Report: Bomb suspect relished in conspiracy theories

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mail bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc lived in an alternate universe where monstrous reptiles stalk people in Florida’s Everglades, a malevolent Jewish billionaire pays American children to stage school shootings and German politicians are secretly being conceived using Adolf Hitler’s frozen sperm.

Sayoc’s hallucinatory world, pieced together by The Associated Press from the digital residue of his now-disabled Twitter accounts, gives a hint of the toxic news diet of the Florida man who stands accused of mailing pipe bombs to more than a dozen of the United States’ most prominent left-leaning public figures. But Sayoc’s stew of animal gore and partisan hate does more than provide insight into the man arrested in his van in Miami on Friday. It also gives a taste of how conspiracy theories are finding an increased salience in American public sphere — and a sometime-eager purveyor in the White House.

“They are more prominent in our political discourse,” said Joseph Uscinski, the co-author of “American Conspiracy Theories,” who explained that President Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016 in part by bringing “conspiracy-minded Republicans” to the polling booths.

Trump has since disavowed one of his trademark conspiracies — the lie that Barak Obama was born in Kenya — but he continues to cling to others, including the false claims that he saw thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks on television and that millions of undocumented immigrants voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

“You have to dance with the person who takes you to the prom,” said Uscinski. “He has to keep motivating these people, keep speaking their language.”

It’s a language that can easily tip into paranoia and violent threats, Sayoc’s posts suggest.

His Twitter feeds included references to bogus allegations that passenger aircraft were spraying the atmosphere with brain-altering poisons and that Clinton indulged in child sacrifice. One particularly off-the-wall story claimed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was created in a Soviet experiment to resurrect Hitler using a secret stash of the Nazi dictator’s sperm.

The feeds also featured gruesome photos of pythons choking on oversize prey, headless goats oozing blood and a video of a giant alligator seen waddling across a Florida golf course. Sayoc seemed fixated on people who’d gone missing in the Everglades, posting often about reports that humans had been swallowed by snakes or crocodiles along with oblique threats to progressives that they would meet a similar fate. A frequent target for his rage were the high school shooting survivors from Parkland, Florida, some of whom became targets of right-wing hate when they began lobbying for gun control earlier this year.

Sayoc was also obsessed with George Soros, the Jewish investor who long served as a boogeyman for neo-Nazis and anti-Semites around the world and has, in the past couple of years, served as a Republican punching bag too. At one point, Sayoc painted the 88-year-old as a literal child-eating fiend. In more than 40 different posts, he accused him of paying Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg to help fake the massacre.

Minus some of the weirder posts and occasionally incomprehensible grammar, Sayoc’s online rages weren’t so far removed from the social media angst of the commander in chief.

The Soros obsession mirrors the preoccupations of Trump himself, who recently accused the Hungarian-born investor of financing anti-Trump protests and chuckled as supporters called for the Holocaust survivor to be thrown in prison.

Sayoc also rated Fox News’ conspiracy-happy Sean Hannity as one of his favorite hosts, just like the president, and railed against occasionally independent-minded Republicans such as Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Jeff Flake, just like the president. Like Trump, Sayoc despised CNN, posting a photo montage on July 2 that appeared to threaten its New York headquarters with an inferno. And also like Trump, who exults in degrading his opponents with mean nicknames, Sayoc came up with his own pet vocabulary for the targets of his ire, calling them “slime,” ‘’con job,” ‘’phony” or “fraud” in repetitive screeds.

“Elizabeth Warren fake Phony, Fraud lies con job,” was one such message, directed at the Massachusetts senator in a dig at her claim to Native American ancestry.

“We have her birth record and factual facts,” Sayoc said of the senator, who happens to also be a favorite target of Trump’s rants. “She has low cheek bones. She is a criminal.”

Trump, who often sources his claims to anonymous people or to what “a lot of people are saying,” has in turn accused the media of making up stories about him and his partisans, a theme he returned to only hours after Sayoc was brought into custody.

“We have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me and the Republican Party,” Trump told supporters at a rally in North Carolina on Friday.

But it was Trump who talked politics as the explosives made their way through the nation’s mail system. Critics said Trump boosted conspiracy theories floated by his media allies that the devices weren’t real when he put the word “bomb” in quotation marks. Trump also complained that the incidents were blunting his party’s momentum ahead of the midterm elections next month.

Adam Enders, who has studied conspiracy theory at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, said there was no evidence Republicans were any more conspiratorial than Democrats — a point also made by Uscinski. But Enders did say that the promotion of paranoid thinking by Trump and others at the highest levels of the Republican establishment might have a hardening effect on those already ensconced in conspiracy theories.

