Do you know many Trump supporters? I don't. I know a few. They're too stupid, too steeped in ignorance and conspiracy theories to talk to. I imagine there are some "normal" ones too... but I haven't found any. I never met anyone like Cesar Sayoc, the #MAGAbomber. Well... every Trump supporter has those dead-end eyes, but I never met one who I thought would go quite as far as Sayoc. I don't usually order pizza but I have a few times and the pizza delivery guys seemed normal-- not like someone ready to blow up a couple of presidents and a dozen other Trump critics. And I used to be a club dj myself and knew dozens of other club dis. But no one like Sayoc (who worked at Ultra Gentlemen's Club in West Palm Beach). Was he really a stripper as well as a dj in that strip club he worked at?General rule: if Rupert Murdoch owns it, you can't believe it; his properties are there to entertain and/or convey propaganda-- yes all of them-- not to disseminate actual news. His New York Post outlet insists Sayoc is a stripper-- "a fitness-obsessed male stripper who dreamt of becoming a professional wrestler" and who "traveled to jiggle joints across the country during the 1990s."Tony Valentine, an Ohio event promoter said the 56-year-old was a "big muscle head" who “wanted to be a professional wrestler-- that was his dream... He really couldn’t find his niche in life, and I guess he found it now," Valentine told the Washington Examiner. "Back in the nineties, he was running around from Minnesota to the Carolinas to Florida. He was like a gypsy. He would show up and do an individual act and leave... He was dancing for a guy out in Oklahoma, too."He managed a gay strip club and danced there as well, as a bouncer and "exotic dancer." His cousin said he was alienated from his family-- every Trump fanatic I have ever met is alienated from his family-- and "a loose cannon... a lost soul" and on steroids. He posted this on Facebook:The 56 year old Sayoc lived in his van near his mother's condo (so he could use her toilet) in Debbie Wasserman Schultz's district. A more rational player would have sent a pipe bomb to Steve Mnuchin. And he drove his lovely van around southeast Florida-- and parked it near the strip club and pizzeria he worked at-- and, of course, at the Trumpanzee rallies he attended:
On his LinkedIn account, Sayoc described himself as a choreographer and booking agent for male strippers and burlesque shows.On Twitter, he said he is a "Current Booking Agent/Sales/Marketing/Promotions/Project Mgr Live Events" at Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida.In a statement, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International said there was "no evidence" the suspect is or was a member or was employed by any of the three groups. They also said they could not immediately "verify if he is or was an employee of a vendor company."A cousin, Lenny Altieri, said Sayoc went to good schools and was well educated. "Brains and common sense are not synonymous," he said.Sayoc attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1983 to 1984 but did not graduate, the school's communications office said. He was an undeclared major who played on the soccer team.He also attended Brevard College in North Carolina, a school spokeswoman said. He enrolled at Brevard in fall 1980, attended classes there for three semesters but didn't graduate.He used to deliver food for a pizza restaurant in Fort Lauderdale until he quit last January. He said he had gotten a job driving a hazardous waste truck in North Carolina, his manager Debra Gureghian said.He has been estranged from his family for several years... His mother and sisters had urged him to seek medical treatment because he struggled with "a lack of comprehension of reality," attorney Ronald S. Lowy said."He thinks there's nothing wrong with him," Lowy said in a telephone interview, shortly after meeting with the suspect's family on Friday.He said Sayoc's mother, who underwent surgery Friday, "can't understand his behavior or views."Lowy, the family attorney, said Sayoc's father is Filipino and his mother is Italian. He said Sayoc was not politically active when he met him.It appears that he was kicked out by his parents and had been living in the white Dodge van where he was found Friday, a law enforcement official said.Sayoc's past is marked by encounters with law enforcement.Court records show he had been arrested at least nine times, mostly in Florida, for accusations of grand theft, battery, fraud, drug possession and probation violations.In 2002, he was arrested after Miami police said he threatened to bomb a power company saying "it would be worse than September 11th.""The defendant contacted a rep (from) Florida Power and Light Co. ... by telephone and threatened to blow up FPL," a Miami Police Department report about the incident reads.The caller "threatened to blow up the building if FP&L turned off his light," the report reads.He pleaded guilty to the offense, records show, and was sentenced to one year of probation.In 2014, he was arrested after stealing copper pipes at a Home Depot, to which he also pleaded guilty, records show.Gureghian, the general manager of New River Pizza and Fresh Kitchen in Fort Lauderdale, said Sayoc was open with her about his views. [Like almost all Trump fanatics] He calls himself a white supremacist and dislikes gay people, African Americans, Jews, and anybody who isn't white, she said.Gureghian said Sayoc told her that lesbians like her and other minorities should be put on an island. And though he liked her, he told her she would burn in hell, she told CNN....He was prolific on his two Facebook accounts and three Twitter feeds, often posting provocative photos and memes attacking liberals.He attacked Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee in the Florida governor's race, more than 80 times in October alone.In other posts, Sayoc shared several conspiracy theories, memes and articles slamming former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election.On September 20, in response to a Trump tweet, Sayoc posted a self-shot video of himself at what appears to be a Trump rally.
