Two Southeastern Minnesota county Republican Party units may out-extreme their counterparts in western and central Minnesota.
Last week, Bluestem posted about public events sponsored by local Minnesota Republican party units featuring extremists and conspiracy theorists. There was West, Central Minnesota Republican Senate district BPOUs sponsor Sheriff Richard Mack, the same day the Associated Press published A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country, exploring Mack's Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.
We're not sure why Republican party units in Senate District 12 (Westrom, GOP), Senate District 13 (Howe. GOP) and Senate District 14 (Putnam, DFL) think this will build the party brand in the era of the trifecta.
Then there was Chapter 2: MN Republican BPOU party units normalizing extremists, conspiracy theories,in we explored Republican Senate Districts 13 and 14 presenting anti-Agenda 12 Bircher conspiracy theorist Tom DeWeese.
But as the Fillmore and Goodhue County Republicans flyer for a special event posted above demonstrates, their peers elsewhere in greater Minnesota may be left in the dust of genuine wack-a-doodleism in Mabel on Monday.
Bluestem believes human trafficking--including sex trafficking--is a problem. Indeed, many of our neighbors here on the Lake Traverse Reservation still mourn family members lost and have been active in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIW and MMIR).
But speaker Cathy O'Brien's story is another matter. Her Wikipedia entry, Cathy O'Brien (conspiracy theorist) begins:
Cathy O'Brien (born December 4, 1957) is an American conspiracy theorist and author who claims to have been a victim of a government mind control program called "Project Monarch", which she alleges was part of the CIA's Project MKUltra.[1][2][3][4][5] O'Brien made these assertions in Trance Formation of America (1995) and Access Denied: For Reasons of National Security (2004), both of which she co-authored and self-published with her husband, Mark Phillips.[1] According to scholars, there is no credible evidence for O'Brien's claims and there are numerous inconsistencies with her story.[5]
Conspiracy theories
In Trance Formation of America, O'Brien claims that as a child, she was first sexually abused by her father as well as by a network of child pornographers. Supposedly, she was then forced by the CIA to participate in Project Monarch, which she claims is a subsection of Project MKUltra and Project ARTICHOKE. According to O'Brien, under hypnosis she was able to recall memories of sexual abuse — of both herself and her daughter — by international pedophile rings, drug barons, and satanists, who allegedly used a form of "trauma based mind control programming" to make her a sex slave.[2][3][4][5]
O'Brien accuses a wide range of prominent individuals — from American, Canadian, Mexican, and Saudi Arabian government officials, to stars of the country music scene — of being part of a Project Monarch conspiracy to operate sex slave rings and commit child abuse.[6] For example, O'Brien claims that George H. W. Bush and Miguel de la Madrid used holograms to appear to her in altered forms, saying that "Bush apparently activated a hologram of the lizard-like 'alien,' which provided the illusion of Bush transforming like a chameleon before my eyes. In retrospect, I understand that Bush had been painstakingly careful in positioning our seats in order that the hologram's effectiveness be maximized."[1]: 167, 211
O'Brien claims Project Monarch caused her to develop multiple personality disorder but during alternate personality episodes, she has photographic recall.[1] O'Brien's Trance Formation of America has been credited as originating "one of the most significant" and "extreme" mind control conspiracy theories, and her claim of links between satanic ritual abuse and MKUltra have influenced popular conspiracy culture.[7]
Religious and political scholars have criticized O'Brien's claims for their lack of any supporting evidence. David G. Robertson characterized them as symptomatic of "baseless" moral panic and noted that "no-one has ever been prosecuted of such crimes nor has any corroborating material evidence ever been produced".[8] According to scholar Michael Barkun, "scholarly and journalistic treatments of MKUltra make no mention of a Project Monarch". Barkun describes O'Brien's account as "sensational even by the standards of conspiracy literature" and notes that even black helicopter conspiracy theorist Jim Keith considered it "fraudulent or delusional".[5] Jodi Dean cited O'Brien's claims as an example of conspiracy theorists' tendency to excessive "leaps in imagination and willingness to deviate from common sense".[9]
Her marketing of this drivel with her husband pre-dates Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy theories. Perhaps proof there's an audience for this sort thing. Religion Wiki notes:
Within the subculture of conspiracy believers, O'Brien has her critics. Writing in his book, Cyberculture Counterconspiracy: A Steamshovel Web Reader, author Kenn Thomas states that conspiracy author Martin Cannon considers both O'Brien and Phillips to be "frauds" who are using real details of Project Monarch to "embellish a dog and pony show", presumably for financial gain.[2] Mattias Gardell notes that O'Brien's claims are almost entirely unsupported by any evidence outside her testimony or the similarly unverified testimony of others,[8] and studies of MKULTRA have produced no mention of Project Monarch.[6]
We're not sure who Pamela Miller is (nor does the news brief in the Driftless Journal tell us), but Phillip Parrish, a resident of Kenyon, is a familiar figure in Minnesota right fringe Republican politics, having run for state party chair and sought multiple statewide offices, though he's never actually made it on a ballot as far as Bluestem remembers.
