Las Vegas Gunman Was a Trump Supporter

As yet no motive for the mass shooting in Las Vegas has been determined by police and other authorities.  One fun fact is that apparently the shooter, Stephen Paddock, was a Donald Trump fan and shared similar personality traits with Der Trumpenführer: he was a narcissist and obsessed with his status as wealthy high roller.  In my view, he shared one other trait exhibited by Trump and his supporters: a contempt for others and a willingness to harm others to inflate his own ego/sense of worth or satisfy his own prejudices.  The lives of others obviously meant nothing to Paddock, a mindset that now thrives in the White House.  Newsweek has detail on Paddock's enthusiasm for Der Trumpenführer.  Here are highlights:

Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was quite the fan of President Donald Trump before he killed 58 people and left another 500 injured—the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. 

Paddock, a millionaire who reportedly would gamble up to $1 million a night in casinos, was attracted to the president's politics because of the boost the stock market has enjoyed since Trump took office, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told KLAS, a local CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, during a two-hour interview. 

Paddock said "he was happy with Trump because the stock market was doing well," Lombardo said.

Lombardo said he didn't know offhand who Paddock was talking to when he was talking about Trump, adding that it's the "only thing that we have seen that references politics." Authorities do not believe it correlates to a motive in the shooting. 

Many have questioned Paddock's political affiliations since no clear motive was evident in the attack, and also because the shooting happened about four months after members of Congress were targeted in a Virginia attack during a baseball practice. 

He said Paddock had no affiliation or communication with terrorist or extremist organizations, and is there no proof that he went overseas or met with any extremist groups. 

Investigators have been able to compile a pretty thorough psychological profile on Paddock, Lombardo said, gleaning from interviews that he was narcissistic and obsessed with his status as one of Las Vegas's elite. 

However, Paddock had lost a "significant amount of his wealth" since September 2015, which caused him to become depressed, Lombardo said, adding that the sudden changes could have been a "determining factor" in Paddock's plan. 

Lombardo added, authorities still haven't been able to figure out the trigger point that led to Paddock choosing October 1 as the date for his rampage, or why he chose the Route 91 Harvest festival as his target. Lombardo said the police and the public may never know Paddock's reasoning behind the shooting.  

Without Changes to America's Gun Laws, "Thoughts and Prayers" Are a Fraud

Each time America witnesses another mass shooting with it seems an ever growing number of people murdered, we hear the same bloviating about "thoughts and prayers" for the dead and their traumatized families and friends. This nauseating refrain comes most often from politicians - especially Republicans - who could reduce future carnage if they but had the balls to say "no" to the gun manufacturer lobby and its front organization, the NRA.   Tellingly, as The Hill is reporting, here in Virginia where we have state wide elections next month, the NRA has delayed running its $1 million political ad campaign attacking Democrats who support gun control and supporting the Republican ticket that wants even looser and more irresponsible gun legislation in Virginia:

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has delayed political advertisements in Virginia in the wake of a mass shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 59 people dead and more than 520 injured.

The nation’s largest gun rights organization had originally booked $32,000 in cable television advertising to begin Tuesday, according to Advertising Analytics, a nonpartisan ad-buying firm that keeps tabs on the television market. 

Now, those advertisements will begin on Oct. 10. At the same time, the NRA will devote just more than $1 million to ads airing on broadcast networks in markets around Virginia.  

I propose any easy litmus test for who is sincere in their mealy mouthed statements about "thoughts and prayers" for the dead and their families:  are they accepting money from the NRA or allowing themselves to be backed by the NRA?  If the answer is "yes." then you know that they do not mean a word of their disingenuous statements.  A column in the Chicago Sun Times sums the situation well.  Here are highlights:

Did you see the video? Did you see country music singer Jason Aldean, his guitar slung over shoulders, standing front and center when the gunfire began? He knew that sound, that staccato rip of mass-produced death. He fled for the safety of the back of the stage, and the crowd screamed and people were hit and bled and died, and nobody could be sure where the gunfire was coming from. At last check, 59 people were dead from the bullets that flew during a country music show in Las Vegas. Five-hundred-plus more were injured. By the time you read this, more likely will have died. [W]e know that sound, that ripping of bullets from a single indefensible weapon designed for nothing else. Not for hunting. Not for defending our homes. Not for target practice.

