970: Golf Bag Nukes

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 16:19

Isis has claimed responsibility for the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

Police said at least 50 people were killed and 200 wounded when a gunman opened fire on dense crowds at a concert in Las Vegas.

Officials have identified the shooter as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old American who had multiple weapons on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, where he is believed to have killed himself.

A statement published by the group's Amaq propaganda agency claimed the attacker was a ''soldier of the Islamic State''.

''The Las Vegas attacker is a soldier of the Islamic State in response to calls to target coalition countries,'' it said.

Isis also claimed the gunman ''converted to Islam several months ago'', without providing more details. Paddock's religion and lifestyle have not yet emerged elsewhere.

A spokesperson for the FBI said no link to Isis had yet been found in the ongoing investigation.

''As this event unfolds we have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group," he added.

''As this investigation continues we will continue to work with our partners.''

The wording of the release is similar to other attacks that have been inspired, rather than directed, by Isis.

Paddock's alleged suicide would also differ from the actions of the vast majority of Isis attackers, who seek to be "martyred" in bombings or by security forces, suggesting he had little, if any, guidance from the group.

The claim, which cannot be independently verified, came days after Isis released a speech purporting to be from the group's leader.

A 46-minute audio recording appeared to show Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi praise the jihadis killed in the battle to retake Mosul and other former Isis territories.

Police run to cover at the scene of a shooting near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, 1 October. (AP Photo/John Locher )

He urged followers to ''intensify one attack after another against the infidels'', following a spike in global terror attacks.

Security officials and experts have long warned that Isis will seek to maintain momentum and legitimacy through terror as its so-called ''caliphate'' dwindles in Iraq and Syria.

The group's claims can be difficult to confirm or deny, with one alleging that explosives were planted at Charles de Gaulle airport recently disproved after being published in its al-Naba propaganda newspaper.

Conversely, Isis has also failed to claim responsibility for several attacks carried out by potential supporters, including a deadly knife rampage in Hamburg and terrorist stabbing in Finland.

The shooting started shortly after 10pm local time, with footage showing concert-goers throwing themselves to the ground and running as several extended rounds of automatic gunfire rang out.

Police initially said the shooting was not being treated as a terror attack but no updated statement has been made since Isis released its claim.

It came after the group claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack that left two young women dead in the French city of Marseille earlier on Sunday.

Isis was also linked to a car and knife attack in Edmonton, Canada, where a police officer found a flag used by the group in the perpetrator's car.

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 03:14

Alexandria, Virginia

June 14, 2017

ImagesDescriptionDetails:James T. Hodgkinson, deceased, is believed to be responsible for the shooting in the 400 Block of E. Monroe Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia, around 7:09 a.m. on June 14, 2017. The FBI is asking for the public's assistance with any information regarding Hodgkinson.

Date(s) of Birth UsedDecember 12, 1950Height5'6"Weight202 poundsSexMaleRaceWhite

1. When the sheriff identified the shooter by name, he announced that Paddock was known to law enforcement. The only explanation given was that he had a minor infraction that was handled through the court system. Why hasn't the media asked why someone without a criminal record and who wasn't even a resident of Las Vegas would be known to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police?

2. His source of income has been described as gambling winnings from playing high limit poker slots. The only way that a cumulative net win over time can come from playing poker machines is through employing teams of highly trained players who hit banks of progressive machines once a cumulative dollar amount level has been attained. At that point, each team member has to play at a 98% or better adherence to optimum strategy for the team to have a numerical edge at hitting the royal flush payoff. Every description of his gambling activities suggests that he gambled alone. No one has even questioned whether defying the odds against being a net winner at playing high limit poker slots alone is even possible. If he had attained the highest player status in multiple casinos then there would be profit and loss statements that each casino could provide. Why have currency transaction reports been the only focus of law enforcement and the media?

3. It's been suggested that he's lived an affluent lifestyle and made his family millionaires through real estate investments and gambling. He once owned an apartment building in Dallas with his brother and his ex-wife. Other properties have been described as a condominium and multiple single family homes which he neither improved nor rented out, and would sell short term. Why hasn't the media asked how a continuous stream of income could be achieved from buying houses for one's personal use, without taking advantage of real estate tax law and without improving them?

4. Paddock doesn't fit the description of what's known as a "whale." Whales are desired by casinos because they are net losers over time. By all indication, this individual was a net winner over time. If a casino had such a player, they would seek to determine what was being deployed to give the player the edge that he was exploiting. Because his success would defy probability, they would assume that he was a slot cheat, using a mechanical or electronic device, or had associates employed by the casino to set his machines up. The last thing a casino would do would be to comp the individual to keep him around. Why isn't the media asking why Paddock was welcomed as a player when all statements made so far indicate that he should have been put out?

5. Yesterday, Eric Paddock illustrated how careful his brother was by the example that he always carried two cell phones in case one lost its signal. Paddock has been described as a loner who had few or no friends, gambled alone, and would infrequently text or call his brother. Why isn't the media interested in why someone who avoided human interaction would need two phones with him at all times?

S.1916 - A bill to prohibit the possession or transfer of certain firearm accessories, and for other purposes.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 17:55

When President Donald Trump signed his since-revised executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, he claimed it was to protect Americans from ''radical Islamic terrorists.''

''We don't want 'em here,'' Trump told reporters at the Pentagon, where he signed the order in January.

But in the eight months since Trump took office, more Americans have been killed in attacks by white American men with no connection to Islam than by Muslim terrorists or foreigners.

Radical Islamic terrorists inspired or directed by groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda do pose a clear threat to the US. There is no question about that. Before last night's deadly shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history occurred in June 2016 when an ISIS-inspired man opened fire a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding 53.

And ISIS-linked militants have killed or injured dozens of people in countries like England, France, and Canada so far this year, including two women killed in a stabbing attack in Marseille, France, and several people injured in a car-ramming attack in Edmonton, Canada, just this weekend.

But here at home, the bigger threat has come from a very different kind of attacker, one with no ties to religion generally or Islamist extremism specifically.

Here are just a few of the attacks that have occurred in 2017:

Sunday night, a 64-year-old white man from Nevada opened fire on a crowd of more than 22,000 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing more than 50 and wounding more than 200.In August, a 20-year-old white Nazi sympathizer from Ohio sped his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a woman and injuring at least 19 others.In June, a 66-year-old white man from Illinois shot at Republican Congress members during an early morning baseball practice, severely wounding several people including Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House of Representatives Majority Whip.In March 2017, a 28-year-old white man from Baltimore traveled to New York City with the explicit aim of killing black men. He stabbed 66-year-old Timothy Caughman to death and was charged with terrorism by New York state authorities.In May, a 35-year-old white man from Oregon named Jeremy Joseph Christian began harassing Muslim teenagers on a train in Portland, telling them ''We need Americans here!'' Two men interceded; Christian then stabbed and killed them both.In fact, between 2001 and 2015, more Americans were killed by homegrown right-wing extremists than by Islamist terrorists, according to a study by New America, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC.

A June 2017 study by Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting found a similar pattern:

Even the ''radical Islamic terrorists'' are usually US citizensIn Trump's very first speech to Congress, he claimed that ''the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.''

But none of the perpetrators of the major US terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam in the past 15 years have come from the nations on Trump's travel ban (either the original one or the new, revised version that was released late last month). In fact, the country home to the biggest number of terrorists who have carried out successful attacks inside the US is the US itself.

The San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 people was carried out by an American-born US citizen of Pakistani descent and a lawful permanent US resident of Pakistani descent. The Orlando nightclub shooter who murdered 49 people was an American-born US citizen of Afghan descent. The Boston marathon bombers, who identified as ethnic Chechen, came to the US from Kyrgyzstan and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before carrying out attacks that left three dead. Faisal Shahzad, the attempted Times Square bomber, was Pakistani-American. Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, was born in Virginia to Palestinian parents.

