The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

An Odd Sequel to the Bubba/‘Brittni’ Saga

Posted on | February 26, 2026 | No Comments

The late Fred ‘Bubba’ Copleand (left) as ‘Brittni Summerlin’ (right)

It’s been more than two years and most readers have probably forgotten the disturbing story of the late Fred “Bubba” Copeland:

Copeland was the mayor of Smiths Station, a town of less than 7,000 people in Lee County, Alabama. He was also a freakazoid, secretly pursuing transgender fantasies that he posted online using a persona he called “Brittini Blaire Summerlin.”

Habitually working in “file-it-and-forget-it” mode, the tragic tale of Bubba/“Brittini” hadn’t crossed my mind recently, but then Glenn Reynolds called attention to a campus controversy:

The TPUSA chapter at the University of Montevallo rescheduled the mid-February “Change My Mind”-style event after administrators postponed the original date, citing safety concerns.
Now scheduled for March 5, it will still feature conservative commentator and 1819 News founder Bryan Dawson and be a “pick up the mic” format encouraging open debate, according to TPUSA Montevallo’s Instagram page.
“Montevallo caved to the liberal mob on campus who staged a walkout as a protest for the university allowing me to speak,” Dawson posted on his Facebook page. “Montevallo cancelled the TPUSA event citing this and security concerns due to death threats towards me.”
Dawson’s planned appearance had prompted a walkout by several dozen students earlier in the month who said they felt unsafe with the speaker selection, citing his criminal past, the Vallo Vision News reported.

You might not be able to add the 2+2 connection there, so I will give you further information from the Montevallo student newspaper:

Organizers say they consider the [walkout] a success, with 20 to 30 students taking part.
Dawson is president and CEO of conservative news outlet 1819 [News], and student protesters are upset with his invitation to campus. . . .
Protest organizers, who asked to be identified only as A.O. and J.S., believe this decision will only bring harm to their already hurting university. A.O. says if they were an incoming freshman on a campus tour and “someone with that background was sitting in front of a place, one of two places to eat on campus, I probably wouldn’t have ended up here.”
“That background” referring to Dawson’s felony filled background of cocaine trafficking, serial car theft, attempted murder and the releasing of information that led to the suicide of Alabama mayor and pastor Fred “Bubba” Copeland.

A-ha! So now we know what it’s really about: The students regard Dawson as persona non grata because it was his site that exposed Bubba/“Brittini,” who committed suicide a few days after the first story about the mayor’s freakazoid life was published by 1819 News.

Let me now remind you, however, that in his/“her” online persona, Bubba/“Brittini” appears to have harmed real people that he/“she” knew in real life, using their names and photos:

Ansley Summerlin, who alleged Copeland used her identity, told WTVM her name and likeness appeared on multiple porn sites.
“I had some people start sending me photos that were posted of me on multiple porn sites, I guess you could say that also had pictures of ‘Brittini,’ as well,” she said. “And he proceeded to use my first and middle names on these sites. And I believe there are about nine sites now that have five or six photos of my face and my name across the net.”
The second alleged victim, identified as a “local hairstylist in Smiths Station,” also discussed her likeness being used in Copeland’s writings.
“It said my first and last name,” she said. “And it was basically describing the way that I look and intensified, I guess, as a porn star. And it went into very graphic detail. I didn’t get past the first page because I honestly couldn’t stomach it.”

Take my word for it when I tell you that this was arguably not even the worst thing that Bubba/“Brittini” did in his/“her” online fantasy persona. You can browse through the archives at 1819 News if you’re curious, or just trust me when I say that it was very, very bad.

Because of my file-it-and-forget-it habit, I hadn’t followed up on the story — like, the guy’s dead, what else is there to report? — which is why I didn’t realize that a tear-jerker sob story about Bubba/“Brittini” was published by a swanky magazine and it won a Pulitzer Prize!

The article in question omitted the most sordid aspects of what Bubba/“Brittini” did online — and I repeat, this was very, very bad stuff — and instead tried to paint the small-town mayor as a sympathetic figure victimized by an EVIL RIGHT-WING WEBSITE!