Automatic and semi-automatic guns are designed to kill people by the bunches — and this one on this night did its job superbly.

We are so damn sad. We can’t begin to express our sorrow for all the people who were killed in Las Vegas, even as we slept so soundly in our beds in the Midwest. We are beginning to hear their names, see photos of their faces, and they could be any of us — they are any of us. Nice folks out for a night of music, our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. Dead now. Do we feel survivor’s guilt? We should.

The president offers his condolences. For what it’s worth. And there will be prayers and funeral services. For what they’re worth.

And politicians in the pocket of the gun lobby, tons of them, will stand on the floor of the House and the Senate and say how tragic this shooting was and how something must be done — but don’t punish the law-abiding gun owner because guns are American freedom, guns are apple pie, guns are the flag, guns are the national anthem.

And they won’t tell you that every honest opinion poll for a generation in this country shows Americans are sick to death of the carnage.

The National Rifle Association hates those polls. Guns are money for them. Gun-makers make them rich.

[W]e have called for saner gun laws time and again, only for the gun nuts to twist the message: The crazy liberal media wants to take your guns!

So let’s make two points clear:

• Most of America, to judge by the polls, wants to take illegally obtained guns away from bad people — the drug-dealers and the gang-bangers. Not legally obtained guns from decent people, but illegally obtained guns from bad people. And that means better licensing of gun stores and a ban on the easy sale of weapons at gun shows and garage sales. Seriously: people buy guns in many parts of America, legally, at garage sales.

• Most of America also wants to ban access to semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

The guns that killed in Aurora and at Virginia Tech and Newtown and Umpqua College and San Bernardino and . . .

In June, the Washington Post did the arithmetic and reported that 889 men, women and children have been killed in mass shootings in the United States since Aug. 1, 1966. . . .
 After 50 years, we are closing in on 1,000 deaths from mass shootings. The Las Vegas tally gets us almost there.

Are we properly horrified yet? Will we do something finally? Will we honor the dead in Las Vegas by, at long last, demanding gun sanity?  If we continue to do nothing, all our tears [and thoughts and prayers] are a fraud.

A piece in the Washington Post looks at some of the dead.  Take a good look at the faces and brief bios of those who died.  Then grasp the realize that every politician who has opposed sane gun control laws and a ban on assault weapons played a role in this carnage and has blood on their hands. 

More than 50 Dead in Las Vegas Mass Shooting

America's utterly insane gun laws have claimed more than 50 more lives in yet another mass shooting, this time in Las Vegas.  Once again it also appears that automatic weapons were involved, thereby increasing the death toll, plus over 200 injured.  The rest of the world must thing Americans are insane (not that Trump's election hasn't already proved that in the minds of much of the world).  The simple truth is that NO ONE needs to have an automatic assault rifle.  NO ONE.  That the NRA and its political whores, particularly in the Republican Party allow their easy purchase belies the myth that guns are used by Second Amendment loving hunters and sportsman.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at this latest carnage that sadly will recur again unless and until sane gun laws are enacted and automatic weapons confiscated.  Here are excerpts:

More than 50 people have been killed and over 200 injured in America's deadliest mass shooting after a single gunman positioned on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel window opened fire on thousands of music fans attending a country-music festival shortly after 10pm on Sunday night local time.

The suspected shooter, a man who lived locally, is dead, according to Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, who said the scene is now “static.”

It is now the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, surpassing the death toll of the Pulse nightclub massacre, which killed 49 people.

Police have identified the shooter as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, who lived in a retirement community. Lombardo said the shooter's companion, named as Marilou Danley, is being sought for questioning. She and Paddock have the same address. Country star Jason Aldean was performing one of the festival’s final sets when automatic gunfire broke out. “People went down on the Mandalay side of the stage,” one concertgoer, Joe Pitzel, told CNN. “I don’t know if people were ducking or if people were hit.”
Eyewitness Bryan Heifner spoke to CNN from a room in a hotel across from the Mandalay Bay, which he said he could see from his window.  “Mostly I heard the shots, just so many shots . . .