And as my colleague Zack Beauchamp has written, the average likelihood of an American being killed in a terrorist attack in which an immigrant participated in any given year is one in 3.6 million '-- even including the 9/11 deaths. The average American is more likely to die from their own clothing or a toddler with a gun than an immigrant terrorist. But we're not banning guns and T-shirts from coming into the country.

Adopting extremist views and committing horrendous acts of violence in the name of some "righteous" cause, be it religion or politics or just plain old hatred, isn't something that only Muslims, or Arabs, or immigrants, or any other group of people do. It's something humans do.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 20:24

CBS has fired a legal executive who took to social media Monday morning with harsh words for the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Hayley Geftman-Gold, a VP and senior counsel in strategic transactions at CBS wrote on Twitter Monday just hours after a shooting in Las Vegas at a ['...]

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 02:28

(FBI)

Stephen Paddock's father was rarely around.

Following the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Eric Paddock said that he and his brother, the suspected Las Vegas gunman, did not see their father much during their childhood. Their dad, a bank robber and con man, was in and out of prison '-- and often on the run.

''We didn't grow up under his influence,'' Eric Paddock told reporters outside his home in Orlando on Monday.

''I was born on the run,'' he added, noting that ''my dad was about to be arrested for robbing banks.''

Benjamin Hoskins Paddock escaped from federal prison in 1970, earning a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

He was described in the FBI's wanted poster as ''psychopathic'' with suicidal tendencies. According to news accounts, he was not captured until 1978, when he was nabbed while running a bingo parlor in Oregon.

Officials confirmed that he was the father of Stephen Paddock, who authorities said opened fire from the window of a 32nd-floor hotel room overlooking a concert on the Las Vegas Strip, where 22,000 people had gathered for a three-day country music festival. At least 58 people were killed, including an off-duty police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, authorities said. More than 500 others, including two on-duty officers, were injured.

After the shooting, he was found dead by Las Vegas SWAT officers in his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Stephen Paddock was identified by police as the gunman in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Here's what you need to know about him. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

[The carnage when shooters take aim from above]

More than five decades earlier, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock was in the same town, running from suspected crimes of his own.

According to newspaper clippings from the summer of 1960, FBI agents had been searching for Paddock, who was accused of robbing banks in Arizona. When agents approached him in Las Vegas in late July of that year, he jumped into his car and tried to run one of them down, the newspaper reported.

He surrendered after an FBI agent fired through his windshield.

''It was a harrowing experience,'' the agent, John T. Reilly, said at the time.

Reilly said he aimed at Paddock ''to save my own life,'' adding that the fugitive's car stopped about a foot away from him '-- ''so fast that it [the car] was rocking.''

Benjamin Paddock had already served time behind bars in the 1940s and 1950s, according to articles in the Arizona Republic.

After his capture by the FBI, he was convicted in 1961 of bank robbery and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. But on Feb. 3, 1970, he escaped.

At the time, Stephen Paddock would have been 15 years old. Eric was half Stephen's age and said Monday that they had two other brothers, Bruce and Patrick.

Benjamin Paddock died in recent years, Eric Paddock said, adding that it was news to him: He said he grew up thinking his father was dead.

At 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, Benjamin Paddock used a host of aliases, and was also known as ''Chromedome'' and ''Old Baldy,'' according to his FBI Most Wanted alert, which bore J. Edgar Hoover's signature.

The Arizona Republic reported in July 1960 that Paddock was ''known as a hot rod racer'' and shaved his head so he would look like actor Yul Brynner. In addition to bank robbery and escape, his rap sheet included auto theft and a confidence scam.

''He was a larger-than-life kind of outlaw thing-y,'' Eric Paddock said.

The FBI noted in its 1970 bulletin that Paddock was an ''avid bridge player.'' His son, Stephen, was known as a high-stakes gambler, The Post reported Monday.

The elder Paddock remained on the FBI's Most Wanted list until 1977, when he was removed for reasons that aren't clear. The FBI said he was ''removed from the list when it was felt he no longer fit the 'Top Ten' criteria.''

Barbara Liston in Orlando contributed to this report.

More reading:

How the Las Vegas Strip shooting unfolded

Las Vegas shooting attack kills at least 58, more than 500 people injured

A closer look at the carnage when shooters take aim from above

50 years of mass shootings

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:56

Last night, the United States experienced the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. At least 58 people are dead and over 500 more wounded. No, that's not a typo: More than 500 were injured in one, single incident.

As tens of thousands enjoyed a music festival on the streets of Las Vegas, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, of Mesquite, Nevada, was perched 32 floors above them in his Mandalay Bay hotel room. Paddock had 19 rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammo '-- supplies that are plentiful in a nation that has more guns than people. A few minutes after 10 p.m., Paddock opened fire on the unsuspecting crowd. They were sitting ducks.

No expensive wall along the Mexican border would've prevented this. No Muslim ban stopping immigrants and refugees from a few randomly selected countries from reaching our shores would've slowed this down.

Paddock, like the majority of mass shooters in this country, was a white American. And that simple fact changes absolutely everything about the way this horrible moment gets discussed in the media and the national discourse: Whiteness, somehow, protects men from being labeled terrorists.

The privilege here is that the ultimate conclusion about shootings committed by people from commonly nonwhite groups often leads to determinations about the corrosive or destructive nature of the group itself. When an individual claiming to be a Muslim commits a horrible act, many on the right will tell us Islam itself is the problem. For centuries, when an act of violence has been committed by an African-American, racist tropes follow '-- and eventually, the criminalization and dehumanization of an entire ethnic group.

A bloodied victim lies on the ground during a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas.

Photo: David Becker/Getty Images

Privilege always stands in contrast to how others are treated, and it's true in this case, too: White men who resort to mass violence are consistently characterized primarily as isolated ''lone wolves'' '-- in no way connected to one another '-- while the most problematic aspects of being white in America are given a pass that nobody else receives.

Stephen Paddock's whiteness has already afforded him many outrageous protections in the media.

While the blood was still congealing on the streets of Las Vegas, USA Today declared in a headline that Paddock was a ''lone wolf.'' And yet an investigation into his motivations and background had only just started. Police were only beginning to move to search his home and computers. His travel history had not yet been evaluated. No one had yet thoroughly scrutinized his family, friends, and social networks.

Stephen Paddock was declared a ''lone wolf'' before analysts even started their day, not because an exhaustive investigation produced such a conclusion, but because it is the only available conclusion for a white man in America who commits a mass shooting.

''Lone wolf'' is how Americans designate many white suspects in mass shootings. James Holmes was called a ''lone wolf'' when he shot and killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. And Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who walked into a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot and killed the pastor and eight other parishioners, was quickly declared a ''lone wolf.''

For people of color, and especially for Muslims, the treatment is often different. Muslims often get labeled as ''terrorists'' before all the facts have come out.

Just consider President Donald Trump. This morning, Trump tweeted, ''My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!'' That's fine, but Trump doesn't even seem angry. It's peculiar that he didn't call the shooter a ''son of a bitch,'' like he did the NFL players who took a knee during the anthem. He didn't create an insulting nickname for Paddock, or make an immediate push for a policy proposal.

Compare that to how Trump treats incidents where he believes the assailants are Muslims. After a bomb exploded in the London subway, Trump tweeted that the attackers were ''loser terrorists'' '-- before British authorities had even named a suspect. He went on to immediately use the attack to push his Muslim ban.

We must ask ourselves: Why do certain acts of violence absolutely incense Trump and his base while others only illicit warm thoughts and prayers? This is the deadliest mass shooting in American history! Where is the outrage? Where are the policy proposals?

What we are witnessing is the blatant fact that white privilege protects even Stephen Paddock, an alleged mass murderer, not just from being called a terrorist, but from the anger, rage, hellfire, and fury that would surely rain down if he were almost anyone other than a white man. His skin protects him. It also prevents our nation from having an honest conversation about why so many white men do what he did, and why this nation seems absolutely determined to do next to nothing about it.