While ethical arguments about how 1819 News handled the story are worthy of discussion, I would like to point out that Taylor Lorenz has “doxxed” people who were a lot more innocent than Bubba Copeland.

The protest against Bryan Dawson was, in fact, an attempt to punish and silence 1819 News for publishing the truth about Bubba/“Brittini,” but the students also mentioned Dawson’s criminal record.

In 2007, when he was 22 years old, Bryan Dawson was a serious drug dealer in Colorado. If you know anything at all about drug dealers, you know that “serious” means capable of deadly violence. He very nearly killed a guy he suspected of being a snitch, and could have been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. A plea bargain got him a 16-year sentence, and while in prison, Dawson became a Christian. He was later released to a halfway house:

After graduating from the program, he was able to transfer his parole to Alabama, where his wife was living.
A friend of Dawson’s helped him get an affiliate relations manager job with USA Radio Networks, which syndicated several big-name talk show hosts such as Steve Deace. Dawson helped market the network’s news segments to stations across the country.
“I was the new guy. I didn’t know the rules, and so you know, I was told that this would never work when I originally pitched it to the team, but I thought it would, and it did,” Dawson said.
His success led him to work for Lee Habeeb on expanding “Our American Stories,” which gave Dawson the experience and skills he would soon use to help launch 1819 News.
Dawson said after the 2020 election, he turned his focus away from national news to the local level. That’s when Caleb Crosby with the Alabama Policy Institute called him about starting a state-focused radio show.

This is an amazing story, and one that Dawson has told at length — his testimony on the saving power of Christ. Which may explain a couple of things. First, why did 1819 News make the decision to publish that story about Bubba/“Brittini”? It may have something to do with the fact that Bubba Copeland was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” pastoring a Baptist church while engaging in heinous online behavior in his “Brittni Summerlin” persona. But surely Dawson would not have expected Copeland’s suicide, because how was Copeland’s situation worse than what Dawson himself had faced when he was sent to prison?

Christians are supposed to be courageous, able to withstand the worst through faith in Jesus, emulating the Savior who was willing to suffer death for our sake. However unfair we may consider our own suffering to be, it cannot be worse than what Jesus suffered. We ought never complain when we are chastised, because our sins give us no room to say our suffering is unjust. If we have any blessings in our life, how much more grateful to God should we be, knowing how unworthy we are?

How does God choose His servants? Those of us of Calvinist leanings ponder Romans 8:28-31, and then look at such an example as Bryan Dawson — plucked out of a prison cell and raised up for a duty that he surely never contemplated during his outlaw career in Colorado. If it pleased God to have such a servant, who are we to object, so long as Bryan is faithful to his calling and does the Lord’s work?

The decision to publish the Bubba/“Brittini” story must be considered in this light. What would I do if such a bombshell story just landed in my lap? How could any editor say no to such a story? Bryan Dawson has been widely condemned for that decision, but has repeatedly pointed out that his critics aren’t willing to reckon with the worst aspects of what Bubba Copeland did. Esquire magazine won a Pulitzer for soft-peddling the heinous nature of what Copeland was doing online, and where are the awards for the guys at 1819 News, including reporter Craig Monger, who broke the original story? Talk about an injustice . . .

Anyway, the students at the University of Montevallo who protested against Bryan Dawson’s appearance are idiots and cowards, and I’m glad they’ve failed to prevent him from speaking on campus.



 

Category: Alabama, Crime, Education, Journalism, The Transgender Cult

In The Mailbox: 02.24.26

Posted on | February 25, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I’ll be on the road for the next couple of days en route to Confinement, Mike Williamson’s mini-convention/house party outside of Nashville. Blogging may be sporadic, but I think Rule 5 Sunday and the FMJRA will get done on time. I mean, that’s what you guys are paying me the big bucks for, right?  😉
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

I mean…are openAI, Anthropic, and Google even trying?

