In an article titled, “6 Lunatics Inspired by Fox News and Glenn Beck,” published on Oct. 28 — so six weeks before before Jared Loughner’s terror attack in Tucson that left six people dead and 13 wounded, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — Jim Edwards, columnist for BNET, recapped six instances over the past two-and-a-half years in which lunatics who committed violent acts, or were thwarted before they could act, later said they were inspired to violence after intense exposure to propaganda from Fox and Glenn Beck:
A week or so after crazed gunman Jared Loughner’s Jan. 8 alleged terror attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her constituents in Tucson that left six dead and 13, including Giffords, wounded, it’s the consensus now that Loughner was not driven to mass murder by Sarah Palin’s crosshairs map.
The Times asserts that only liberals like to smoke pot and listen to the Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.
The fact that there is no provable causal link between Loughner’s actions and Palin’s map does not mean Loughner, in his madness, was not influenced by GOP-tea party toxicity. As we noted on Jan. 12, Loughner was definitely influenced by a right-wing kook named David Wynn Miller and his “sovereign citizens” movement, which advocates declaring oneself exempt from laws set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Some of the more extremist factions in the right-wing militia movement are founded on a similar concept.
The Los Angeles Times also published a report on Loughner’s influences on Jan 12:
Someone’s finally sorting out the mess that is Jared Loughner’s mind and discovering what most of us have suspected all along. Loughner has much more in common with rightwing extremists than with the political left. Justine Sharrock at Mother Jones explains what Loughner’s obsession with grammar means to people in the “sovereign citizen” movement, which among many other things, maps out strategies to avoid paying taxes.
Glenn Beck would no doubt be envious of the hairpin logic used by the “sovereign citizens”
Many of his seemingly random statements—on “grammar,” “the ratifications,” “the new currency,” and more—echo the teachings of the “sovereign citizen” movement, a right-wing school of thought alleging that Americans have been surreptitiously stripped of their God-given rights.
These are not random parallels, as I discovered in reviewing Loughner’s YouTube videos. In multiple instances, he uses the precise talking points sovereign-citizen theorists teach via a thriving cottage industry of books, websites, bogus legal companies, and seminars; one popular theorist, David Wynn Miller, told the New York Times that Loughner has “probably been on my website.”
It is fair to say that, upon learning about the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, most regular Americans assumed that a deranged tea partier had been pushed over the edge by one anti-government, anti-Democratic Party dog whistle too many from the GOP’s Fox channel personalities and hate radio propagandists.
That’s certainly what people close to Giffords assumed. On Saturday, as he rushed to his daughter’s side at the hospital, Spencer Giffords, 75, was asked if Gabrielle had any enemies. “Yeah,” he replied, “the whole tea party.”
Over the ensuing three days, it has become clear that the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, suffered from delusions, at least, and, at worst, was in throes of mental illness that was untreated, perhaps even undiagnosed.
It is equally clear that Loughner planned the attack and specifically targeted Rep. Giffords, a Democrat, because she was a member of Congress. When police searched Loughner’s home, they found an envelope on which he had written, “I planned ahead,” and “My assassination” and the name “Giffords.”
And witnesses say Loughner ran through the crowd at the congresswoman’s event in Tucson and opened fire when he spotted her talking with constituents.
What is still murky, however, is whether or to what extent the toxic political environment, which is especially acute in Arizona, home to nationally known Republican hatemongers Sen. John McCain and Gov. Jan Brewer, played a role in his rampage.
Trump’s cheated multiple times on multiple wives, it’s true.
He’s cheated the Tax Man out of millions, not just a few.
But just when you thought
There was something that couldn’t be bought,
Turns out he cheats at golf (only at his own courses), too.
“He’s never won a championship at a course he doesn’t own and operate. He’s played in Pebble Beach, he’s played in the Tahoe one, where there are rules and judges and cameras. And in those, he’s never finished in the top half. So he wins when anybody who disagrees that he won is out of the club. That’s how he gets it.”
— Sportswriter Rick Reilly called BS on Donald Trump after the former president declared himself the winner of both the club championship and senior club championship at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida, the HuffPost reports.
“RFK was never a serious threat to win a lot of votes, but with each passing day his candidacy looks increasingly like a dagger pointed at the heart of MAGA. And his choice of running mate is wild. … Yesterday, Kennedy announced that his VP will be Nicole Shanahan, who isn’t just the least-qualified, most preposterous character ever to appear on a presidential ticket polling above 5 percent. She’s also going to be catnip to a particular kind of low-intensity Trump voter.”
“And this is very important and very important to me. I want to have a lot of people have it. You have to have it for your heart, for your soul. …. We’ve lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home and I have many, it’s my favorite book, it’s a lot of people’s favorite book. This Bible is a reminder that the biggest thing we have to bring back America and to make America great again is our religion. Religion is so important, it’s so missing.”
— Donald Trump is celebrating Easter by selling copies of his latest product, the God Bless the USA Bible, for $59.99 each.
“Wow! Ronna McDaniel got fired by Fake News NBC. She only lasted two days, and this after McDaniel went out of her way to say what they wanted to hear. It leaves her in a very strange place, it’s called NEVER NEVERLAND, and it’s not a place you want to be.”
— Donald Trump made fun of Ronna McDaniel after NBC News ended its contract with her following an internal uproar across the company, The Hill reports.
President Biden’s campaign slammed Donald Trump as “weak and desperate – both as a man and a candidate for president.” The statement continued: “He spent the weekend golfing, the morning comparing himself to Jesus, and the afternoon lying about having money he definitely doesn’t have. His campaign can’t raise money, he is uninterested in campaigning outside his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he pushes moderate and suburban voters away with his dangerous agenda.” It concludes: “America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump’s idea to implement a 10% tariff on all imported goods would spike prices by as much as $1,500 annually for American families,” Semafor reports. “Published by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the report estimates that yearly costs would rise by $90 for food, $90 for pharmaceutical drugs, and $120 oil-related products like gasoline.
Punchbowl News: “Congress approved more than $71 million in earmarks for lawmakers who voted against the most recent minibus spending bill, according to a Punchbowl News analysis. This is a prime example of what former Speaker Nancy Pelosi says: They voted no but took the dough. We have a simple spreadsheet of the lawmakers who landed projects and then voted against the $1.2 trillion spending package.”
In a head-to-head presidential election match up, a new Quinnipiac poll finds President Biden leading Donald Trump nationally, 48% to 45%. When the match up is expanded to include independent candidates, Trump edges Biden, 39% to 38%, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at 13%, Jill Stein at 4% and Cornel West at 3%. Pollster Tim Malloy: “Way too close to call on the head-to-head and even closer when third party candidates are counted. The backstretch is months away and this is about as close as it can get.”
A new Fox News poll finds 59% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from the previous high of 57% in September 2022. Voters oppose a 15-week ban by 11 points (54% oppose vs. 43% favor), which is in direct contrast with results in 2023 when it was favored by 12 points (42% oppose vs. 54% favor).
“President Joe Biden has gained ground against Republican Donald Trump in six of seven key swing states, and significantly so in at least two of them. The results make for the Democrat’s strongest position yet in a monthly Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll. …. The shift was significant in Wisconsin, where Biden leads Trump by one point after trailing him by four points in February, and in Pennsylvania, where the candidates are tied after Trump held a six-point lead last month. They are also tied in Michigan.”