Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Jan 13th, 2011

Summary: Information about Tucson shooter Jared Loughner’s mental state, signs and symptoms of mental illness, and his likely diagnosis according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.



Summary: The writings of Jared Lee Loughner, would-be assassin of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, provide no evidence of a cognitively consistent set of political beliefs or even a coherent ideological orientation. However, his writings do reveal signs of thought disorder, pointing to the possibility of an undiagnosed mental illness of a psychotic nature. There is no direct evidence that Loughner thoughts or actions were specifically influenced by incendiary political rhetoric such as Sarah Palin’s “target list” or Michele Bachmann’s provocative “armed and dangerous” remarks or her paranoid conspiracies — for example, AmeriCorps youth brainwashing, “one-world currency,” or the U.S. census. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that CIA bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, in a videotape released posthumously by the Pakistani Taliban, called on Muslim jihadists worldwide to avenge the death of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in an August 2009 U.S. missile strike, by attacking U.S. targets. Immelman also featured new details about the sequence of events in the Dec. 30, 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA personnel and contractors at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan.


Jun 16th, 2010

Summary: The growing fear among some citizens of losing their rights and freedoms has created a political backlash toward the U.S. government and manifested itself in violent rhetoric and anti-government groups who want to “take their country back.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews takes a hard look at the recent surge of anger on the political right in “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews.” In this blog entry, Aubrey Immelman chronicles the rise of rightwing extremism in America following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in November 2008. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea threatened a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” if provoked by the U.S., but that U.S. officials were downplaying any imminent threat to the United States of a North Korean missile strike or confrontation between the two countries at sea.


Sep 2nd, 2009

Summary: In a fiery speech at an Independence Institute fundraiser in Denver that at times sounded more like the plot of a slasher movie, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann railed against the dangers of health care reform and other Democratic initiatives, warning the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever” and calling on her audience to “make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 50th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reminded voters that there was just one week left until the Tuesday, September 9, 2008 Minnesota state primary election, offering disaffected Republicans, independents, and Democrats an opportunity to vote Rep. Bachmann out of office.



Summary: Video montage of the bizarre Rep. Michele Bachmann’s more memorable televised statements of the past year, accompanied by the soundtrack of the song “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 23rd day of his 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman provided a forum for Sauk Rapids resident Jason Krueger, who volunteers as the Minnesota representative for the Fluoride Action Network, to express his views on the issue of water fluoridation. As a public service announcement to help draw attention to the sacrifice of National Guard citizen soldiers serving in Iraq and the families they leave behind, Immelman featured Part 4 of the Associated Press series, “The Longest Deployment” (the story of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard and its tour of duty in Iraq).


Jul 10th, 2009

Comprehensive summary and documentation of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s extremist rhetoric, incendiary demagoguery, and misrepresentation since her 2008 reelection to the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.


May 20th, 2009

Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on talk radio with end-times pastor Jan Markell to discuss the “Criminalization of Christianity,” where in the past she held forth on topics ranging from homosexuality to the Second Coming; but this time, her topic was the labeling of Christians as terrorists.


Apr 19th, 2009

Summary: At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb containing approximately 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800 at the hands of Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil until the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack.


Mar 24th, 2009

Summary: On Saturday afternoon, March 21, 2009 Rep. Michele Bachmann said on WWTC 1280 AM radio that she wants people in Minnesota “armed and dangerous” on the issue of an energy tax, “because we need to fight back” and “having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.” Eric Ostermeier reported Bachmann’s remarks on “Smart Politics,” the blog of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, where it was picked up by other media outlets.