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: What’s the Opposite of Diversity?
EBL: Queen Snapper, also, Street Sicilian Food
Twitchy: Trump’s Hilarious SOTU Dig At Pelosi Makes Her Wish She Could Rip Up His Speech All Over Again, Trump Gets Democrats To Reveal Their Main Priority With “Stand Up” Request, and TN Democrat Gov Hopeful Lies About Sen. Blackburn’s Olympic Hockey Congrats – Scores Own Goal
Louder With Crowder: Texas voter reduced to literal tears she felt forced to vote for a white man over Jasmine Crockett, California fire victims can’t rebuild, but they did receive FINES for not clearing their brush in time, Sheriff loses it after California parole board releases serial child predator serving three life sentences, Father opposed transitioning his ten-year-old son, so Iceland’s government took the kid away, and AOC and Mamdani join forces to promote taxpayer-funded childcare for illegals, and of course, it’s in a foreign language
Vox Popoli: The Pieces are in Place, The Art of War in the Taiwan Strait, You Can Be Effectively Smarter, 2 Billion Generations of Nothing, and The Ineducable Meets the Inevitable
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Non Permissive Environments
Born Lucky: A Strange (But Nevertheless Typical) Story
Jim McCoy: Writing Diverse Characters
Incensepunk Magazine: Office of New Evangelizations

