was already debunking and ridiculing the Oct 7 "Hamas attack" before the Israeli gunships had even finished incinerating the Israeli civilians, the Talmudic Conspiracy realized they needed to come up with a way to shatter and fragment the hivemind, so they came up with a psyop that could be executed quickly, didn't involve a lot of moving parts, would be sure to inflame passions, and, most importantly, would neuter the attribute the hivemind has learned to use to identify correctly a ZOGop (which happens to be the very same attribute the Jewish masses themselves use to identify a ZOGop). I.e., "Is it good for the Jews?" So they came up with a plan to Epstein some serviceman, run the psyop, then, once the hivemind is all in, McVeigh the serviceman as a white supremacist antisemite clumsily attempting to impugn the innocence of the long-suffering Jewish people, Assange him long enough to get plenty of torture porn for their donors, then Oswald him.

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Billy Thistle's avatar

I think AB's action has caught the Zionists off guard. The best they can spin is that only a crazy person would set himself on fire which insanity also explains why he condemned Israel. That will work for cucked conservatives, but not for old school, ideological liberals. They remember and admired the Buddhist immolations against the Vietnam War. Even younger, woke liberals will be touched by the emotion of a righteous white man sacrificing himself for POC (people of color). So really the best the Zs can do is try and shut the story down.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Have you detected any differences developing over this incident or in general between the "save nothing alive that breatheth" Jews and the "cattle are people, too" Jews? I wish I had one of those read-any-newspaper subscriptions.

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Billy Thistle's avatar

Nice that Good Citizen has favored you. Birds of a feather. His plumage is appealing. Yours has the distinction of valor.

"Cattle are people too" is a riot. Don't know what you mean by "read-any-newspaper subscriptions".

I accept as foundational that there are real ideological differences separating Jews. However those dividing beliefs are subordinate to the higher tribal imperative - what's good for the Jews. How that resolves in any given situation - orders from above, threats to desist, meetings of resolution, hereditary punishments - I don't know. We're not privy to such organizational secrets.

The public response to the AB incident might be over. Seems like they've succeeded in shutting it down. The ball is in the liberal court.

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BuelahMan's Revolt's avatar

You message was worthy of a meme:

https://substack.com/profile/91945971-abuse-productions/note/c-50687276

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Ernest Judd's avatar

I put these in the front window of my business:

"His name is Aaron Bushnell.

What are you willing to do to speak truth to power?"

and

"His name is Julian Assange.

What are you willing to do to speak truth to power?"

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Brilliant.

I had decided to put up a sign today in my front yard here on Main St/US Hwy 56 with “Thank You, Aaron Bushnell.” Then I started thinking…ahh, I rent…ahh…this isn’t my hometown…ahh…yadda…yadda…yadda…

Your note reminded me: I am a man. This is my country. Aaron sacrificed his life for it.

Tomorrow the sign goes up at daybreak. It will be my first Sunday morning sublimation in many years.

Thank you, Ernest Judd

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Mar 4, 2024
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Ernest Judd's avatar

The blowback I have gotten so far has been only their facial expressions.

Still worth it!

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Have heard nothing negative, twice cars honk and give a thumbs up (rather, their drivers do, Kansas cars don't have thumbs).

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Sabre23's avatar

Beautiful. Bravo‼️Thank you dearly

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Jessica J's avatar

You're gross and in a death cult. You should honestly be ashamed for yourself and hope his mother doesn't see what you did. Unreal. No decorum.

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ML's avatar

Either that or else the supporting theocratic fascism without condemning antisemitism just makes people mentally unstable. Lol

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Bilbo'sBitch's avatar

Don't Underestimate the Power of "Self Immolation" more than 2 billion people on earth call "Aaron Bushnell" a Hero - You all Can DO-IT;

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Hey do you know where the photo of the people honoring Aaron Bushnell was taken?

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Mar 4, 2024
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Craig Nelsen's avatar

Thank you Aelred. Can't wait for the yard signs to arrive and they start going up.

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Mar 1, 2024
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Anna Cordelia's avatar

Why does it not surprise me that you were once a Trappist monk?

This is a bit off-topic, but by any chance have you ever heard of Boris Mouravieff, and if so, what do you think of his works on esoteric Christianity?

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Aria Veritas's avatar

Mouravieff is neat.

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Mar 2, 2024
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Anna Cordelia's avatar

Funny to hear about your queue... I have a somewhat organized e-books folder (of books I've downloaded from places like archive.org) that I seem to add to faster than I can ever read.

I went back and looked at the dates on my Mouravieff files, and realized I downloaded them all the way back in 2011.

No wonder I'm not enlightened yet.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

I can't wait until AI can read them for us. Get to the head of the queue, finally.

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Craig Nelsen's avatar

In The Brothers Karamozov, the 19-year-old Alyosha is an acolyte and utterly devoted to a very old monk named Father Zossima, who sounds very much like what you describe. In the novel, the old monk is famous far and wide for his radiant Christian holiness, for the austerity of his life, for his love for humanity, and his gentle wisdom, and, when he dies, great crowds of all social classes gather in mourning outside his bare little cell.

Then Dostoevsky, being the penetrating and brilliant artist that he is, introduces a genius detail: upon his death, the old monk's body begins to putrefy almost immediately and so rapidly that the customary 24-hour viewing period for mourners, which, due to his fame, would have extended far beyond one day under normal circumstances, has to be cut short due to the unbearable stench from his corpse. This unaccountable development, of course, throws the faithful for a loop. Was there something sinister at work? Something supernatural? Was there a secret sin no one knew about? Was God sending a message? Was Satan? Was his Order to blame? Should the monastery be defunded? Shut down? What was going on? For many, their faith was deeply shaken.

Alyosha, alone, if I remember correctly, maintained his love and veneration of Father Zossima, seeing the rapid putrefaction, while dismaying, as only a very unusual natural phenomenon--like a bride's June wedding being ruined by a very late freak snowstorm.

I think what the deeply Christian, patriotic Dostoevsky did there was present religion in a much deeper and more advanced form than we primitives have managed to grasp so far. Perhaps he was saying, look, humans, not only does God not care whether you go to church on Saturday or on Sunday, he doesn't give a fuck whether you go to church at all. He doesn't give a fuck whether you use the word "fuck." In fact, he doesn't care about fucking, period. He cares about how we love one another. That's it. He doesn't care what kind of animals we eat (just that we treat them humanely), he doesn't care who the president of the United States is, he doesn't care about US foreign policy viv-a-vis the genocidal murder turds occupying Palestine, he doesn't care whether you read the Bible every day or use it to replace the broken leg on your kids' bunk beds. He doesn't have a "plan," he doesn't incinerate cities because their gays act out, there are no "end times," and he never sent cryptic messages to lunatics eating bugs in the desert that, decoded, predict China's foreign policy in 2025. However, it does irk him if you confuse him with Yahweh, and if you ever call him "John Hagee" to his face, he'll strike you dead on the spot. I think that's what Dostoevsky was showing us.

Dostoevsky, btw, in one of his novels, makes the startling claim that Russians loved Europe--each cobblestone of Venice--more than Europeans did and that it would be up to the Russians to save the West. What a remarkable thing to say, no? But you can't lightly dismiss such a statement from a man who accurately described with jaw-dropping specificity the coming of the Bolsheviks 60 years in advance. I can't imagine wanting to dismiss it.

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