Democracy Now! gets into the history of extreme protest.

The news of Airman Aaron Bushnell’s protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in D.C. is tough to process. It’s not a new form of protest, but it never gets easier to grapple with.

I would just suggest that people who second-guess self-immolators should reassess their own work on the issue being protested.

Democracy Now! produced an admirably sensitive and historically well-contextualized discussion of Bushnell’s disturbing act of extreme protest.

“A warning to our audience: This segment contains graphic images and descriptions.”

“In an act that has captured the attention of the world, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington Sunday to protest Israel’s assault on Gaza and U.S. support for the military campaign. Bushnell, who live-streamed the action, said, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” before lighting himself on fire and repeatedly shouted “Free Palestine” as he was engulfed in the flames. He was pronounced dead in the hospital later that day. Democracy Now! speaks with Bushnell’s friend and conscientious objector Levi Pierpont, who says his friend’s death was not a suicide but was about using his life to send a message for justice. “We have to honor the message that he left,” says Pierpont, who says Bushnell died “to get people’s attention about the genocide that’s happening in Palestine.” Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat, lays out the history of self-immolation to protest war and how Bushnell’s act could impact U.S. policy for the war on Gaza. “It was an act of courage, an act of bravery, to call attention to U.S. policies,” says Wright, who offers support to Pierpont and other veterans advocating for peace live on air.”

Of possible interest:

Bushnell’s Self-Immolation Is a Horrifying Symptom of Our Political Dysfunction
Suicide vs genocide: Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell

Todd Steven Burroughs satirizes Sesame Street.

“Baby Breeze would be laughing right now, but he’s too busy running. So am I.

“Running down Amsterdam….153rd Street…..154th Street…

“Sooooooo mad at this m — — — — -a right now. We party-crash in Harlem — Baby Breeze talked his way in by naming a couple of names of folks — and of course he has to try to steal the host’s girl. Rapping to her right in front of the dude, not thinking about whether he’d be packing heat!!”

— From At the Dark End of Sesame Street: The Autobiography of Roosevelt Franklin by Todd Steven Burroughs

More Perfect Union looks at how a small Minnesota town is helping parents.

’s newest video looks at the childcare business model, and how the town of Warren, Minnesota is addressing a seemingly wicked problem.

“Child care costs more than college in the United States. Parents can pay upwards of $20,000 per child per year — but most child care businesses struggle to break even. Now half of all Americans live in child care deserts.

“We went to Minnesota where lawmakers have a plan to fix our broken child care system.”

Getting childcare costs under control is part of decommodifying survival as a whole. Besides the approach that the town of Warren is taking, how else can communities, states, and nations approach childcare? What role can / should mutual aid play?

Four leaders on translating between groups.

Convergence Magazine has been around in various versions since 2008. Their podcasts include Black Work Talk, Hegemonicon, and Indebted.

Hegemonicon is hosted by a Sunrise Movement co-founder.

From the show notes for the latest episode, The State of Left Ideological Infrastructure, with Johanna Bozuwa, Corinne Blalock, and Daniel Denvir

This episode’s guests include:

• Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project, a leading climate justice think tank doing the grunt work of building policy for a Green New Deal.

• Corinne Blalock of the Law & Political Economy Project, a network of progressive legal scholars seeking to transform our understanding of the law in order to change it.

• Daniel Denvir of The Dig podcast, whose famously vast archives contain many hours of content on just about any topic of relevance to the contemporary left.

Of possible interest: The New Mine-All-You-Can Frenzy

Ten sources for your consideration.

Ballot Access News
Black Agenda Report
How Things Work
Independent Political Report
Macro and Cheese
On Strike!
Planet: Critical
Ralph Nader Radio Hour
Status Coup News
Volts

Of possible interest:

A claim about student debt relief papers over a policy failure.

“If you took the little simple thing [that is] student loan debt relief, he promised to relieve student loan debt, and he has done that.”