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Companies Are Skeptical of Venezuela’s Oil Fields, also, Is the Nationalist Revolution in Britain Real?
American Greatness: The Left’s Elastic Principles On Judicial Authority, White House Blasts CNN & MSNOW For Ignoring Angel Family Remembrance Ceremony, Former Obama White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler Resigns From Goldman Sachs Amid Epstein Fallout, The Bigger Problem that the Tim Walz NGO Scandal Has Exposed , and AOC’s Ignorance Is No Laughing Matter
Animal Magnetism: Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 76 – An Alaskan in Texas
BattleSwarm: Texas 2026 Primary Election Roundup, American Drone Alternative To Chinese Drone Is Chinese Drone, LinkSwarm For February 20, China: Four Years Of Crashing Margin, and EPIC City Update – More Lawsuits!
Behind The Black: The weird landscape of Mars’ death valley, The exterior of Gaudí’s church masterpiece now complete after 144 years of construction, Chinese astronauts provide their perspective on the cracked Shenzhou-20 window, Webb tracks Uranus’ atmosphere over 15 hours, and NASA to return SLS to assembly building tomorrow
Cafe Hayek: Doug Irwin on Trump’s Punitive Taxes On Americans’ Purchases of Imports, Enough With the Misleading Mercantilist Language, Another Open Letter to Scott Bessent, Talking with Scott Atlas, and The Data on 2025 U.S. GDP Are Now In
CDR Salamander: The Russo-Ukrainian War Hits Four
Da Tech Guy: The Democrat Tom Hagen Math Congress & Canine (Or the “Dog that Didn’t Bark”) Edition
Dana Loesch: SOTU Recap
Don Surber: The California Mafia
First Street Journal: That thing that never happens has happened again, This is what country people do, No one is above the law, and that includes our immigration laws, and World War III Watch: Yet another leftist wants to send Other People off to war
Gates Of Vienna: Our Muslim Troubles – A Video Series, Part One, The Truth is Fungible, “A Black Hole of Marginalization and Degradation”, Rupert Lowe: “It Has to Be That the People in Charge Are Villains”, and How to Eat an Elephant — One Islamic Bite at a Time
The Geller Report: “We Did Not Come Here To Coexist. We Are Superior to Everyone Else. They Have to Worship Allah”, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Blocks US From Using RAF Bases for Strikes on Iran, Virginia Democrats Move to Slash Mandatory Prison Time for Rape, Manslaughter, Child Porn Crimes, Susan Rice Threatens -“IT’S NOT GOING TO END WELL FOR THEM”, and Mamdani Begs Residents to Shovel the Snow and DEMANDS FIVE IDS To Pick Up A Shovel
Hollywood In Toto: Here’s Why U2, Springsteen Joined Anti-ICE ‘Resistance’, Ethan Hawke Does Stunning 180 on Political Talk, Gutfeld Defends Silence of the Lambs While Actors Stay Silent, Dead Man’s Wire Does ’70s Era Filmmaking Proud, and Why Midwinter Break Is Unlike Most Faith-Based Films
Legal Insurrection: White House Prioritizes Domestic Phosphorus, Glyphosate Production for Food Security, Villanova U. Prof Says Academia Should be Used as a ‘Trojan Horse’ for Socialism, NYPD Officers Pelted With Snowballs; Leftists Shrug ‘So What’, Democrats Skipping State of the Union for Progressive Rally, and ‘Snow Hurricane’ Energy Reality Check – You Can’t Heat Homes With NetZero Promises
Nebraska Energy Observer: Meanwhile, in Europe, Reordering the World, The Suicide of France, Reflective Friday, and Bearing Down
Outkick: Trump Says US Women’s Hockey Team Will ‘Soon’ Visit White House, Team USA Goalie Named Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipient During SOTU, Boomer Esiason Shredded Team China’s Eileen Gu – Totally ‘Insufferable’, Diversity In Basketball Continues To Trigger Players And Commentators, and Olivia Culpo Sets The Offseason Standard For The 49ers WAGs During Their Annual Bikini Vacation
Power Line: Shadow government, The Real State of the Union, Following the “Science” on Gender, Dumbest Spin Ever, and Thanks, we needed that
Shark Tank: Rep. Fine Brings Service Dog To SOTU To Highlight “Protecting Puppies From Sharia Act”
Shot In The Dark: George Wallace On Line 2, Volunteer Criminals, Mexico – A Modest Proposal, and  Innovation!
STUMP: 2024 U.S. Top Causes of Death by Sex and Age Group – Finalized
The Political Hat: Quick Takes – Green Madness, Firing Line Friday – Resolved: That the Marketplace Is Not a Social Enemy, and Colorado vs. BOTH The 1st & 2nd Amendments
This Ain’t Hell: France Demands US Ambassador’s Presence – Snubbed, New NASA contract available, Armed man who illegally entered Mar-a-Lago secure perimeter gets shot and killed, Airman and his husband indicted for defrauding millions from the War Department, and Respects to Mr. Uecker
Transterrestrial Musings: Making Space Important, Brutal, Business As Usual, and How Long Can This Go On?
Victory Girls: USA Hockey Gets Gold Medal Honors At White House And SOTU, Gavin Newsom’s Atlanta “I’m Just Like You” Moment, and JP Morgan Admits They DID Debank President Trump’s Accounts
Watts Up With That: Recognizing Failure, Some Liberals Are Reshaping Their Climate Messaging, United Nations Launches New IPCC for Artificial Intelligence, Bernie Sanders Issues Dire Warnings, Wrong, Oceanographic Magazine, Sea Level Rise in Hawaii Is Not a Looming Catastrophe, South Fork Wind Malinformation, and After the Endangerment Finding, States Must Prove CO2 Harms – Wisconsin Can’t
The Federalist: It’s Not Racist To Say Muslims Can’t Tell Us To Reject Dogs, Cheap Gas, Less Crime, Lives Saved, And 4 Other Victories Dems Refused To Cheer At SOTU, Biden-Appointed Judge Has No Idea What Easy Words Like ‘Shall’ Mean, Abigail Spanberger Is Playing Blindfolded Darts With Her Lame SOTU Response, and Newsom Spox Indicates He Will Only Talk To Journalists Who Agree With Him
Mark Steyn: Romancing the Stone, A Presidential Medley, Part Two, Remembering Rush: Five Years On, The Non-Far Left and its Friends, and When They Go Low… He Goes High

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Best Sellers – Home & Kitchen
New Releases – Home & Kitchen
H&R Block Deluxe & State Tax Software


 

Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 02.23.26

Posted on | February 24, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Happy 66th birthday to the Tenno Heika!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: John Brennan’s War On Trump, A Day With Teddy Roosevelt At The Battle Of San Juan Hill (1899), What Was Found Under The Pyramids Could Rewrite 12,000 Years Of History, A Day on the Underground Railroad (1849), and The Great Chicago Fire (1871)
357 Magnum: UPS Airlines Flight 2976 as Seen From the Ground
EBL: Snowday, Sheepshead (Atlantic), The Little Drummer Girl, Canada Sadz, and Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth
Twitchy: David Hogg Brought Up To Speed On Fast & Furious Scandal, Tim Burchett Schools Bernie Sanders On How Simple It Is To Get Your Birth Certificate, and Newsom’s Comms Director Launches F-Bomb At Journalist Seeking Proof Of Gov. Hairgel’s Dyslexia
Louder With Crowder: Occasional Cortex fights back tears as she continues to meltdown over her embarrassing Munich performance, Katie Porter announces her new “F*** Trump” campaign slogan, thinks she’s being original, Scott Jennings lays waste to Dem congressional candidate, exposing the left’s agenda to import MORE illegals, Leftists stage anti-ICE interpretive dance outside Trump-Kennedy Center, and it’s even more cringe than you can imagine, and Add lily-white Gavin Newsom to list of libs who don’t think Black Americans know how to get an ID to vote
Vox Popoli: Most Science is Fake, Armchair Observations, Birdwatching with AI, The Undefeatable Trilemma, and When History Rhymes
Stoic Observations: It Used To Mean Everything – Now Nobody Cares, also, The Stoic Circle
Cedar Sanderson: Emotion’s Thrall
Upstream Reviews: War Demons
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Bachelor Chow
Mazelit Airaksinen: Cali Nurse Who Says Jews Use “Satanic Dark Magic” Under Investigation

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, The New Battleship, and China’s Goal – Control & Take
Dana Loesch: The Drama At The Olympics May Be More Entertaining Than The Games, also, Iron Lung Bypasses Big Hollywood Putting Studios On Notice
Don Surber: Starmer wants to kneecap our Department of War, also, Alabama & Team USA Defeat Canada
Elizabeth Nickson: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi – Could This Be The End Of “Royal” Familes & Our Disgusting Elites?
Racket News: FBI Probed Actions Of Trump’s Legal Team While He Was Still in Office, also, The Swamp Log
STUMP: The Week In Meep – Shoveling Snow In NY, First Sunday of Lent, & IKEA!, 

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Best Sellers – Automotive
New Releases – Automotive
H&R Block Deluxe & State Tax Software


 

Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Sunday: Mustang Gal

Posted on | February 23, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Better than a pink Cadillac? Your mileage may vary! Pic from @brisolo on X.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, “St. Valentines Massacre”, Kathryn Ruemmler, Women of Magnum PI, Lady Jane Grey, The Women of the Rockford Files, Ponies, The Wrecking Crew, MAGA – Iran So Far Away, Better Bad Bunny, A Superior Football Halftime Show, Lindsey Vonn Crashes At Olympics, Mary Queen Of Scots, “I Am Blue”, Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Alyssa Liu’s Olympic Gold, Dylan Thomas, Barbara of Seville, MAGA Iran – Arrows Or Olives, Free Cuba, Hylas & Nymphs, Max Payne, Maria Callas, Robert Duvall RIP, and Linda Ronstadt

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Good Golly Miss Molly, Fish Pic Friday – Snez, I Like You Best, DNR Denies Zooplankton Limiting Striper Success, Gone Fishin’, The Wednesday Wetness, Tattoo Tuesday, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday 

BACON TIME: Rule 5 – A Trip To Hooterville

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Deals on Premium Beauty Products
Visit Amazon’s Intimate Apparel Shop
Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts


 

Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Still Winning

Posted on | February 22, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, that went better than I thought it would. We played the Daytraders last Sunday and took two games out of three; we lost the opener to Vida Blue but won game 2 in extra innings on an RBI single by Tom Grieve, and in game three we pounded Larry Gura for 12 runs while holding the Daytraders scoreless. Against the Tribe, we likewise lost Game One to Steve Busby 0-3, but in Game 2 we thumped Dave Freisleben 3-0 and in Game 3 Jim Kaat went the distance against Mickey Lolich and we rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 8th against Bob Reynolds to win it 5-2. So we’re still in second place, seven games behind the Twins and 1.5 games ahead of the Brewers. We may slither into the playoffs even if we don’t reach .500. This week we’re facing the Giants on Tuesday and the Dodgers on Friday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

4-2 continues to be good.

