The Roundup

More about the protester who set himself on fire, a resource on information warfare, the latest election in South Carolina and Michigan, the current state of Donald Trump's problems, and more!

Here's a special Leap Year post that won't happen again for another four years. (And that's assuming that I will still be working on this Substack by then.)

More About the Pro-Palestine Activist Who Set Himself on Fire

A few days ago I wrote about the suicide of Aaron Bushnell, who died after he set himself on fire outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC as a protest against what is going on in Gaza. Since that incident people have been researching his background where they found a few interesting things.

Bushnell grew up in Orleans, Massachusetts in a religious sect known as the Community for Jesus, which has been accused of being a cult. He later joined the US Air Force and he also became interested in anarchy.

People have discovered his Reddit account, acebush1, where he used to post on various leftist and anarchist subreddits.

Many of his posts showed his radical views and some people may be offended by what he wrote. He made this post where he called Israel a “settler colonialist apartheid state.” He said that “there is no Israel without the genocide of the Palestinian people.” He even referred to the Hamas terrorists who attacked a music festival on October 7 as indigenous people who are “retaliating against colonizers who are rubbing their domination in their faces.”

Regarding three US soldiers who were killed in a drone attack in Jordan in January, he likened the US military to the “international police” whose job is to enforce the will of the ruling class with violence.

He also described the war in Ukraine as little more than America competing with Russia for control of the Ukrainian state.

An unnamed friend of Bushnell's told The New York Post that hours before he set himself on fire Bushnell told the friend that he had classified knowledge of US troops fighting in Hamas tunnels under Gaza. That knowledge is apparently what drove him to do what he did. It's too bad that he didn't consider other ways of protesting besides killing himself in front of the Israeli embassy. His family and friends are the ones who will now have to deal with the trauma of losing someone they knew and loved to suicide. And that's not to mention that his self-immolation does nothing to directly help the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza that he claimed to have cared about so much.

If you are someone who is seriously considering emulating Aaron Bushnell, please call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 before you go through with your plans. Don't throw your life away for a cause that will only generate short-lived media coverage. There are other ways to make your views heard and fight for your cause besides suicide.

A Paper on Information Warfare

If you’re wondering why the interconnected wars in Ukraine and Gaza seem so different from previous wars, there is a social media equivalent and the Kremlin is utilizing social media as a way of converting people to its point of view. The Kremlin is hoping that you will start to believe that Ukraine is so full of Nazis that the people there would be better off if their country would reunite with Russia. The Kremlin is hoping that you will see Hamas as a bunch of freedom fighters instead of the terrorist group that it really is who has long subjugated the Palestinians in Gaza to its corrupt rule and who is still holding Israeli hostages it seized during the October 7 terrorist attacks.

There is now a paper on this type of information warfare that you can read right here if you want to do an even deeper dive on the topic.

A Preview of What Could Happen if Donald Trump Wins a Second Term

Politico has an article of what the US could be like if Donald Trump gets elected as president again and it's very alarming. From outlawing abortion and possibly contraceptives to the US withdrawing from the NATO alliance to the possibility of the US going to war against Mexico, these policies could make the US more like Russia under Vladimir Putin's rule. Share that article with anyone who is thinking about sitting out the election or considering voting for Trump or launch a protest vote with a third party.

Election News

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley lost the Republican primary to Donald Trump in her own home state last weekend. For added measure, Donald Trump won Michigan on Tuesday.

With each primary election my previous prediction that Haley will never become president is becoming closer to reality. Despite those recent defeats Haley says that she is staying in the race for the time being.

Legendary newsman Dan Rather pointed out on his own Substack that the recent South Carolina primary shows that Donald Trump may be more vulnerable than he was even in 2020 (when the COVID-19 pandemic was on the rampage). That's due to voters becoming increasingly alienated by his “I will be your retribution” rhetoric, his intention to sign a 16-week National abortion ban, his intention of not providing any kind of aid to Ukraine while siding with Russia in that war, and many other reasons.

Joe Biden faced his own challenges in Michigan on Tuesday. The pro-Palestinian activists have accused Joe Biden of supporting genocide in Gaza. As a way of sending him a message the activists encouraged voters to select Uncommitted instead of Joe Biden at the ballot box. Uncommitted received 13% of the votes at the ballot box.