“The people that are already there, or close to being there, it legitimizes those ideas,” he said.

Vivian Maness

Vivian Maness of Iola went to be with the Lord at Allen County Regional Hospital on Oct. 27, 2018. She was 91. She was surrounded by family at the time of her passing.

Illah Vivian Lamphear was born Feb. 11, 1927 on a farm in McDonald County, Mo., she was the daughter of Joseph E. and Minnie Evaline (Francisco) Lamphear. The family moved to Wheaton, Mo., in 1942 when the farm where they had previously lived was acquired by the government for Camp Crowder, a military camp during World War II.

While living in Wheaton, Vivian met Sterling E. Maness, Jr. They were married July 29, 1945, when Sterling returned from the war. They made their home in Wheaton, Mo. Later they moved to Wichita, and in 1963 they moved to Iola.

Vivian attended nursing school in Chanute. She worked as an LPN for 26 years, in area nursing homes. She retired after spending 21 years at Country Side Estates in Iola.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1981, and three grandchildren. Survivors include one son, Bill Maness, and wife Erin, Iola; four daughters, Rosalie Howell, and husband Wayne, Topeka; Nancey Haen, Chanute; Barbara Troxel, Newton, and Sonya Maness-Turner and husband, Charles Turner II, Jacksonville, Fla.; 19 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren.

Services will be at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel, Iola, at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. Anthony Maness will officiate. Interment will follow at Highland Cemetery in Iola, Kansas. Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Francette Veteto

Francette Veteto, loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, went to be with her Lord and Savior on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Francette was born to parents Clay and Cecile Lightner in Louisburg, on Aug. 16, 1923. Her mother was a French War Bride from La Rochelle, France, and her father was an American soldier that met at the end of World War I. Francette grew up in Iola, and attended Iola schools. In 1932, her father died in a tragic work accident southwest of Iola, leaving her mother to raise her and her siblings during the Great Depression. In 1941, she won the “Miss Iola” style and beauty contest and later graduated from Iola High School in 1942. On Oct. 2, 1943, she married Howard G. Veteto in Iola. She and her husband made their home west of Colony, where Howard operated a farm and landscaping business.

Both Howard and Francette placed their faith in Jesus Christ and were devout Christians. Francette served the Lord through teaching Sunday School and the Colony Good News Club. She and her husband were also active in supporting Christian missionary work and took many trips to foreign mission fields. They had a strong desire to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the world.

Francette was preceded in death by her parents, sister Mary Lightner, brothers William Lightner, Harry Lightner who was killed in action during World War II and John Lightner, husband Howard Veteto, daughter Claudette Wright, and great-granddaughter Claudette Elyse Elliott.

Survivors include 5 children, Sherry Veteto of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Candie Shanahan and her husband Scott of Paola, Rochelle Clayton and her husband Doug of Chattanooga, Tenn., Jeanne McVietty and her husband Greg of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Mark Veteto and his wife Ruth of Lee’s Summit, Mo.; son in law Terry Wright of Overland Park; 19 grandchildren 38 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday at the First Baptist Church, Iola. The family will greet friends from 10 a.m. until the time of the service on Thursday at the church. Burial will follow in the Highland Cemetery, Iola. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimers Association (www.alz.org) and left in care of the funeral home. Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Anti-vaccine ads appear on billboards

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Anti-vaccine billboards claiming that routine childhood shots are deadly have popped up in several West Virginia cities.

They warn that the son of former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Nick Catone died from a vaccine, though the infant’s death was officially ruled to be sudden infant death syndrome.

A physician director for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, Dr. Michael Kilkenny, says the case is tragic but the medical community’s consensus that vaccines are safe and effective remains unchanged. The Herald-Dispatch reported Sunday that the messages have appeared this month in Parkersburg, Dunbar and Huntington as part of a national campaign by the nonprofit Learn The Risk group. More than 30 similar billboards have cropped up in Pennsylvania, New York and other states.

A look back in time

30 Years Ago
October 1988

The Marmaton Valley High School Marching Wildcat band has been invited to appear at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., on Dec. 23. For USD 256 band director Larry Lillard, the opportunity is a dream come true. Almost half the student body comprises the 57-member band. They already have begun the daunting challenge of raising the $12,369 the trip will cost.

*****

A radical drop in gasoline prices to 59.9 cents per gallon Saturday at Wood’s Mini-Mart at West Madison and State streets had cars lining up. According to Sandy Lakin, an employee at the station, the drop in price was an attempt to empty the ground tanks so that new ones could be laid. Work on the tanks is expected to start today.

 

Curry carries Golden State past Nets

NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Curry set another NBA record by making seven 3-pointers and finished with 35 points as the Golden State Warriors held on to beat the Brooklyn Nets 120-114 on Sunday.