— Representative Jim Clyburn (SC-D)

40 Million Americans Beg to Differ

Jim Clyburn’s statement about Joe Biden is the type of oblivious shit you say when you don’t have skin in the game. Biden’s piecemeal approach to student debt has fallen far short of his campaign promise to cancel at least $10K for every federal student debtor. Clyburn also elided the fact that Biden sold out student debtors during the last debt ceiling fight (when Democrats could have permanently ended the debt ceiling nonsense, but chose not to). So in September, payments restarted for 40 million voting-age Americans. None of them is likely to take Rep. Clyburn’s statement at face value.

Dismissing Expert Advice

Astra Taylor and The Debt Collective gave expert advice to the Biden administration about how to cancel debt quickly and legally. They were blown off. Interest groups are often ahead of elected officials when it comes to research and policy, and ignoring them is a tactical mistake.

Don’t Believe the Hype

Whatever claims Team Blue makes this year, exaggerating the record—intentionally or otherwise—won’t help win voters. Trust in elected officials is already dismal; promoting out-of-touch hyped-up narratives can only make things worse.

Of possible interest: Dems Refuse to Change Course, Even to Avoid Fascism, Debt Ceiling 2023: Crisis Normalized, “The ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Is Not the Green New Deal”

If the left votes third party, independent, or stays home in 2024, it won’t be because they’re benighted or insufficiently patriotic.

The left was told to pound sand repeatedly. Their demands were blown off time after time. Sometimes with outright lies.

Now Team Blue is howling at those on the left who’ve had enough.

You’ll Get Biden and Like It

The idea of earning votes through policy—or even pledging to push the left’s issues in a second term—is apparently out of the question. Running truly democratic primaries also seems to be beyond the pale. Team Blue prefers to anoint its nominees, even if they’ve “been roundly rejected by nearly everybody who’s not deep into middle age,” as Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford put it in 2019.

Zombie-Shuffling Toward Fascism

If the left votes third party, independent, or stays home in 2024, it won’t be because they’re benighted or insufficiently patriotic. It will be because Democrats arrogantly refused to listen, even to their most true-blue insiders. As it is, the US is zombie-shuffling toward fascism.

Worse, if Team Blue loses, they’ll likely refuse to reassess their shibboleths or change in a way that might secure more votes in 2028. The political calculus won’t be any easier then, with possibilities that include a new political party for workers and a general strike.

Democrats are once again working to keep third-party and independent candidates off the ballot. One wonders if they’ll have such a formidable legal strategy should the election come down to recounts and court challenges.

I see a lot of Democrats claiming that a Team Red win next year means the end of democracy. I can only hope that they’re organizing for what happens after Election Day, because they’re certainly not trying to win votes through outreach.

Of possible interest:

“Dysfunctional Coalition Politics”
Voter Choice: Still a Myth
“The ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is Not the Green New Deal”
Third Party for the Climate Win

Jared Yates Sexton talks with Richard Wolff

“Updates on the closing of a Florida plant that should be converted to worker co-op, oil company profits VS the social damage they do, how mega-corporations (Walmart, Amazon) are taking over the grocery business and the social purpose and the meaning of the “middle class”. In the second half of this week’s episode, Prof. Wolff interviews Jared Yates Sexton. The discussion focuses on his latest book, “Midnight Kingdom” and how the U.S. practices social control by spinning stories the public sees and hears.”

Of possible interest: Bernie Sanders, Martin Wolf, and Kate Raworth, American Exception

Kids in this 2000 ad got their wish.

Of possible interest: “Fast-Paced Paul”, Spoiler or Scapegoat?

A Maureen McElheron song animated by Bill Plympton.

Animator Bill Plympton has posted many of his short films to YouTube. I couldn’t find a full version of “Santa: The Fascist Years”, which is a hoot, but did find this gem. Song and vocals by Maureen McElheron.

Update: Plympton has posted the full version of “Santa: The Fascist Years”.

Of possible interest: Energetically Yours, Mish-Mish