Concertgoers reported seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino across Las Vegas Boulevard from the festival and the sound of what they described as automatic gunfire, according to the Associated Press.

It would be nice to think that perhaps the fact that it was country music fans who were murdered rather than gays that just maybe something will be done to bring sanity to America's gun laws, but that's likely a pipe dream.  The NRA and gun manufacturers for which it is a front organization have bought and paid for too many politicians.  Very, very sad. 

Oregon School Shooter Had Interests Like the Las Vegas Shooters

Granted, not all of the shooters who go on rampages killing innocent people are wrapped up in war right and gun obsessed ideologies.  But, that said, there seem to be some striking similarities between the killers who murdered two policemen and a bystander in Las Vegas and the student who went on a shooting spree in an Oregon high school.  In both cases the guns used were legally secured - which seems to always be the case - and the shooters seemingly clung to extreme ideologies that included an obsession with guns.  What I find very frightening is the fact that Padgett, like the shooters in Kas Vegas outwardly looked "normal." The Daily Mail reports on the Oregon shooter:

Jared Michael Padgett, 15, the gunman who killed a Reynolds High School student in Portland, Oregon was a gun-obsessive who became furious with his classmates over his presentation about Hitler one week before his shooting spree.

This comes as Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson revealed that Padgett was armed with a legally owned AR-15 rifle, which he stole from his home and used to open fire and kill Emilio Hoffman, 14 and wound PE teacher Todd Rispler.

Police also revealed that Padgett arrived for his shooting spree on the school bus and was heavily armed, with nine loaded magazines, holding several hundred rounds carried in a guitar case - raising the possibility that he planned on committing mass murder.

Padgett, who took his own life in a locker toilet after killing Hoffman, was also carrying a handgun which he did not fire and a knife.

Freshman Kaylah Ensign, who knew Padgett since middle school, described a gun-obsessive who lost his temper last week when giving a presentation about a book on Adolf Hitler.

She told OregonLive that she did not recall the name of the book, but when they discussed the Holocaust he said, 'this is life now' and 'everything really does happen for a reason.'

Indeed, Ensign said he became extremely agitated during his presentation about the book on the Nazi leader when members of his class began to disagree with him.

'He got really uptight over it and started raising his voice,' she said, adding that 'he felt as if they were facts.'

On Padgett's Facebook page, the 15-year-old liked two tactical knife companies, M4 assault rifles and political pages such as 'Conservative American Military Veterans Against Barack Obama' and 'We WILL NOT Be Disarmed.'

These strong pro-gun opinions may have been inherited from his family. His brother-in-law Andrew Cooper wrote on Facebook that school shootings could be prevented with more armed guards.

More wasted lives and a school shooting now happens at least once a week in America yet we still have no meaningful gun control laws that would make it more difficult for the emotionally disturbed individuals to get their hands on guns.

 

Las Vegas "Revolution" Killers ID’d as Right-Wing Conspiracy Believers

As more facts become known, it has become increasingly clear that Jerad and Amanda Miller who killed two police officers execution style and then killed a bystander in a Las Vegas Walmart were right wing conspiracy nutcases encouraged no doubt by the inflammatory language of Tea Party leaders and shameless Republicans like Ted Cruz and others of that ilk.  GOP leaders continue to refuse to accept the reality that insanity is the norm of a good segment of the party base and that their inflammatory language can tragically be the match that lights the fuse for violence.  The Raw Story looks at what has become known about this deranged killers.  Here are highlights:

A man who gunned down two police officers and a man Sunday in Las Vegas left behind social media postings that show his concerns over Benghazi, chemtrails, gun control laws, and the government’s treatment of rancher Cliven Bundy.

Neighbors identified Jerad and Amanda Miller as the suspects who shot the officers execution-style as they ate lunch at a pizza restaurant, and then shot a man outside a Walmart in the same plaza.

The couple’s apartment was searched Monday morning, and authorities in Lafayette, Indiana, confirmed that Las Vegas police had contacted them about the case.

Witnesses said the couple announced the shootings were the start of a revolution and draped the victims’ bodies with American Revolution-era Gadsden flags — bearing the slogan “Don’t tread on me” — that have become symbols of the Tea Party movement.