So am I saying that all Trump supporters are bombers? No, of course not-- just potential bombers who see Trump as a father figure or a religious icon. But what I am saying is that Trump has let these people loose on society and feeling they have permission to act out. Yes, Sayer's actions are Trump's fault-- 100%. Trump's enemies list is Sayoc's enemies list. Trump's exhalation of violence set Sayoc off. There's virtually no way there won't be others. Just like at the barely human monstrosities at his hate rallies. Anyone still remaining "loyal" to the Republican Party better take a nice long look at what they're professing loyalty to. Say is what the party has become and those dead-end eyes... that is the future of the GOP. Democratic candidates are now rejoicing when Trump endorses their opponents. And publicizing it.As Mehdi Hasan put it at The Intercept this morning, Trump is a threat to national security. He preaches hate. He incites violence. He inspires attacks.. "Sayoc may be the latest individual to have combined his love for Trump with a love for violence against Trump’s opponents," he wrote, "but he is far from the first to do so... Since the summer of 2015, a bevy of Trump supporters, fans and sympathizers have beaten, shot, stabbed, run over and bombed their fellow Americans. They have taken innocent lives while aping the president’s violent rhetoric, echoing his racist conspiracy theories and, as in the case of Sayoc, targeting the exact same people and organizations that Trump loudly and repeatedly targets at his rallies and on Twitter: Muslims, refugees, immigrants, the Clintons, CNN, and left-wing protesters, among others... The truth is that the sooner we all recognize that the president of the United States is helping to radicalize a new generation of angry far-right men, the better."
We cannot allow Trump’s apologists on Fox News and in Congress to pretend that this was a one-off; that the charges against Sayoc aren’t part of a growing and disturbing trend of violent crimes against minorities and the media perpetrated by far-right, pro-Trump individuals and militias.So here is a (partial) list of Trump supporters who are alleged to have carried out horrific attacks in recent years-- some of them seemingly inspired by the president himself.Scott Leader and Steve Leader, August 2015On 19 August 2015, Scott Leader, 38, and his brother, Steve Leader, 30, attacked a homeless man in Boston who they wrongly believed to be an undocumented immigrant.“Donald Trump was right,” they told police, after beating the man with a metal pipe and then urinating on him. “All these illegals need to be deported.”Trump’s response? He eventually called it a “terrible” incident but only after an earlier statement to reporters in which the then-Republican candidate referred to his supporters as “very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that.”Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, and Patrick Eugene Stein, October 2016On October 14, 2016, the FBI arrested three men-- Patrick Eugene Stein, Curtis Allen, and Gavin Wright-- for plotting a series of bomb attacks against the Somali-American community of Garden City, Kansas. Calling themselves “the Crusaders,” they had planned to launch what the Guardian said “could have been the deadliest domestic terror attack since the Oklahoma bombing in 1995,” the day after the November 2016 presidential election.Two of these three men were open supporters of Trump, and obsessed with anti-Muslim, anti-refugee conspiracy theories. For Stein, according to a profile in New York magazine, Trump was “the Man.” Allen wrote on Facebook: “I personally back Donald Trump.” The trio even asked a federal judge to boost the number of pro-Trump jurors at their trial (at which they were found guilty of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and and of conspiring against rights).Trump’s response? The president, who once suggested that Americans had “suffered enough” from an influx of Somali refugees, has never been asked about these three militiamen and has never condemned their plot.Alexandre Bissonnette, January 2017On the evening of January 29, 2017, Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire on worshippers at the Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec City, Canada, killing six of them and wounding 19.Bisonnette, 27, was obsessed with Trump-- he searched for the president on Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube more than 800 times between January 1, 2017 and the day