His last big hurrahs? In 2021, the Star Tribune's Stephen Montemayor reported in Minnesota GOP's lone secretary of state candidate leaves party:
The Minnesota GOP's only candidate so far for secretary of state is no longer running as a Republican.
Phillip Parrish, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Kenyon, Minn., on Monday resigned from state and local Republican Party affiliation in a letter to Goodhue County GOP leadership, days after coming up short in his bid to become the new state party chair.
Parrish lost to former Senate minority leader David Hann in Saturday's election to replace Jennifer Carnahan, who resigned amid controversy in August. On Monday, Parrish insisted that his decision to leave the party was not tied to Hann's victory but rather a decision that "has been coming for several months."
"I leave the MNGOP battlefield knowing I did everything humanly possible to help," Parrish wrote in a letter to Goodhue County BPOU Chair Ernie Stone. "The 236 members out of 335 voting members of the governing body chose to continue the MNGOP organization as it stands."
Parrish wrote that he has been with the Republican Party for 41 years. He previously mounted unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and for governor in 2018. Parrish alleged that he witnessed "a level of dishonesty and political gamesmanship that was more than typical" in the past week, without providing specifics.
"The level of dysfunction, inefficient use of financial resources, and unethical behaviors are more than politics as usual," Parrish wrote, adding that "it is unethical and inappropriate" to pursue his candidacy to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon as a Republican. . . .
That's certainly a superlative choice for speaker at a party event. And there's more. Days later, Montemayor reported in Phillip Parrish, GOP secretary of state candidate, exits race:
Minnesota secretary of state candidate Phillip Parrish — who disavowed the Minnesota GOP earlier this month after failing to become its chair — is now leaving the race.
Parrish, a former U.S. naval intelligence officer from Kenyon, Minn., said Friday that he was withdrawing from the race based on the toll his campaign has taken on his family and his differences with the state Republican Party's endorsement process.
"Recently, people I care deeply about helped me to understand that some of my personal aspirations cause significant anxiety and distress," Parrish said in a statement Friday.
Parrish filed in March to challenge Secretary of State Steve Simon as a Republican. After failing to become the Minnesota Republican Party's chair earlier this month, Parrish left the Minnesota GOP but said that he would still run as a Republican.
Parrish previously unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and for governor in 2018. Parrish has said that he does not believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected president, and his public social media pages include repeated election and COVID-19 conspiracy theories and a prediction that "mass civil war will break out before 2022."
His Friday announcement accused GOP operatives and officials of "demanding I change certain narratives or positions under the pretense of their personal calculation of what is more electable." He did not say who pressed him to change his public positions.
He seems nice and reliable.
This should be one heckova program, especially if O'Brien shares about Chameleon George H.W.Bush. Perhaps her experience explains those Lizard People write-in votes discovered in the 2008 Coleman-Franken senatorial recount.
Perhaps DFLers can launch some commonsense programming about child care, affordable housing, and yes, mental health care. Perhaps some community building could turn these counties into the next Rochester, the nearby urban center which has been trending blue in the past decade.
God's children--and any person's children--shouldn't be for sale. Neither should anyone's critical thinking.
Image: Event flyer, via Fillmore County Republicans Facebook page.
Related posts
- Chapter 2: MN Republican BPOU party units normalizing extremists, conspiracy theories
- West, Central Minnesota Republican Senate district BPOUs sponsor Sheriff Richard Mack
- Republican gubernatorial candidate Phillip Parrish won't talk with interfaith leader about faith because "Islam is ultimately not a faith"
- Guy worried about Dem "globalists” & “elitists” returns to work overseas as intelligence officer
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