The couple exchanged gunfire with police as they pursued them into the store, but Amanda Miller apparently shot her husband to death before turning the gun on herself.

Jerad Miller’s last Facebook post, made Saturday, hinted at the couple’s plans.  “The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifices be worth it,” he posted.

Another photo shows Amanda Miller holding a pair of books — “Shooter’s Bible” and “Extreme Survival” — she received last Christmas from her grandmother, and she posted a pair of photos of herself firing an AK-47 at a shooting range in December.

Jerad Miller outlined his political views, which were largely based on conspiracy theories promoted by Fox News and Alex Jones, in his social media postings, and he posted frequently about firearms and violent revolution.

“We can hope for peace,” he posted June 2. “We must, however, prepare for war. We face an enemy that is not only well funded, but who believe they fight for freedom and justice. Those of us who know the truth and dare speak it, know that the enemy we face are indeed our brothers. Even though they share the same masters as we all do. They fail to recognize the chains that bind them. To stop this oppression, I fear, can only be accomplished with bloodshed.”

Neighbors said the couple spoke frequently about their guns and anti-government views, and they also made racist statements.

“They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine,” said neighbor Brandon Moore.

Jerad Miller sketched out his interests with the groups and individuals he “liked” on Facebook, including Operation American Spring, Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Rifle Association, The Heritage Foundation, Rand Paul 2016, Three Percenter Nation, and Ron Paul.

Amanda Miller also “liked” Ron Paul, Freedom Works, and Three Percenter Nation, in addition to various paranormal groups, Stop Amnesty, and Drudge Report.

What is really frightening is that there could well be other Jerad and Amanda Millers out in the public who are likewise being subtly encouraged towards violence by Fox News and other inflammatory "news" outlets. 

Las Vegas Shooters May Have Been White Supremacists

Republican officials continue to play on the racial fears of angry whites through dog whistle messaging and other inflammatory means.  Seeing what has happened to the GOP since my active involvement years ago, I have even conjectured at what point KKK robes would be distributed before local GOP committee meetings commence.  No one in the GOP seems to worry that this messaging may be the straw that breaks the camel's back as they say in the minds of disturbed individuals.  As the investigation of the Las Vegas shootings over the weekend, it is beginning to look like the shooters - who then committed suicide - may have been typical members of the GOP base white supremacists.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

A man and a woman who shot two police officers and then a civilian in Las Vegas on Sunday may have been white supremacists, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

If true, the Vegas slayings would be one of several linked to hate movements.

Among recent killings: A former Ku Klux Klan “grand dragon” killed three at two Jewish facilities in a Kansas City suburb in April; a man killed six before killing himself at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012; and a man killed three officers in Pittsburgh in 2009.

The tragedy in Las Vegas unfolded Sunday afternoon as two police officers ate lunch at CiCi’s Pizza — a world away from the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas strip.

Without warning, they were fatally shot at point-blank range by a man and a woman who then swiped the officers’ weapons, ammunition and badges, according to the Review-Journal. “This is a revolution,” one of the suspects shouted, according to witnesses.

The couple then reportedly covered the officers’ bodies with a cloth showing a Revolutionary War-era flag.

The newspaper reported it was the Gadsden flag, a yellow background with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on me.” Named for Christopher Gadsden, the Revolutionary War general who designed it, the flag has been more recently associated with the American Tea Party movement and, by some, with the Confederacy.

On Sunday night, investigators searched the married couple’s apartment, just four miles from the scene of the shooting. Police allegedly found swastika symbols and are looking into their links to the white supremacy movement, the Review-Journal reported:

Neighbor Krista Koch described them as ‘militant.’ They talked about planning to kill police officers, ‘going underground’ and not coming out until the time was right to kill.

Brandon Monroe, 22, has lived in the complex for about two weeks. He said the man who lived in the apartment that was being searched often rambled about conspiracy theories.

Prince Harry Charm's Washington, D.C.

His last U.S. visit drew lots of headlines, but not the type that the British monarchy was looking for.  Especially his naked romp in Las Vegas.  Now, Prince Harry pictured above - yes, he is HOT - seems to be working hard to mend some fences as he charms Washington, D.C., including First Lady Michelle Obama.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at his charm campaign.  Here are some highlights:

Prince Harry invoked the memory of his mother, Diana, last night as he gave a speech in support of anti-landmine charity the Halo Trust at a British embassy reception, saying Diana would be proud of him.

