"In March, [Cesar Sayoc] cheered on Republican tax policies, saying, 'You don’t have pay taxes on bonus yea Trump Trump Trump.'"

"In June, he tweeted a birthday card to Mr. Trump and wrote: 'Happy Birthday to greatest gift from God President Trump Trump Trump. The greatest result President ever and economy for all American Soaring 2016-2024 Trump Trump Trump.' And on Twitter, he began to attack prominent liberals, especially those who had either criticized or been criticized by Mr. Trump. He called Lena Dunham... 'Hollywood slime'.... He became obsessed with David Hogg...  accusing him of being a 'fake fraud' and being paid by the billionaire George Soros... In recent months... [h]is posts took on a darker, more obsessive tone, often accompanied by threats of violence and gory images of bloody animal carcasses...."

From "Cesar Sayoc’s Path on Social Media: From Food Photos to Partisan Fury" (NYT).

Cesar Sayoc was "a stripper with a ‘steroid problem.'"

As the NY Post puts it. I'm hanging out with the NY Post this morning, for some reason. I see a Cesar Sayoc story, so I will throw this one at you, because I can see from the comments yesterday that you really, really want to talk about this man, whose name I refrained even from writing yesterday. There are 3 quotes from my mother that I heard time and again when I was growing up and that spring to the front of my mind when I think about this news story: 1. "He's only trying to get attention," 2. "Ignore him," and 3. "You'll only encourage him."

It's absurd that a nobody can be the one the whole world talks about for days on end. It was so easy. Now, the upside is, he showed how to do it without hurting anyone (other than maybe scaring some people a bit). Maybe in the future, somebody who's thinking they should shoot up a school/movie theater/nightclub/outdoor concert will seek recognition in this all-scare-no-physical-pain way. But I still believe in my mother's ignore-him strategy.

Don't leverage losers.

And also, don't pleasure yourself over the manifestations of the mentally ill. It's not a show for your amusement — not a horror show and not a comedy. The fact that a mentally ill person can do damage and hurt real people is a reason to be vigilant and to find ways to identify and help or at least restrain those who are dangerously mentally ill. And let's not ourselves lean into mental illness! What is the sane and rational way to live in a world where our fellow beings operate from brains and brains malfunction (and are never really perfect, if there even is such a thing)? Going wild and gawking at The Cesar Sayoc Show for a week is surely not the answer.

In 2010, he posted a photo collage on Facebook showing himself shirtless and flexing his muscles.

“If birds didnt fly south for the winter and sun didnt rise in the east would tomorrow come.” he bizarrely commented on the photo.

"Federal authorities made an arrest on Friday in connection with the nationwide bombing campaign against outspoken critics of President Trump..."

"... a significant breakthrough in a case that has gripped the country in the days leading up to the midterm elections. It was not immediately clear who had been taken into custody, but a man was arrested in Florida, just north of Miami, three law-enforcement officials said. One of them said the man was in his 50s. Florida news organizations reported that the authorities had surrounded a white van with Trump stickers on it."

The NYT reports.

ADDED: The WaPo article does not mention the Trump stickers on the van — "Man in Florida arrested in connection with mail bombs sent to public figures." Key sentence: "fter news of the arrest broke, FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel could be seen in news footage draping a blue tarp over a van in a South Florida parking lot."

AND: Can you see the Trump stickers?

The van is covered with President Trump pictures and stickers ⁦@NBC6⁩ pic.twitter.com/pdVOTwE36S

— Dan Krauth (@DanNBC6) October 26, 2018

MORE: Info on a specific person at various sources, including Heavy. It says he's a Republican and "a promoter, booking agent and choreographer of a male stripping show as well as burlesque shows in the Miami-area."

It's funny...

Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not Presidential!”

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018

So far...

So far, law enforcement says they aren't "explosive devices." Hoax devices made to appear dangerous. https://t.co/Nh8EJQzllm

— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) October 25, 2018

An image bigger than The Caravan fills the pre-midterm American mind: BOMBS!!

The main link goes to a Reuters article, "Obama, Clinton among targets of suspected bombs ahead of U.S. election":

At least eight suspicious parcels were intercepted before reaching any intended recipients, including Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan and prominent Democratic Party donor George Soros. Two packages were sent to California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the FBI said. Investigators were trying to track down another suspicious parcel they believe was addressed to Obama's vice president, Joe Biden, a federal official told Reuters late on Wednesday.

None of the eight packages detonated, and nobody was hurt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Does "None of the eight packages detonated" mean that the packages looked suspicious but were not actually bombs or that they were indeed bombs but the bombs didn't blow up? I see that what was sent to Soros was "detonated by police," which sounds like there was no test to determine whether the device itself would detonate, and that the evidence was destroyed, ostensibly for safety. Does that mean we don't and will never know if these things were real bombs?

But news of the bomb threats heightened tension in a nation deeply polarized ahead of elections on Nov. 6.... Some leading Democrats were quick to accuse Trump himself of stoking the potential for political violence by frequently engaging in hyper-partisan, vitriolic rhetoric....  All of the targets are frequently maligned by right-wing critics....

So the packages are something that work as a political springboard. If the question is who benefits?, the answer is the Democrats. As the post title indicates, this is great distraction. I remember when anthrax in the mail was able to distract us from jet airplanes flying into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon back in 2001. America is very sensitive to the intrusion that is the mail.

At an event in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, [former CIA Director John Brennan , one of the addressees of the packages] faulted Trump for frequent inflammatory rhetoric, saying the president "too often has helped incite some of these feelings of anger, if not violence, when he points to acts of violence. He should not be beating the tom-toms of anger and animosity and war," said the former CIA chief, whose security clearance was revoked by Trump after he criticized the president's summit earlier this year with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Tom-toms of anger"? Can I distract you with a discussion of political correctness? To my ear, "tom-toms of anger" sounds like you're talking about something like this.

IN THE COMMENTS: Tommy Duncan quotes the NYT article, "Pipe Bombs Sent to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and CNN Offices":

None of the devices harmed anyone, and it was not immediately clear whether any of them could have. One law enforcement official said investigators were examining the possibility that they were hoax devices that were constructed to look like bombs but would not have exploded.

Why does the headline call them "bombs" if they might be fake bombs?