Yesterday a Cook County judge ordered the Illinois Board of Elections to remove Donald Trump's name from the Illinois primary ballot—but also put the order on hold, pending a likely appeal. The reason for the ruling is that Trump’s conduct during the riot at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021 makes him ineligible to run under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

If all that weren’t enough, the longest-serving Senate leader in US history, Mitch McConnell has announced that he will step down from that leadership position in November. He said that he still intends to serve out the remainder of his term in the Senate, which expires in January, 2027. There is speculation that McConnell is stepping down as leader because he has read the proverbial handwriting on the wall about Trump's chances of getting reelected and he decided that he would rather not spend the end of his Senate career dealing with Joe Biden. In any case, he left quite a legacy and that's definitely an understatement. Here are a couple of tweets that briefly and succinctly explains the less-than honorable achievements that Senator McConnell has made during his time in the Senate leadership position, which have all paved the way for Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again movement only to have Trump and his MAGA movement later turn on him.

Meanwhile in Belarus, there were parliamentary and local elections last weekend. Only candidates who are loyal to the country's authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, were permitted to run in these elections. Lukashenko, who has been the leader of Belarus for 30 years, has also announced that he will seek another five-year term in next year's presidential election.

The Trouble With Trump

While Donald Trump is trying to get the Republican nomination, there are indicators that he is not completely well. Here's a compilation that The Lincoln Project made of the speeches that Trump gave at the recent CPAC Conference that shows that he is not altogether there in the head.

Perhaps it's all those years of rumored Adderall abuse coupled with the stress from his ongoing legal problems, his fast food diet, his lack of exercise, and his family history of dementia (which affected the final years of Trump's late father, Fred Trump) that are all finally catching up with him. How else can you explain this whacked out speech that he gave at the National Religious Broadcasters last weekend? Or this speech he gave at the CPAC conference that same weekend?

To make matters even worse, Lawrence O'Donnell provided a clip on his MSNBC show The Last Word of one of Trump's more recent speeches with an earlier interview that Trump gave for a 1990s documentary on the history of New York City and the contrast between the two clips couldn't be more jarring. Trump sounded so rational and clear-headed in that earlier interview compared to now.

O'Donnell also called out the mainstream media for downplaying Trump's obvious cognitive issues while saying that they would go after Joe Biden had he made similar cognitive gaffes in his speeches. O'Donnell has a point. The corporate-owned mainstream media makes an issue about Joe Biden's mental fitness if he stumbles over an occasional word in his speeches while ignoring even worse problems with Donald Trump's mental fitness.

And if you need more evidence as to how much Trump has declined, here is a clip from a 2000 show that the late actor Charles Grodin had on MSNBC where he aired clips of Trump interviews where he talks about running for president sometime in the future. He seemed very rational and clear-headed in those clips.

Donald Trump's cognitive decline is a metaphor for his reelection campaign, which Rober Reich has recently declared that it is in dire straits.

American voters really need to take a hard look at Donald Trump and take his mental fitness into consideration when voting in November. (Of course that's assuming that he will even make it until then.)

Trump Sneakers

Last weekend Saturday Night Live did this hilarious parody of those butt-ugly pair of Donald Trump gold sneakers that is worth a watch.

Highlights From the Recent CPAC Conference

Last week I mentioned the CPAC Conference that was held at National Harbor in Maryland. It's usually a train wreck and this year was no exception. Usually this conference is a source of unintentional comedy that gets derided on social media and comedians on late night talk shows.

While this year's CPAC had some of the unintentional comedy there were some things said that should alarm all Americans who still believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. The Lincoln Project came up with the highlights of that conference.

Show that video to anyone you know who is talking about sitting out this year's election because these are not normal times. There are people in Trump's MAGA movement who would like nothing more than to do away with democracy and replace it with something that's a hybrid of the old Confederate States of America and Russia under Vladimir Putin's rule.

My Substack is free to subscribe but if you want to make a comment, you’ll need to take out a paid subscription. Click on the button below for more details.