The Canadian ‘Gunperson’ and the Syllogism of the Liberal Narrative
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: Harvey Dent Week
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Snow Bunnies
EBL

Warning: Stay Away From St. Louis
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.16.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Update: Maryland Trial Postponed Until June
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.18.26 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

‘He Was Mr. BLM’
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 02.20.26 (Morning Edition)
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

What Happens When Liberals ‘Succeed’
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

 

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Amazon Essentials


 

Category: FMJRA Award

‘Zizian’ Cult Member Gets Bailed Out

Posted on | February 21, 2026 | No Comments

Daniel Arthur Blank

Latest news in the radical vegan transgender death cult case:

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — A member of a group known to outsiders as Zizians that is linked to six deaths was bailed out of jail in Maryland on Friday.
Police in Maryland connected Jack “Ziz” LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank to homicide investigations in California, Pennsylvania and Vermont after a landowner found them living in box trucks at the end of a snow-covered dirt road last February, according to court documents and pretrial testimony.
Blank was bailed out Friday at about noon after posting $15,000. Blank’s attorney Rebecca Lechliter declined comment. Zajko and LaSota remain in custody and are being held without bail.
Blank’s release includes conditions that he must live alone and submit to GPS tracking.
The deaths linked to the group reached six last year when a U.S. border agent was killed in Vermont. The three members were later arrested on trespassing and gun charges in the woods of western Maryland. Seven of the group’s members are jailed in three states, all awaiting trial.
Maryland state Trooper Brandon Jeffries wrote after their Feb. 16, 2025 arrests that all the “suspects involved are to be questioned regarding other crimes that have occurred across the country and have ties with the Zizians Cult.”
Called “Zizians” by outsiders, the young, highly intelligent computer scientists appear to share radical beliefs about veganism, animal rights, gender identity and artificial intelligence. Since 2022, members have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the shooting deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left the border agent and another Zizian dead.
Jury selection was supposed to start recently in Cumberland, Maryland, where LaSota, Zajko and Blank are charged with possession of LSD and possession with intent to deliver LSD, multiple gun violations, trespassing and hindering a police officer.
The trial was delayed until June, however, after Zajko, who also is charged with resisting arrest, fired her attorney, briefly represented herself and hired a new lawyer.

This isn’t too surprising During their initial hearing in Allegany County District Court last year, Blank’s case for release was clearly the most sympathetic. Whereas both LaSota and Zajko are facing federal charges and are “persons of interests” in active homicide investigations, Blank has not been implicated in any crimes other than the state charges related to the trio’s arrest while trespassing last year near Frostburg. His stepfather appeared on Blank’s behalf at that hearing, where the defendants were represented by public defender Rebecca Francoeur-Breeden:

Sitting in the courtroom Tuesday, we heard Daniel Blank’s squeaky voice blabbering incomprensibly, then Ms. Francoeur-Breeden mentioned that Blank has mental health issues. She said Blank’s stepfather, who was willing to help Blank get some kind of local residence if he could be released, had flown in from California and was present in the courtroom. Judge Bean asked the stepfather to stand up and address the bench. He was a gray-haired man in a brown overcoat, obviously distraught, and said he would do whatever he could to help his stepson. Daniel Blank reportedly has dyslexia and is somewhere on the “spectrum” of autism. Yet, as Ms. Francoeur-Breeden told the court, he was unquestionably “brilliant”:

Daniel Blank was born in Berkeley, California and always excelled in school, earning straight A’s and praise from his teachers, his mother Nadia Blank told Open Vallejo. He competed on a science bowl team throughout middle and high school and was fluent in three languages, she said.
Blank, who became vegan in college, graduated a semester early from the University of California, Berkeley with a double major in bioengineering and computer science, according to a resume posted on his LinkedIn profile. As an undergraduate, he conducted research for two Berkeley professors and interned at Oracle and Daphnia Labs.
Blank’s mother said he accepted a high-paying corporate offer in Oakland following graduation.

Blank disappeared in 2022, and seeing his stepfather in court was emotionally jarring. Being a father myself, what must it be like to have your “brilliant” stepson disappear, end up in some kind of weird cult, and get arrested in connection with a nationwide crime spree?

And so it appears that the court, not wishing to seem unreasonable — and considering that the prosecution has apparently found no evidence implicating Blank in any other crimes connected to the Zizian cult — has finally agreed to let him out on bond pending the state trial now scheduled for June. Will keep you updated on any further developments.



 

PREVIOUSLY: