This column was first published on Ray Hartmann's St. Louis Insider on Substack.
I was about 10 minutes away from publishing a Substack on Wednesday related to the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City when headlines about shots being fired there started to flood my mobile devices.
Obviously, I paused that one. But now I can share an updated version with you, having just returned from the cave of the Missouri Freedom Caucus.
It’s creepier than their original creepiness.
What I had planned to write about was that members of the caucus had gotten their manly panties in quite a wad over Republican Senate leadership having adjourned for the weekend Tuesday so members could attend the parade. Mind you, these are the members whose brains are sufficiently calcified as to regard as RINO traitors the likes of Governor Mike Parson, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden and Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin.
The Whacked Out Ones were especially outraged that taking part in a parade was a higher priority than taking away the democratic voting rights of Missourians. The Senate attack on democracy du jour — SJR 74 — would do just that by making it much harder for Missouri voters to amend the state Constitution at the ballot box.
“No Senate Missouri Freedom Caucus members will be at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade tomorrow,” proclaimed a tweet Tuesday from the caucus. “We need to prioritize SJR74 and get it passed instead of going to the parade! #moleg @MissouriGOP”
Republican Sens. Rick Brattin and Denny Hoskins chimed in that they would not be attending the parade. Such powerful expressions of statesmanship.
From my subversive, liberal perch, I had planned to offer a conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory. You see, the parade was an attempt to spread the lie that the Kansas City Chiefs had won the Super Bowl legitimately – an attempt to obscure the reality that the outcome was “rigged” to help Taylor Swift help President Joe Biden get reelected.
The details of the conspiracy get a little fuzzy when you consider that the direct victims of the rigging were the San Francisco 49ers. Since this team plays in a woke, Communist city run by Democrats illegal immigrants who recently outlawed heterosexuality, only the complex minds of Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and Alex Jones can actually explain how this all works. Perhaps they’ll get around to it.
I refrained from posting about this in light of the horrible tragedy that occurred. The people of Kansas City and their wonderful football team deserve better than to live in a world when they can’t celebrate their achievement without fear of getting sprayed by bullets.
But that’s the world we live in. And on cue the very next day, the Missouri Freedom Caucus quickly advanced the story by helping spread a new conspiracy theory: This tragedy was the handiwork was the work of an illegal immigrant.
The caucus retweeted a Brattin retweet of some murky Twitter account called “Deep Truth Intel.” It was accompanied by a picture of a large, man — apparently a Brown, Hispanic man — dressed in red, who appears to be handcuffed in the custody of police.
The tweet read: “The Kansas City Super Bowl Parade shooter has been identified as 44-year-old Sahil Omar, an illegal immigrant. Related or not, there was a bombing in Fort Worth, Texas on January 8th. The original report named a Sahil Omar as the possible bomber.”
Oh, it was related, all right.
Mr. Sahil Omar has quite a resume for someone who may very well not exist. It seems that Mr. Omar was not only named initially as a suspect for the Fort Worth bombing, but also for an explosion last November 22 at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls and a shooting in December at the University of Las Vegas.
Mr. Omar gets around. He’s like the George Soros of terrorist acts. As to the photos retweeted by Brattin and the Missouri Freedom Caucus, it’s pretty certain that whoever this man is that they display, he’s not Sahil Omar, if such a person even exists at all.
And it was also obvious that the photo of Omar was not taken at the Super Bowl parade or any other horrific crime scene. The link to Kansas City was as fake as all the rest. Police have detained two juvenile teens — and there has been no suggestion that either is an immigrant, much less an undocumented one.
Now, it appears that, without apology, the post and accompanying photos have been deleted from the accounts of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, Brattin and even whatever this “Deep Truth Intel” thing is. Not sure why. But I have an idea.
I’m also not sure when it was taken down — I took my screenshots (below) of the tweets late Thursday morning — but it wasn’t before the Missouri Freedom Caucus had time to follow it up with a tweet claiming, “These are the 3 people arrested at the parade…at least one of those arrested is allegedly an illegal immigrant. CLOSE OUR BORDERS!”
I’m sure it wasn’t taken down before plenty of people who follow Brattin and the Caucus got their brains washed.
The follow-up tweet also appears to have been deleted.
Too bad the same cannot be said of the Missouri Freedom Caucus.
Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times. Read his insights by subscribing to Ray Hartmann's St. Louis Insider on Substack.
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