Luke Barnes, - Reader Supported News/Think Progress
Stephan: Here is the first paragraph of this report: "Cesar Sayoc, who spawned a week of panic and
a massive federal manhunt last October after he mailed a series of pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and media figures, was a cognitively limited and emotionally traumatized man who fell into a paranoid alternate reality thanks to misinformation and Trump’s rhetoric, his lawyers argued this week." Think about that for a minute. Did you ever think you would hear a lawyer defend a terrorist by saying he was prompted into his murderous acts by the President of the United States.
To get a sense of how really weird that sounds, can you imagine a racist Brit, for instance, claiming he was prompted to bomb public buildings by a speech Queen Elizabeth gave and the BBC reported? Or a German because of the racist comments of Angela Merkel?
We really have gone through the looking glass in America.
Cesar Sayoc, who spawned a week of panic and a massive federal manhunt last October after he mailed a series of pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and media figures, was a cognitively limited and emotionally traumatized man who fell into a paranoid alternate reality thanks to misinformation and Trump’s rhetoric, his lawyers argued this week.
Sayoc, 57, pleaded guilty to 65 federal charges in March, including “use of a weapon of mass destruction.” He was nicknamed the “MAGA bomber” by the tabloids, after federal agents discovered his van adorned with pro-Trump stickers.
Sayoc is facing life imprisonment when he is sentenced in August, but his public defenders have asked the judge to show leniency and sentence him to 10 years because of mitigating factors, including his mental state, the effect of misinformation on him, and the fact that none of the crudely-designed bombs he sent actually went off.
According to his lawyers, Sayoc was born with “cognitive limitations and severe learning disabilities that made it difficult for him to maintain relationships and succeed in school.” He was abandoned by his father at a young age and sexually assaulted while at school. Sayoc’s home foreclosed […]
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Saturday, July 27th, 2019
Jon Swaine, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This morning, as I went through the dozens of publications I look at each day I was struck by the number of stories about the criminality of various Republican candidates. It seemed so bizarre to me that I have decided to publish a selection, a selection mind you, of what has come up in the last couple days. When you see these together I think you have to ask, What kind of party nominates criminals for public office? Then place that in the context of Moscow Mitch's blocking the integrity of the American electoral infrastructure. Are the Republicans a party or a criminal enterprise?
Danielle Stella mug shot
Credit: Bloomington police department
A pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota has been charged with a felony after allegedly stealing from stores.
Danielle Stella was arrested twice this year in Minneapolis suburbs over allegations that she shoplifted items worth more than $2,300 from a Target and goods valued at $40 from a grocery store. She said she denied the allegations.
Stella, a 31-year-old special education teacher, was reported this week to be a supporter of the baseless “QAnon” conspiracy theory about Donald Trump battling a global cabal of elite liberal paedophiles.
This week Stella also described Minneapolis as “the crime capital of our country”. She has in the past complained that local police were “overworked and overburdened” and said that, if elected, she would work to reduce crime.
In a series of text messages, Stella said: “I am not guilty of these crimes. In this country I am innocent until proven guilty and that is the law.”
She added: “If I was guilty of crimes, I would never run for public office, […]
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Saturday, July 27th, 2019
, - Oklahoma News - Channel 4
Stephan: Just the kind of man a party should make a contender for the state's governorship.
Christopher Barnett
Credit: Associated Press
TULSA, OKLAHOMA – A Tulsa man who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Oklahoma is jailed after being arrested twice in a 24-hour period.
Tulsa County jail records show 36-year-old Christopher Barnett is being held without bond on complaints of shooting with intent to kill and threatening an act of violence.
Police say Barnett was first arrested after shooting at a process server Wednesday, then after his release was arrested again Thursday. It was not immediately clear if the arrests are related.
Barnett told TV station KTUL he shot at the process server after the man pulled a gun.
Barnett picked up 5,240 votes and finished eighth in a 10-person field for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in June 2018.
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Saturday, July 27th, 2019
Cynthia Sewell, - East Idaho News
Stephan: As I said with the first story these are just a selection of the stories today. I could have added at least four more. It is really quite notable when you see them together and see the kind of people involved in the Republican Party.
Former Idaho GOP Chair Jonathan Parker
Credit: East Idaho News
Credit: East Idaho News
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Police have been looking for former Idaho GOP chair Jonathan Parker.
In addition to three pending criminal cases, Parker has three new arrest warrants: violating a no-contact order; witness intimidation; and a bench warrant, according to court records and the Ada County Sheriff’s Office.
The no-contact order warrant was issued July 16, the witness-intimidation warrant was issued July 22 and the bench warrant was issued July 25.
Parker’s legal problems began May 30, when Boise police arrested him on a felony stalking charge at his estranged wife’s apartment complex. Since then he has been charged with misdemeanor privacy trespass and misdemeanor unlawful entry. The misdemeanor unlawful entry charge stems from an interaction with a different woman.
On Wednesday, an Ada County judge revoked Parker’s bond in the felony stalking case for violating a no-contact order. Parker allegedly violated the order by sending a text message to his estranged wife.
The judge also issued a bench warrant […]
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Saturday, July 27th, 2019
MEGAN BRENAN, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: "Forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created them in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years." When I read this I was struck by two things: First, we are in the second decade of the 21st century and yet 4 out of 10 Americans live in a medieval world. Second, I wondered how closely the creationist 40% correlates with the 40% of Americans that are Trumpers. I wondered how closely the two groups overlap.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created them in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years. However, more Americans continue to think that humans evolved over millions of years — either with God’s guidance (33%) or, increasingly, without God’s involvement at all (22%).
The latest findings, from a June 3-16 Gallup poll, have not changed significantly from the last reading in 2017. However, the 22% of Americans today who do not believe God had any role in human evolution marks a record high dating back to 1982. This figure has changed more than the other two have over the years and coincides with an increasing number of Americans saying they have no religious identification.
As many as 47% and as few as 38% of Americans have taken a creationist view of human origins throughout Gallup’s 37-year trend. Likewise, between 31% and 40% of U.S. adults have attributed humans’ development to a combination of evolution and divine intervention over the same period.
Sharp Differences by Religious Preference […]
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