of the shooting. A former university classmate told the Toronto Globe and Mail that he “frequently argued” with Bissonette over the latter’s support for Trump.In his police interrogation video, Bissonnette can be heard telling officers that he decided to attack the mosque after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a message of welcome to refugees in the wake of the U.S. president’s travel ban-- which was issued two days before the mosque attack.Trump’s response? The president may have expressed his condolences to the Canadian premier in private, but he has never publicly mentioned the shooting, the killer or the six dead Muslims.Michael Hari, Michael McWhorter, and Joe Morris, August 2017In March 2018, three alleged members of a far-right militia-- Michael Hari, Michael McWhorter, and Joe Morris-- were charged in connection with the bombing of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, on August 5, 2017. McWhorter is alleged to have told an FBI agent that the attack was an attempt “to scare” Muslims “out of the country.”Back in 2017, Hari, who owns a security company, submitted a $10 billion proposal to build Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “We would look at the wall as not just a physical barrier to immigration but also as a symbol of the American determination to defend our culture, our language, our heritage, from any outsiders,” Hari said. Sound familiar?Hari is also alleged to be the ringleader of the “White Rabbit Militia-- Illinois Patriot Freedom Fighters, Three Percent,” which has posted online messages about “Deep State activities” and “the attempt of the FBI to wiretap the Trump campaign and interfere in the election.”Trump’s response? To date, the president has never publicly referenced, let alone condemned, the bomb attack on the Minnesota mosque. His then-adviser Sebastian Gorka suggested the incident might “have been propagated by the left.”James Alex Fields, Jr., August 2017On August 12, 2017, a car crashed into a crowd of people protesting a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The alleged driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., has been charged with, among other crimes, hit and run and first-degree murder.Fields, according to a former middle school classmate, enjoyed drawing swastikas and talked about “loving Hitler.” The registered Republican, according to a former high school teacher, also adored Trump. In an interview with the Associated Press, the former teacher “said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump’s views on race. Trump’s proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields.”Trump’s response? The president called the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “very fine people” just three days after Fields allegedly killed Heyer.Brandon Griesemer, January 2018On January 9-10, 2018, 19-year-old Brandon Griesemer allegedly made 22 calls to CNN. In four of those calls, the part-time grocery clerk from Novi, Michigan, threatened to kill employees at the network’s Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters, according to a federal affidavit.“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,” he told a CNN operator. Again, sound familiar? Trump has spent his entire presidency slamming CNN as “fake news,” singling out the network for criticism and abuse. According to the Washington Post, a high school classmate of Griesemer described him as a Trump supporter who “came in after the election and was very happy.” The classmate, reported the Post, “compared Griesemer’s reaction to that of a fan whose team had won a big game.”Trump’s reaction? On the morning of January 23, the day after the news broke of Griesemer’s threats against CNN, the president took to Twitter to mock…yep, you guessed it… “Fake News CNN.”Nikolas Cruz, February 2018On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.According to an investigation by CNN, Cruz was part of a private Instagram group in which he “repeatedly espoused racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views” and “bragged about writing a letter to President Donald Trump-- and receiving a response.”Cruz also posted a photo of himself on Instagram wearing one of Trump’s signature red MAGA hats, with an American-flag-colored bandana covering the bottom half of his face. Former classmates have confirmed that he also wore the red Trump hat to school.Trump’s response? The White House has never confirmed or denied whether they received, or responded to, a letter from Cruz.