Diana became the most famous advocate of the charity when she was pictured wearing a clear plastic face mask at a minefield being cleared by the trust in Angola in 1997, shortly before her death.

"My mother, who believed passionately in this cause, would be proud of my association with Halo. In her special way, she adopted it as her own. She would join me, along with all of you, I'm sure, in praising Halo for the amazing work that it has done over the past quarter century, and in hoping that one day soon its humanitarian work will be done.

Harry's speech was the final engagement on an action packed day which saw him wow the Capitol and have a surprise visit with First Lady Michelle Obama.

The First Lady welcomed the 28-year-old prince who was said to be a 'surprise guest' to her home on Thursday afternoon for a reception in honor of military mothers and their children.

Mrs Obama said: "As you all may know, Prince Harry is a captain in the Army Air Corps in the British Armed Forces," and added, “He wanted to be here to thank you for your service.”

Accompanied by Sen. John McCain, Harry visited Capitol Hill and viewed a photography exhibition staged by the anti-landmine organisation the Halo Trust which was closely associated with Diana.
Harry's arrival was marked by hundreds of screaming women, many of whom were said to be staffers.

Senator McCain said: 'He was kind of embarrassed [by the screaming], I think a normal reaction. I'm sure it's not the first time he has had that experience, but in all the years I've been coming here I've never seen such an unbalanced gender gap."

It is Harry's first return to the U.S. since being pictured naked during a game of strip billiards in a Las Vegas hotel.

The tour will give the Prince the chance to show that he has matured enough to take on a senior role in the royal family, as his grandmother cuts back on her workload.   Ahead of this latest trip, the prince's private secretary said Harry wanted to highlight "once again the extraordinary commitment and sacrifice of our injured servicemen and women—-our wounded warriors."

HRH Prince Harry (L), stands with first lady Michelle Obama during an event to honor military families at the White House (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

Nevada Legislature Overrides Veto for Domestic Partnerships

Basic fairness and the fear of losing the gay travel dollar were enough to convince the Nevada Legislature over the weekend to over ride Governor Jim Gibbons' veto of a bill giving legal rights to domestic partners. I'm sure many Christianists will be gnashing their teeth as yet another state moves into the 21st century and recognizes that equality under the law extends to same sex couples, not just straight couples. The new law will take effect on October 1, 2009. Meanwhile, here in Virginia, LGBT citizens are still treated as less than 3rd class citizens. Kudos for Nevada which will hopefully benefit from this step in the right direction. Here are some highlights from the Las Vegas Sun:

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In what supporters are calling a historic moment, the Assembly on Sunday night overrode the veto of Gov. Jim Gibbons on a bill giving legal rights to domestic partners. Tod Story, a member of the board of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, said "Nevadans can stand proud." Story said Nevada has become the 17th state to recognize the relationships of gay and lesbian couples under state law.

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Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who gave the only speech on the floor, called this a “historic vote for equality and justice.” “This is the most important civil rights legislation we’ve had in all my years here and I am so happy and honored to be a part of it.” She said she knew it was “a struggle” for many legislators.

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She said domestic partners “are not asking us to approve of their lives or how they live but they are asking us for respect. As citizens of this great state, they are asking that their government give them the ability to choose who they will live with and who they will love.”

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The partners, whether of the same or opposite sex, would register with the Secretary of State’s Office for legal recognition. And if they split, they would file dissolution of the registration. The bill says domestic partners have the same rights, protections and benefits that are ranged or imposed upon spouses.

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Voting against the bill on Sunday were Republicans John Carpenter of Elko, Chad Christensen of Las Vegas, Tyrus Cobb of Reno, Heidi Gansert of Reno, Pete Goicoechea of Eureka, Tom Grady of Yerington, Don Gustavson of Sparks, John Hambrick of Las Vegas, Joe Hardy of Boulder City, Richard McArthur of Las Vegas, James Settelmeyer of Gardnerville, Lynn Stewart and Melissa Woodbury, both of Henderson.