Kevin Durant added 34 for the Warriors, who appeared on their way to another easy win before the Nets made it close with some sizzling 3-point shooting.

Curry finally turned them back when his final 3-pointer made it 115-108 with 1:07 to play. He has made at least five 3s in all seven games, breaking George McCloud’s record of six games in a row during the 1995-96 season.

But Klay Thompson continued to struggle behind the arc, going 1 for 5 and falling to 5 for 36 this season. He finished with 18 points and still hasn’t had a 20-point outing this season.

D’Angelo Russell scored 25 points and Caris LeVert had 23 for the Nets, who made 20 3-pointers in 42 attempts.

THUNDER 117,
SUNS 110

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Paul George and Russell Westbrook each scored 23 points, and Oklahoma City got its first win of the season.

Nerlens Noel had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Patrick Patterson added 17 points for the Thunder.

Rookie Elie Okobo scored 18 points and No. 1 overall draft pick Deandre Ayton added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Phoenix. Devin Booker, who entered the day as the league’s ninth-best scorer at 27.8 points per game, sat out his second straight game with a left hamstring strain.

Oklahoma City’s victory left the Cleveland Cavaliers, who fired coach Tyronn Lue on Sunday, as the league’s only winless team.

JAZZ 113,
MAVERICKS 104

DALLAS (AP) — Rudy Gobert and De Andre Jordan recorded their sixth straight double-doubles in six games this season to lead Utah.

Gobert finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds, and Jordan added 12 points, 4 for 4 from the line, 19 rebounds and a career-high nine assists.

The Jazz overcame 18 turnovers and won going away after taking a five-point lead, 82-77, into the fourth quarter.

Donovan Mitchell scored 20 points for Utah. Jae Crowder added 15 points and Joe Ingles had 12. Dennis Smith Jr. had 21 of his game-high 27 points in the second half.

Forums ahead

A public forum about the particulars of a new elementary school for USD 257 will be at 6 o’clock Monday night at Lincoln Elementary School.

On Tuesday, Allen County Farm Bureau will host candidates for county commission at 6:30 p.m. at LaHarpe City Hall. Scheduled to attend are Jerry Daniels, Mike Bruner, Bruce Symes, Steve Henderson and John Brocker.

 

Michael Gean

Michael Earl Gean, age 46, of Humboldt, died Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, at his home. He was born on Feb. 22, 1972, in Granite City, Ill., to Glenn Gean and Judy Hodges Watring.

He married Lezlie Tomlinson on Oct. 17, 1998, in Humboldt. She precedes him in death.

Survivors include sons, Ryan Gean, Chanute, Garron Gean, Evan Gean and Aiden Gean, all of Humboldt; one daughter, Madison Gean, Humboldt; and numerous other relatives.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2, 2018, at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel, Iola.

Memorials are suggested to the Michael Gean Memorial Fund.

Charles Miller

Memorial services for Charles J. Miller, 73, Savonburg, are pending and will be announced at a later date.

He died Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, at his son’s home in Lawrence.

He was born June 12, 1945, in Chanute, to Charles Wesley and Dorothy Maxine Franklin Miller.  Charles married Phyllis Ann David on Dec. 20, 1963, in Moran. She survives.

Other survivors include his children Joe Miller, Lawrence, Randy Miller, Yates Center, Needa Brand, Savonburg, Jamie Miller, Iola, David Miller, Savonburg; and other relatives.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana St., Lawrence, KS 66044.

Dr. George F. McDuffee Jr., former resident of Iola, passed away Oct. 17, 2018 in Coffeyville. He was 79. He is survived by his brother, Colonel Frank W. McDuffee, USMC (Ret.), of Fayetteville, Ark. Funeral arrangements by Ford Wulf Bruns Chapel in Coffeyville.

From 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, there will be an informal “drop by” fellowship period of remembrances of George’s life at his favorite restaurant, El Pueblito, 600 Northeast St., Coffeyville. Dining and beverages provided.

Full obituary at: www.fordwulfbrunschapel.com.

George F. McDuffee Jr.

Dr. George F. McDuffee Jr., former resident of Iola, passed away Oct. 17, 2018 in Coffeyville. He was 79. He is survived by his brother, Colonel Frank W. McDuffee, USMC (Ret.), of Fayetteville, Ark. Funeral arrangements by Ford Wulf Bruns Chapel in Coffeyville.

From 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, there will be an informal “drop by” fellowship period of remembrances of George’s life at his favorite restaurant, El Pueblito, 600 Northeast St., Coffeyville. Dining and beverages provided.

Full obituary at: www.fordwulfbrunschapel