I spoke to two people this morning, one black and the other Muslim. Both of them said that, when they heard about this awful shooting in Las Vegas, they immediately began hoping that the shooter was not black or a Muslim. Why? Because they knew that the blowback on all African-Americans or Muslims would be fierce if the shooter hailed from one of those communities.

Something is deeply wrong when people feel a sense of relief that the shooter is white because they know that means they won't suffer as a result. White people, on the other hand, had no such feeling this morning, because 400 years of American history tells them that no such consequences will exist for them today as a result of Stephen Paddock's actions.

It is an exemplar of white privilege: not just being given a head start in society, but also the freedom from certain consequences of individual and group actions.

Top photo: People run from the scene of a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:54

Gunman's girlfriend said she was unaware of the plan.In her first public statement since the shooting, the gunman's girlfriend said on Wednesday that he had sent her on a trip to the Philippines and wired her money there, but that she did not know he had been planning to harm anyone.

The statement from the woman, Marilou Danley, which was read by her lawyer, Matthew Lombard, came after Ms. Danley went to the Los Angeles offices of the F.B.I. for questioning, according to a law enforcement official. It was released as the authorities sought her insight into what prompted a man with no evident criminal history to become a mass murderer.

She stressed that she returned to the United States voluntarily, ''because I know that the F.B.I. and the Las Vegas police department wanted to talk to me, and I wanted to talk to them.''

Ms. Danley said she never believed her ''kind, caring, quiet'' boyfriend was capable of killing58 people and wounding hundreds more.

''He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of, that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen,'' she said.

The president met with victims of the attack.President Trump spent four hours in Las Vegas on Wednesday, during which he paid tribute to the professionalism of the doctors who treated the shooting victims. He said that meeting with the patients at one hospital made him ''proud to be an American.''

President Trump met with a victim of the Las Vegas shooting. Video by Watch Life The president said he met with some ''absolutely terribly wounded'' patients and hailed their bravery during the horrific attack Sunday night. He said many of those he met had been wounded as they sought to help others amid the hail of bullets.

GraphicHis suite held more than 20 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

OPEN Graphic

The gunman had a deadly stockpile.The gunman's motive remains unknown, Sheriff Lombardo said. Despite the meticulous planning that went into the attack, the gunman left behind few obvious traces, with no social media footprint to examine or manifesto to be pored over, he said.

The sheriff indicated that Mr. Paddock may have blended in intentionally, hiding the urge to violence that drove him to one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern United States history.

''Anything that would indicate this individual's trigger point, that would cause him to do such harm, we haven't understood it yet,'' the sheriff said.

Twelve of the rifles Mr. Paddock had in his luxury suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino were outfitted with bump stocks, devices that enable a rifle to be fired like a machine gun, with hundreds of rounds per minute, which may explain how he was able to rain such devastation on the crowd below, law enforcement officials said.

Interactive GraphicTwelve of the rifles the gunman had in his hotel room were outfitted with a ''bump stock,'' an attachment that enables a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster.

OPEN Interactive Graphic

Reporting was contributed by Jennifer Medina, Mitch Smith and Mark Landler from Las Vegas; Miriam Jordan from Los Angeles; Jonah Engel Bromwich and Matthew Haag from New York; and Russell Goldman from Hong Kong.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:37

W

ASHINGTON '-- After three years of debate, countless hearings, and pleas from patient advocates, lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation to speed new medicines to market and to authorize an additional $4.8 billion in spending for medical research.

The House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Cures Act by a 392 to 26 vote, showing a bipartisan spirit that has been rare in recent years. The Cures Act now heads to the Senate, for a vote early next week.

Supporters in Congress and patient advocacy groups said they were thrilled by the bill's passage.

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''We are on the cusp of something special '-- a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform how we treat disease,'' said Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who marshaled the legislation through the House. ''With today's vote, we are taking a giant leap on the path to cures.''

The Cures Act includes numerous provisions that set the stage for the faster approval of prescription drugs and medical devices. Although proponents claim these new measures will not lower safety standards, numerous critics, including some former Food and Drug Administration officials and national consumer groups, disagree. They have argued that FDA already moves faster than similar agencies in other countries.

The landmark legislation provides $4.8 billion for the three signature Obama administration research programs over the next 10 years: Vice President Joe Biden's cancer moonshot, the BRAIN Initiative, and the Precision Medicine Initiative. It would also give states $1 billion to fight the opioid crisis, and deliver an additional $500 million to the FDA.

The bill heads to the Senate for a vote early next week. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the minority leader, acknowledged that there had been ''angst'' over the legislation among his colleagues, and several, including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), have said they will oppose it.

But party leaders on both sides of the aisle said they expect the bill to pass the Senate.

To lawmakers, that promise of extra funds '-- and the prospect of having to justify a vote against cancer research and efforts to fight opioid addiction '-- has trumped any other objections to the bill. Even critics acknowledged the bill included welcome measures.

Representative Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), who voted for the bill, was a driving force behind provisions that will fund mental health care programs.

''To all the families who brought their stories out of the shadows, that dared to share their sorrows, their hopes, their shattered dreams, today is a day of joy,'' said Murphy, who is a psychologist.''And today is only possible, I say to all those families, because they dared to step forward.''

Critics had a host of concerns. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the bill would weaken regulations on medical devices, allow drugs to be approved with only limited evidence of the drug's safety and efficacy, and rush the use of new and unproven antibiotics.

Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said he was especially concerned about Cures Act provisions that will allow the FDA to consider ''real world evidence'' when approving drugs and allow companies to submit summaries of study data, rather than full clinical trial records.

''The summary data could hide important information about the safety and effectiveness from the FDA scientist reviewing the data,'' Carome said. ''I'm disappointed to see it. ''

This was the second time that the House approved the Cures Act, which the chamber initially passed by an overwhelming margin in July 2015. Since then, it has been a long slog.

In the Senate, lawmakers split down party lines. Democrats would not approve the accelerated approval provisions unless funding for the National Institutes of Health and the FDA was included. For their part, Republicans said they would not support mandatory funding without figuring out how to pay for it.

House and Senate leaders last Friday unveiled a new, compromise version of the Cures Act, which funds the research in part by selling off some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and in part by drawing down on funding for prevention programs in the Affordable Care Act.

Many consumer and patient advocacy groups were disappointed the legislation didn't include more money for the NIH, and were critical of the way in which lawmakers have chosen to pay for it.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said he opposed the plan to divert funds by cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund, by 30 percent, over the next seven fiscal years.

''The proposed cuts to the prevention fund would take away critical resources that could be used for programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit,'' Myers said.

Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America, agreed.

''We are disappointed that policymakers chose to redirect future increases in the Prevention and Public Health Fund to help offset the cost of this legislation, since that fund is a strategic investment in its own right,'' she said. ''Nonetheless, we believe this bill richly deserves the bipartisan support it enjoys, and we urge the Senate to pass and the president to sign it.''

The Cures Act initially included a rollback of requirements for companies to report certain payments to doctors. That provision was deleted Tuesday, after protest by Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:28

Yesterday, while the news was full of Stephen Paddock's shooting rampage in Las Vegas, I picked up a copy of the 2017 Boots Christmas catalogue. I'd hoped for some brief immersion in premature festive schmaltz. Instead I got the usual reminder that gender is everywhere.

The back cover featured an advert for Christian Dior's ''Sauvage'', a fragrance for men who consider themselves ''wild at heart''. And who better to promote such untamed masculinity than Johnny Depp, the actor whose manly lack of restraint is exemplified in accusations of assault made by ex-partner Amber Heard?

One can of course argue that this is just an unfortunate coincidence. Dior chose Depp for the campaign in 2015, before Heard's accusations were made public. Nonetheless, it's unlikely they'd have found themselves in the embarrassing situation of having a potential wife-beater fronting a campaign for ''J'adore'' or ''Dolce Vita''.

Mark Kelly on Las Vegas shooting: This was domestic terrorism'

Fragrances for men have masculine names, which is handy since masculinity is associated with aggression. When ''being bad'' is what makes you a real man for the purposes of a photoshoot, why should we be surprised when the same applies in real life?

Which brings us back to the latest instalment of white men and their killing sprees. There are many who will be eager blame the actions of Stephen Paddock on lax gun control, racist entitlement and masculinity. I'm inclined to agree with them. So far this year there have been over 270 mass shootings in the US. White men have committed more mass shootings than any other group.

That these shooters are male is not insignificant. The only thing I'd question is whether we should be worrying about the toxicity levels of their masculinity.

''Toxic masculinity'' is a phrase we hear a lot in relation to male violence. It implies there is a non-toxic, healthy alternative. It creates a distinction between the wild man posturing of a perfume advert and the wildness of a fist in the face, suggesting there is no necessary connection between the two.

Las Vegas Strip goes dark after mass shooting

That the problem might just be masculinity, plain and simple, is not something we're eager to countenance. While we might be prepared to apply a little structural analysis to the situation '' yes, there is something about men and the way they are conditioned that leads us to this place '' we're unwilling to draw any final conclusions. Masculinity doesn't kill people; it's those mysterious toxins that are to blame.

When good people cling on to a value system that is killing others by the million, they do so by insisting what we have isn't the true, pure version. Real nationalism is about pride, not hate; real capitalism doesn't withhold, but delivers opportunities; real patriarchal religion sees women as different, but equal. It might not look that way, but something's got lost in translation. Don't mistake the poor imitation for the thing in itself, even if the former's all you're ever going to get.

Las Vegas shooting: Who is gunman Stephen Paddock?

And so, too, with gender. Rather than admit that the poor imitation is all that there is '' that there's nothing behind it, no hidden, non-hierarchical, playful spectrum '' we kid ourselves that there's something worth saving. We rename our inner sense of self our ''gender identity''. We're afraid that without these boxes in which to retreat, we'd lose all individuality.

But strip away the so-called toxic aspects of masculinity: the aggression, the violence, the hate, the guns, and what are you left with? Strength, endurance, a woody-scented perfume, a liking for the colour blue? Certainly nothing that need be associated with manhood or maleness. These are simply individual qualities. The only reason to code them as ''masculine'' is to preserve a social hierarchy that ought to be destroyed.

Las Vegas shooting: What we know so far

There's a brilliant Gloria Steinem quotation doing the rounds on Twitter in response to the Las Vegas massacre. It highlights not just the inconsistencies in attitudes towards firearms and reproductive rights, but the way in which behaviour is managed through the prism of gender:

''I want any young men who buys a gun to be treated like young women who seek an abortion. Think about it: a mandatory 48-hours waiting period, written permission from a parent or a judge, a note from a doctor proving that he understands what he is about to do, time spent watching a video on individual and mass murders, travelling hundreds of miles at his own expense to the nearest gun shop, and walking through protestors holding photos of loved ones killed by guns, protestors who call him a murderer.''

In response to this, one tweeter argued that the Second Amendment exists to prevent the government from having a monopoly on violence: ''Women and feminine men don't get this point''. I don't think the tweeter meant this as a condemnation of masculine values, but as such it works perfectly. People who ''don't get'' why we all need to own guns are precisely the kind of people we ought to be raising right now.

What would be so terrible about a world in which boys were treated no differently to girls from the day they were born? In which there are no pink/blue codifications to hide behind? In which a man's anger and aggression were considered every bit as aberrant and unnatural as a woman's?

The problem we're facing isn't toxic masculinity; it's that masculinity is toxic. It's time we questioned even its most subtle manifestations.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:19

Oct. 05, 2017 | 12:42 PM

Personal belongings are gathered on the ground at the venue of the Route 91 Harvest Festival venue where FBI investigators continue work in the aftermath of the worst modern mass murder in US history in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 4, 2017. (AFP / Robyn Beck)

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:37

W

ASHINGTON '-- After three years of debate, countless hearings, and pleas from patient advocates, lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation to speed new medicines to market and to authorize an additional $4.8 billion in spending for medical research.

The House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Cures Act by a 392 to 26 vote, showing a bipartisan spirit that has been rare in recent years. The Cures Act now heads to the Senate, for a vote early next week.

Supporters in Congress and patient advocacy groups said they were thrilled by the bill's passage.

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''We are on the cusp of something special '-- a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform how we treat disease,'' said Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who marshaled the legislation through the House. ''With today's vote, we are taking a giant leap on the path to cures.''

The Cures Act includes numerous provisions that set the stage for the faster approval of prescription drugs and medical devices. Although proponents claim these new measures will not lower safety standards, numerous critics, including some former Food and Drug Administration officials and national consumer groups, disagree. They have argued that FDA already moves faster than similar agencies in other countries.

The landmark legislation provides $4.8 billion for the three signature Obama administration research programs over the next 10 years: Vice President Joe Biden's cancer moonshot, the BRAIN Initiative, and the Precision Medicine Initiative. It would also give states $1 billion to fight the opioid crisis, and deliver an additional $500 million to the FDA.

The bill heads to the Senate for a vote early next week. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the minority leader, acknowledged that there had been ''angst'' over the legislation among his colleagues, and several, including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), have said they will oppose it.

But party leaders on both sides of the aisle said they expect the bill to pass the Senate.

To lawmakers, that promise of extra funds '-- and the prospect of having to justify a vote against cancer research and efforts to fight opioid addiction '-- has trumped any other objections to the bill. Even critics acknowledged the bill included welcome measures.

Representative Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), who voted for the bill, was a driving force behind provisions that will fund mental health care programs.

''To all the families who brought their stories out of the shadows, that dared to share their sorrows, their hopes, their shattered dreams, today is a day of joy,'' said Murphy, who is a psychologist.''And today is only possible, I say to all those families, because they dared to step forward.''

Critics had a host of concerns. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the bill would weaken regulations on medical devices, allow drugs to be approved with only limited evidence of the drug's safety and efficacy, and rush the use of new and unproven antibiotics.

Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said he was especially concerned about Cures Act provisions that will allow the FDA to consider ''real world evidence'' when approving drugs and allow companies to submit summaries of study data, rather than full clinical trial records.

''The summary data could hide important information about the safety and effectiveness from the FDA scientist reviewing the data,'' Carome said. ''I'm disappointed to see it. ''

This was the second time that the House approved the Cures Act, which the chamber initially passed by an overwhelming margin in July 2015. Since then, it has been a long slog.

In the Senate, lawmakers split down party lines. Democrats would not approve the accelerated approval provisions unless funding for the National Institutes of Health and the FDA was included. For their part, Republicans said they would not support mandatory funding without figuring out how to pay for it.

House and Senate leaders last Friday unveiled a new, compromise version of the Cures Act, which funds the research in part by selling off some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and in part by drawing down on funding for prevention programs in the Affordable Care Act.

Many consumer and patient advocacy groups were disappointed the legislation didn't include more money for the NIH, and were critical of the way in which lawmakers have chosen to pay for it.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said he opposed the plan to divert funds by cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund, by 30 percent, over the next seven fiscal years.

''The proposed cuts to the prevention fund would take away critical resources that could be used for programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit,'' Myers said.

Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America, agreed.

''We are disappointed that policymakers chose to redirect future increases in the Prevention and Public Health Fund to help offset the cost of this legislation, since that fund is a strategic investment in its own right,'' she said. ''Nonetheless, we believe this bill richly deserves the bipartisan support it enjoys, and we urge the Senate to pass and the president to sign it.''

The Cures Act initially included a rollback of requirements for companies to report certain payments to doctors. That provision was deleted Tuesday, after protest by Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:28

Yesterday, while the news was full of Stephen Paddock's shooting rampage in Las Vegas, I picked up a copy of the 2017 Boots Christmas catalogue. I'd hoped for some brief immersion in premature festive schmaltz. Instead I got the usual reminder that gender is everywhere.

The back cover featured an advert for Christian Dior's ''Sauvage'', a fragrance for men who consider themselves ''wild at heart''. And who better to promote such untamed masculinity than Johnny Depp, the actor whose manly lack of restraint is exemplified in accusations of assault made by ex-partner Amber Heard?

One can of course argue that this is just an unfortunate coincidence. Dior chose Depp for the campaign in 2015, before Heard's accusations were made public. Nonetheless, it's unlikely they'd have found themselves in the embarrassing situation of having a potential wife-beater fronting a campaign for ''J'adore'' or ''Dolce Vita''.

Mark Kelly on Las Vegas shooting: This was domestic terrorism'

Fragrances for men have masculine names, which is handy since masculinity is associated with aggression. When ''being bad'' is what makes you a real man for the purposes of a photoshoot, why should we be surprised when the same applies in real life?

Which brings us back to the latest instalment of white men and their killing sprees. There are many who will be eager blame the actions of Stephen Paddock on lax gun control, racist entitlement and masculinity. I'm inclined to agree with them. So far this year there have been over 270 mass shootings in the US. White men have committed more mass shootings than any other group.

That these shooters are male is not insignificant. The only thing I'd question is whether we should be worrying about the toxicity levels of their masculinity.

''Toxic masculinity'' is a phrase we hear a lot in relation to male violence. It implies there is a non-toxic, healthy alternative. It creates a distinction between the wild man posturing of a perfume advert and the wildness of a fist in the face, suggesting there is no necessary connection between the two.

Las Vegas Strip goes dark after mass shooting

That the problem might just be masculinity, plain and simple, is not something we're eager to countenance. While we might be prepared to apply a little structural analysis to the situation '' yes, there is something about men and the way they are conditioned that leads us to this place '' we're unwilling to draw any final conclusions. Masculinity doesn't kill people; it's those mysterious toxins that are to blame.

When good people cling on to a value system that is killing others by the million, they do so by insisting what we have isn't the true, pure version. Real nationalism is about pride, not hate; real capitalism doesn't withhold, but delivers opportunities; real patriarchal religion sees women as different, but equal. It might not look that way, but something's got lost in translation. Don't mistake the poor imitation for the thing in itself, even if the former's all you're ever going to get.

Las Vegas shooting: Who is gunman Stephen Paddock?

And so, too, with gender. Rather than admit that the poor imitation is all that there is '' that there's nothing behind it, no hidden, non-hierarchical, playful spectrum '' we kid ourselves that there's something worth saving. We rename our inner sense of self our ''gender identity''. We're afraid that without these boxes in which to retreat, we'd lose all individuality.

But strip away the so-called toxic aspects of masculinity: the aggression, the violence, the hate, the guns, and what are you left with? Strength, endurance, a woody-scented perfume, a liking for the colour blue? Certainly nothing that need be associated with manhood or maleness. These are simply individual qualities. The only reason to code them as ''masculine'' is to preserve a social hierarchy that ought to be destroyed.

Las Vegas shooting: What we know so far

There's a brilliant Gloria Steinem quotation doing the rounds on Twitter in response to the Las Vegas massacre. It highlights not just the inconsistencies in attitudes towards firearms and reproductive rights, but the way in which behaviour is managed through the prism of gender:

''I want any young men who buys a gun to be treated like young women who seek an abortion. Think about it: a mandatory 48-hours waiting period, written permission from a parent or a judge, a note from a doctor proving that he understands what he is about to do, time spent watching a video on individual and mass murders, travelling hundreds of miles at his own expense to the nearest gun shop, and walking through protestors holding photos of loved ones killed by guns, protestors who call him a murderer.''

In response to this, one tweeter argued that the Second Amendment exists to prevent the government from having a monopoly on violence: ''Women and feminine men don't get this point''. I don't think the tweeter meant this as a condemnation of masculine values, but as such it works perfectly. People who ''don't get'' why we all need to own guns are precisely the kind of people we ought to be raising right now.

What would be so terrible about a world in which boys were treated no differently to girls from the day they were born? In which there are no pink/blue codifications to hide behind? In which a man's anger and aggression were considered every bit as aberrant and unnatural as a woman's?

The problem we're facing isn't toxic masculinity; it's that masculinity is toxic. It's time we questioned even its most subtle manifestations.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:19

We have been anaesthetised to the depressing nature of news coming out of the Middle East, but we can't be allowed to forget what is happening in Qatar

Your name is Sumon, and you live in a small village in rural Bangladesh. One day you're visited by a casual acquaintance you've known since childhood, who has an opportunity. He's recruiting for a clerical job, he knows you've always been bright and ambitious, and he wants you. He'll take care of everything: paperwork, passport, medical, transport. He'll even act as a reference if you need a bank loan. The promised salary '' $400 dollars US a month '' is literally more money than you've seen before in your life.

Of course, you're no mug. You've heard the stories. But this is an old friend. Your children go to school together. He works for the local government. He wants to help. A fresh start, financial security, a better future for your family. Besides, what's the alternative? Stay in your village and slowly get old?

So you sign. There's a small recruitment fee to be paid, plus the cost of your orientation seminar, medical examination, insurance. You sell some land, empty your savings, lean on your extended family for support, and borrow the rest against future earnings. It's a big, life-changing step. But with your handsome salary, you reckon you'll be able to break even and start sending money home within a few months. You're doing this so your children won't have to.

A worker contemplates his life in Qatar (Getty)

Alas, when you land in Doha, the goalposts have shifted slightly. This much becomes apparent when you're handed a helmet and a high-viz jacket and told to present yourself at a building site at 6am the following morning. You're not working as a clerk in an office, you're building a football stadium. They're not quite sure who told you the $400 a month figure, but it's actually going to be $200, less miscellaneous costs. The recruitment fee isn't $200 as you'd agreed, but $2000, plus the cost of your flight to Qatar. Your crisp new passport is confiscated. You cannot quit your job. You cannot leave the country. And before you have even clocked in for your first shift, you owe your employer the equivalent of two years' wages.

And so quite suddenly, you are plunged into a bewildering world of alienation and exploitation, long hours and back-breaking toil in baking heat. Twelve hours a day, six days a week. At night, you sleep on a filthy bunk bed. At least your wages are getting paid on time. You're one of the lucky ones. Talking to other migrant workers in one of the many makeshift camps dotted around the outskirts of Doha, you find others who are having money withheld for two, three, sometimes even six months.

It is a world of instability and euphemism. Co-workers keel over, and within minutes they've been spirited away under a thick blanket, declared ''absent'' and never seen again. If you try and visit a shopping mall on a rare day off, a stern-looking security guard will tell you this is a ''family zone'' and escort you off the premises. Really, you're not an employee at all, but an indentured labourer. And really, you're not building a football stadium. You're building a mausoleum.

No doubt you're aware, on some elemental level, that the 2022 World Cup is a Bad Thing. The deluge of negative press that has engulfed Qatar's winning bid for the last seven years has ensured that much. Yet at the same time, the sheer relentlessness of depressing news coming out of the region has anaesthetised us to it. After all, there is plenty of competition for people's outrage these days. The upshot is that however bad you think the 2022 World Cup is, chances are it's even worse than that.

The lack of tangible, recognisable human faces to put on the story is another factor. That's why I made Sumon up. He doesn't exist. His story never happened. But of course, he does, and it did. Sumon exists around 2.3 million times over. His story happened yesterday, and it will happen again today, and again tomorrow.

Migrant workers are being used to build Qatar's World Cup stadiums

Last week, the charity Human Rights Watch issued its latest report into the conditions of migrant workers in Qatar. It found that regulations meant to protect workers from heat and humidity were still woefully inadequate. It found that hundreds of migrant workers were dropping dead on construction projects every year, but it's hard to be sure exactly how many and how they're dying, because Qatar won't tell us, or even carry out post-mortems. The few deaths that are officially accounted for are generally given conveniently vague descriptions like ''unknown causes'', ''natural causes'' or ''cardiac arrest'', giving the impression that they are simply part of the rich circle of life. They just died, OK? These things happen.

HRW has been banging on about this sort of stuff for years, patiently pointing out the ways the country tries to resist external oversight, promises reforms that are either not enforced or only apply to the tiny fraction of the workforce actually building World Cup stadiums. Yet its latest report raised barely a murmur. Another story about Qatar? Mmm, yes, how ghastly. And so over the years, Qatar 2022 has slipped down the emotional radar, swallowed up by newer, sexier Bad Things.

The artists' impressions of Qatar stadia are sexy, but the issues seem to no longer be

One of the reasons you don't see or hear from the victims of Qatar's cruelty is that it's almost impossible to get to them. In March last year, a UN delegation visited Qatar to check on progress, investigate working conditions and generally have a little mosey around. They spoke to a Nepalese construction worker, who had the temerity to answer their questions truthfully. The worker was summarily fired, and ordered to get on the first plane back to Nepal. Along the way, someone realised that because the worker no longer had a work sponsor, he could be thrown in jail. So he was thrown in jail.

There is a temptation to attribute all this to simple, rapacious, market capitalism. After all, rich people have been exploiting poor people since the dawn of time. Yet to describe the Qatar World Cup as simply a labour rights scandal would be to let it grotesquely off the hook. To understand why, you need to understand the demographics of Qatar.

Amnesty: Qatar World Cup stadium workers suffer abuse

Fifty years ago, you could have quite comfortably seated the entire country in one of their swanky new World Cup stadiums. Now, Qatar's population is 2.6 million, of whom nearly 90 per cent are migrant workers. For native Qataris, in control and yet massively outnumbered, the primal and perpetual fear is that the foreign-born population '' overwhelming working-age and male '' will somehow unite, coalesce, perhaps even mobilise against them. It is why the idea of any form of organised labour is met with horror from the local population, who see this as a national security issue. And it explains the systematic and quite overt discrimination that migrant workers face, even when outside the workplace.

Certain public spaces in Doha '' markets, shopping malls, town squares '' have been designated as ''family zones'': in effect, for locals and Westerners only. Armed security guards patrol these areas, escorting those of south Asian appearance firmly towards the exits. Migrants are even banned from living in certain areas. A few years ago, the country's Central Municipal Council proposed designating Friday '' most workers' only day off '' a ''family day'', during which non-Qataris would be banned from entering the country's many popular shopping malls.

A migrant worker gets ready for bed in his sleeping quarters (Getty)

This is segregation by stealth.

And in five years' time, this is the country that will throw open its arms and host the biggest footballing party on Earth. The 2022 World Cup is a tournament being built on a graveyard of human bodies, to prop up a society founded upon the most basic type of racism. Qatar's gamble is that the wider world, distantly absorbed in its own problems, won't care enough to make it stop. It's a gamble they're winning.

So, here comes the big question. What can you '' the erudite, empathetic, informed reader of The Independent, scrolling through this article over your lunch break through a flurry of push notifications '' do about it? One thing we probably can't do, unfortunately, is take the World Cup away. If Qatar was going to be stripped of the tournament, it would have happened in the last seven years, not the next five. And it is telling that much of the Western media continues to train its outrage on the Qatari bid itself, and the accusations of vote-buying in the Fifa executive committee. Exploit all the migrant labour you want, guys, but at least be above board about it, yeah?

What you can do is follow the money. Once Fifa have taken their cut, the revenues generated by a World Cup flow back into the game via its member associations. That means the FA '' our Football Association '' stands to financially benefit from a Qatar World Cup, assuming England qualify. That's money going into your local FA, your local club, your local pitches. If that makes you feel uneasy, why not tell them about it?

The other thing you can do is see. Qatari soft power is everywhere you look, especially if you live in a big city like London or New York. If you shop at Sainsbury's, fly British Airways or hold an account at Barclays Bank, you are indirectly funding the Qatari state. And if you watch the Premier League or Champions League, you are watching a game fattened and buttressed by Qatari money, whether it is the direct product of Paris Saint-Germain's investment in players like Neymar, or simply a market grotesquely inflated by their transfer fees.

Which is not to guilt-trip anybody. We all have to live our lives: I'll still shop at Sainsbury's, it's the closest supermarket to the Tube station. I'll still watch PSG, because how could you love football and not? But the first step to solving any problem is to see it, recognise it, understand how it fits into the world we inhabit. And so perhaps the next time you see Kylian Mbappe bearing down on goal, or glimpse the Shard through your window, perhaps you'll also see Sumon, stepping on a plane to begin what he comically imagines will be a better life.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:19

Oct. 05, 2017 | 12:42 PM

Personal belongings are gathered on the ground at the venue of the Route 91 Harvest Festival venue where FBI investigators continue work in the aftermath of the worst modern mass murder in US history in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 4, 2017. (AFP / Robyn Beck)

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:11

The murder toll in Las Vegas on Sunday makes it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Know what they call that in Chicago? June.

Actually, there were 84 murders in Chicago, just in June, according to DNAinfo.com, which keeps a running tally.

There were 76 murders in July, 50 in August.

And there were 59 murders in Chicago last month, so the death toll in Las Vegas '-- again, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history '-- was just a normal September there.

So far in Chicago, where Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff for Barack Obama, is mayor, there have been 519 murders this year. And there's still a quarter of the year to go. But the numbers get crazy when totaling "gun violence" victims: In 2015, 2,988 people were victims of gun violence, according to records kept by The Chicago Tribune.

That number soared in 2016. There were 4,368 shooting victims last year, the Tribune reported.

Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, right up there with New York and Los Angeles (lawmakers there bristle when anyone says they have the "most restrictive" in the country, but everyone agrees Chicago's gun laws are at least "quite restrictive").

While residents can now buy a gun '-- they were banned in Chicago until a 2010 Supreme Court ruling '-- the process of doing so is quite difficult. And Gov. Bruce Rauner in August 2016 approved a new law making gun laws tighter CNN reported.

But gangs run the streets of the Windy City, and the mayor has had no impact on reducing shootings.

"Gun violence in Chicago is unacceptable," Emanuel said last September. "It threatens everything we have done together and all of the progress we have made in other areas. It is pulling us apart at the very moment when our city needs to come together."

He added that "ending this string of tragedies is our top priority as a city." So far, no luck.

In July of this year, there 115 people shot in the city '-- in a single week. And since Emanuel was elected in 2011, the murder rate has risen. In 2012: 509 killed; in 2013 that dropped to 442; in 2014, that rose slightly to 428; then in 2015, jumped to 495; and in 2016, the murder rate soared to 751. The city is on pace for about 700 murders again this year.

After the mass shooting in Las Vegas, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the city of Chicago as not exactly a shining beacon of successful gun-control legislation.

"One of the things that we don't want to do, is try to create laws that won't stop these types of things from happening," Sanders said on Monday. "I think if you look to Chicago where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes, they have the strictest gun laws in the country and that certainly hasn't helped there."

But federal lawmakers from Illinois immediately began pushing gun control. "Congress, 50 people went to a concert & didn't come home because of one man with a weapon of war. #AssaultWeaponBan #EnoughIsEnough," Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly posted on Twitter.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) posted: "The notion that there's no way to prevent gun violence is false '-- and without action to stop gun attacks, Congress is complicit in them." Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said: "Gun violence is a scourge and an epidemic, and it requires bold legislative action."

But maybe, just maybe, those Illinois lawmakers should try to figure out how to curb murders in Chicago before they take their game on the road.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:00

Opinions

By Leah Libresco

October 3, 2017 at 3:02 PM

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Police found 12 weapons with bump-fire stocks in the shooter's hotel room. These devices can be used to make semi-automatic weapons perform like machine guns. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)Leah Libresco is a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight,a data journalism site. She is the author of "Arriving at Amen."

Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me. I wished the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.

Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way. We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I'd lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence. The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns.

I researched the strictly tightened gun laws in Britain and Australia and concluded that they didn't prove much about what America's policy should be. Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun related-crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans. Mass shootings were too rare in Australia for their absence after the buyback program to be clear evidence of progress. And in both Australia and Britain, the gun restrictions had an ambiguous effect on other gun-related crimes or deaths.

When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an "assault weapon." It's an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has two or more features, such as a bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos.

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After a shooting in Las Vegas left at least 58 people dead and injured hundreds, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Oct. 2 said Congress's failure to pass gun-control legislation amounts to an ''unintentional endorsement'' of mass shootings. (U.S. Senate)As for silencers '-- they deserve that name only in movies, where they reduce gunfire to a soft puick puick. In real life, silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don't make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer. Magazine limits were a little more promising, but a practiced shooter could still change magazines so fast as to make the limit meaningless.

As my co-workers and I kept looking at the data, it seemed less and less clear that one broad gun-control restriction could make a big difference. Two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States every year are suicides. Almost no proposed restriction would make it meaningfully harder for people with guns on hand to use them. I couldn't even answer my most desperate question: If I had a friend who had guns in his home and a history of suicide attempts, was there anything I could do that would help?

However, the next-largest set of gun deaths '-- 1 in 5 '-- were young men aged 15 to 34, killed in homicides. These men were most likely to die at the hands of other young men, often related to gang loyalties or other street violence. And the last notable group of similar deaths was the 1,700 women murdered per year, usually as the result of domestic violence. Far more people were killed in these ways than in mass-shooting incidents, but few of the popularly floated policies were tailored to serve them.

By the time we published our project, I didn't believe in many of the interventions I'd heard politicians tout. I was still anti-gun, at least from the point of view of most gun owners, and I don't want a gun in my home, as I think the risk outweighs the benefits. But I can't endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them. Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.

Instead, I found the most hope in more narrowly tailored interventions. Potential suicide victims, women menaced by their abusive partners and kids swept up in street vendettas are all in danger from guns, but they each require different protections.

Older men, who make up the largest share of gun suicides, need better access to people who could care for them and get them help. Women endangered by specific men need to be prioritized by police, who can enforce restraining orders prohibiting these men from buying and owning guns. Younger men at risk of violence need to be identified before they take a life or lose theirs and to be connected to mentors who can help them de-escalate conflicts.

Even the most data-driven practices, such as New Orleans' plan to identify gang members for intervention based on previous arrests and weapons seizures, wind up more personal than most policies floated. The young men at risk can be identified by an algorithm, but they have to be disarmed one by one, personally '-- not en masse as though they were all interchangeable. A reduction in gun deaths is most likely to come from finding smaller chances for victories and expanding those solutions as much as possible. We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.

Watch more!

While the attack on the Las Vegas strip is the deadliest in modern American history, attacks in the 19th and 20th centuries had higher death tolls. Here are two deadly events in American history that you may not have heard about. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)Read more:

The Post's View: The worst kind of American exceptionalism

Chris Murphy: Mass shootings are an American problem. There's an American solution.

Richard Glover: How Australia beat the gun lobby and passed gun control

The Post's View: Gun control's silver bullets

Charles C.W. Cooke: The right to bear arms isn't up for debate

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 02:45

One America News Network is owned by Herring Networks, Inc. Herring Networks, Inc. is a family owned and operated, independent media company focused on providing high quality national television programming to consumers via its national cable networks. The for-profit company was established in 2004 and has its primary production operations in California and Washington, DC.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 02:38

More dramatic mobile phone video is emerging of the terrifying moments when a gunman in the Mandalay Bay Hotel unleashed a hail of gunfire on a crowd enjoying a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 59 and injuring more than 500 Sunday. (Oct. 3) AP

The Mandalay Bay Resort on Oct. 3, 2017, in Las Vegas. Authorities said Stephen Craig Paddock broke the windows in his rooms there and began firing with a cache of weapons, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. (Photo: John Locher, AP)

The hotel suite used by the Las Vegas gunman to rain deadly rounds down on concertgoers below revealed an alarming arsenal of 23 weapons and accessories, including semiautomatic rifles, scopes and hundreds of rounds of ammunition '-- much of which could be legally purchased in Nevada.

Another 19 weapons were found at the shooter's Mesquite, Nev., home.

How the gunman, Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, acquired the weaponry, how he passed background checks and what his motivations were are all being investigated by authorities.

Asked about a potential motive, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said he could not ''get into the mind of a psychopath at this point.''

Photos of the hotel crime scene on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino tweeted out Tuesday by Boston 25 News showed what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bipod and a scope laying on a carpeted floor surrounded by rounds of ammunition. The weapon also appears fitted with an irregular stock.

An undisclosed number of the weapons at the crime scene are believed to have been modified with technology known as a "bump-stock'' that allows for rapid firing, similar to a machine gun, two people familiar with the matter said.

More:Americans really like their guns. They own 42% of 650 million civilian firearms worldwide

More:Investigators 'hunting down' motive behind Las Vegas shooting rampage

More:23 weapons were found in Las Vegas shooter's hotel room: What we know now

More:Country star Caleb Keeter changes guns stance: 'I cannot express how wrong I was'

The technology relies on recoil energy produced by gun fire to expend rounds in rapid succession and could be readily purchased online or from private dealers, without government regulation.

The technology was subjected to weeks of review to determine whether it could be classified as an illegal conversion device. Federal authorities determined the technology to be a legal accessory that '-- when used '-- did not convert the weapon into an actual machine gun, said Rick Vasquez, a former acting chief of the Firearms Technology Branch at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, who was part of the team that reviewed the bump-stock technology.

''It did not meet the definition of a machine gun,'' Vasquez said. ''It took a lot of study because ATF is concerned about safety. But sometimes you have to make a decision you don't necessarily like. It was an accessory, not a conversion device.''

Semiautomatic weapons, such as the AR-15, could be legally purchased under federal law and have been found at the scene of previous mass killings such as the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting and the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn.

These weapons fire a single shot each time the trigger is pulled, unless the weapon is modified. Some states, such as California and Massachusetts, regulate the sale of these weapons and the size of the magazines that attach to them, but Nevada does not.

Though Nevada voters expanded gun background checks to private-party sales in a November 2016 ballot initiative, the state's attorney general contends that the checks cannot be put in place because the FBI says it won't handle the checks. (Photo: Getty Images)

Fully automatic weapons fire rounds continuously as long as the trigger is held down.

Under federal law, machine guns '-- considered automatic weapons '-- are tightly regulated but legal to own if they were made before May 1986 and are registered with the federal government.

About 391,000 machine guns were listed in the national firearms registry as of November 2006, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates stricter gun laws. That same year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized 1,280 unregistered machine guns.

Unlike Nevada, several states, including California and Massachusetts, ban machine guns outright, with exceptions such as for police training.

The Sunday night shooting killed at least 59 people attending a country music concert about a block away and wounded 527 others, officials said. Police found Paddock dead in the hotel room, apparently by a self-inflicted wound.

Paddock's arsenal and the harrowing sound of rapid-fire bursts of gunfire caught on video as he fired volleys at the crowd have renewed a national debate on Americans' relationship with guns and whether any tragedy will prove shocking enough to change it.

Gun shop owners are required under federal law to alert ATF if a client buys more than one handgun from the same store within five days, but the same rule doesn't apply if a gun owner buys mulitple semiautomatic rifles, said David Chipman, a former ATF special agent and senior policy adviser at Americans for Responsible Solutions, which advocates for tougher gun rules.

That discrepancy allows people like Paddock to stockpile arsenals such as the one used in Sunday's shooting, he said.

"The amazing loophole here is you could buy two small pistols and ATF will be alerted to that, but you could buy 20 assault rifles and ATF won't be alerted at all," Chipman said. "It doesn't make any sense."

The lack of regulation around bump stocks '-- that allows semi-automatic rifles to fire like machine guns '-- also makes gun regulation less effective, he said. "It's an ingenious workaround of the law," Chipman said.

Gun owners in Nevada don't need a permit to buy or possess a rifle, shotgun or handgun, according to the National Rifle Association. They can carry a firearm openly in public. Nevadans can also own machine guns or silencers, banned in other states, as long as they're legally registered and within federal compliance. The state does not prohibit possession of assault weapons, 50-caliber rifles or large-capacity ammunition magazines, according to the NRA.

A law enforcement official, who has been briefed on the matter but is not authorized to comment publicly, said police also found two tripods positioned at the hotel windows in what appeared to be a fully-equipped sniper's nest to take better aim at the crowd below.

Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were among the suspect's possessions, a cache that could have sustained him in a much longer assault, the official said.

Authorities believe that the gunman, who had no serious criminal background, purchased many of the weapons legally, though investigators were attempting to determine whether he illegally converted some to operate as fully automatic weapons, the official said.

At least some of his arsenal was purchased legally at Guns & Guitars in Mesquite.

''He passed every federal background check, every time he bought a gun,'' owner Janis Sullivan, 67, told USA TODAY.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY; Associated Press

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2kjJFK5

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Authorities have not revealed the specific type of gun or guns used by the shooter, although they believe he purchased them legally.

You don't need a permit to buy a gun, nor are you required to get a license or register a firearm. There's no limit on the number of guns a person can buy at one time.Carrying an unconcealed firearm in public is legal.There is no mandated waiting period before buying a gun.You can bring a gun to a polling place, to a casino and to a bar.You cannot bring a gun to a school or a university campus.Law enforcement are required to issue a concealed handgun permit to anyone who meets the basic qualifications. Nevada honors concealed handgun licenses from other states.Nevada voters passed a ballot measure last year requiring a background check for firearm transactions between private parties. But the state attorney general put it on hold, saying it wasn't enforceable.The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group that tracks firearms legislation, gives Nevada a grade of C- on its gun laws -- lower than more restrictive states such as California or Massachusetts but higher than 25 states that scored an F.According to a Pew survey conducted in March and April, 83% of American adults said they consider gun violence in the US a big problem. But far fewer, 47%, say there would be fewer mass shootings in the US if it were harder for people to legally obtain guns.Support for stricter gun laws often spikes temporarily following mass shootings.

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President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would have to ''wipe out'' Puerto Rico's multi-billion dollar debt after Hurricane Maria.

"They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we're going to have to wipe that out," Trump said during an interview with Fox News. "You can say goodbye to that."

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''I don't know if it's Goldman Sachs but you can wave goodbye to that.''

Puerto Rico had roughly $70 billion in debt before Maria hit.

The debt had been a major obstacle for the U.S. territory as it fought for statehood. Bondholders had asked Congress and the Trump administration to hold off on granting statehood until Puerto Rico had paid off its debt.

The island had been struggling economically since former President Clinton signed a tax reform law in 1996 that closed a loophole giving tax incentives for U.S. businesses to establish subsidiaries in Puerto Rico.

Now, Puerto Rico officials are trying to recover from Hurricane Maria since it struck the island nearly two weeks ago. Less than 10 percent of the island has power.

Trump visited the island Tuesday, meeting with local officials about the recovery process and distributing supplies to residents.

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A Henderson doctor wrote a prescription for the drug diazepam for Stephen Paddock, 64 of Mesquite and he filled it the same day in Reno, according to a state Prescription Monitoring Program record obtained by the Review-Journal.

By Paul Harasim (C)2017, Las Vegas Review-Journal

October 3, 2017 - 9:00 pm

Stephen Paddock, who killed at least 58 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas on Sunday with high-powered rifles, was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug in June that can lead to aggressive behavior, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned.

Records from the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program obtained Tuesday show Paddock was prescribed 50 10-milligram diazepam tablets by Henderson physician Dr. Steven Winkler on June 21.

A woman who answered the phone at Winkler's office would not make him available to answer questions and would neither confirm nor deny that Paddock was ever a patient.

Paddock purchased the drug '-- its brand name is Valium '-- without insurance at a Walgreens store in Reno on the same day it was prescribed. He was supposed to take one pill a day.

Diazepam is a sedative-hypnotic drug in the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which studies have shown can trigger aggressive behavior. Chronic use or abuse of sedatives such as diazepam can also trigger psychotic experiences, according to drugabuse.com.

'They can become aggressive'

''If somebody has an underlying aggression problem and you sedate them with that drug, they can become aggressive,'' said Dr. Mel Pohl, chief medical officer of the Las Vegas Recovery Center. ''It can disinhibit an underlying emotional state. '... It is much like what happens when you give alcohol to some people '... they become aggressive instead of going to sleep.''

Pohl, who spoke to the Review-Journal from the Netherlands, said the effects of the drug also can be magnified by alcohol.

A 2015 study published in World Psychiatry of 960 Finnish adults and teens convicted of homicide showed that their odds of killing were 45 percent higher during time periods when they were on benzodiazepines.

A year earlier, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry published a study titled, ''Benzodiazepine Use and Aggressive Behavior.'' The authors wrote: ''It appears that benzodiazepine use is moderately associated with subsequent aggressive behavior.''

Dr. Michael First, a clinical psychiatry professor at Columbia University and expert on benzodiazepines, said the Finnish study speaks for itself. But he also told the Review-Journal on Tuesday that he believes the drugs would be more likely to fuel impulsive aggression than premeditated behavior.

''What this man in Las Vegas did was very planned,'' he noted, referring to reports that Paddock sneaked an arsenal of weapons into the Mandalay Bay and placed cameras inside and outside his room before launching his attack.

Why was it prescribed?

First said it would be important to discover why Paddock was prescribed the drug.

''That may have more to do with why he did what he did,'' First said.

The Nevada state monitoring report also noted that Winkler prescribed 50 10-milligram tablets of diazepam to Paddock in 2016. He also filled that prescription the day it was written, this time at Evergreen Drugs in Henderson. It was for two tablets a day.

Questions have long swirled around whether psychiatric drugs are linked to mass school shootings in the United States, though researchers have yet to find a definitive connections, despite several studies.

Critics of unscientific linkage in the news media and on social media between psychiatric drugs and violence say it stigmatizes those who benefit from their use. That, in turn, can make people quit using medications that can actually be lifesavers, they say.

On Monday, actress Kirstie Alley, best known for her role in the TV sitcom ''Cheers,'' stirred controversy by tweeting that guns and psychiatric drugs are the common denominators in recent mass shootings in the United States. She cited no evidence that Paddock has used the drugs.

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[PDF] affidavit - Rackcdn.com668781195408a83df63a-e48385e382d2e5d17821a5e1d8e4c86b.r51.cf1.rackcdn.co...I, Gershon Ross, being duly sworn, depose and state as follows: ... been a Special Agent / Investigator for the U.S. government for over 22 years. My current. [PDF] AFFIDAVIT OF SPECIAL AGENT MICHAEL L. RYAN ... - Universal Hubwww.universalhub.com/files/smith-affidavit.pdfJun 27, 2017 - I, Special Agent Michael L. Ryan, being duly sworn, depose and state as follows: ... My primary duties consist of conducting criminal investigations into alleged .... Ross was a ''dignitary'' under SMITH's official police escort. REBEKAH THONGINH ROSS v. THE STATE OF TEXAS | FindLawcaselaw.findlaw.com 'º Caselaw 'º Texas 'º TX Ct. App.Nov 30, 2016 - The petition was supported by the affidavit of Ross. .... Stillwagoner, a former special investigator for the Department, testified that he worked in ... Report of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Government ...https://books.google.com/books?id=qLAvAAAAMAAJ

Special committee on investigation of the Government hospital for the insane. ... He would not allow our application and asked me to make certain affidavits in ... We had ordered some locks of a firm called Barber & Ross, and we were delayed ... Whisper - Google Books Resulthttps://books.google.com/books?isbn=1426881126

''We have a private investigator's report sir, which clearly states'--'' ''It clearly states ... ''But the evidence'--'' ''Is circumstantial, and Mrs. Ross has a signed affidavit ... CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy - Department of Justice - OIGhttps://oig.justice.gov/special/9712/ch06p5.htmSeveral times during Ross' trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney L. J. O'Neale noted for the record ... He recalled that the investigation of Ross started only after Ross called ..... According to San Diego U.S. Attorney's Office records, a private investigator ... who was employed by defense counsel for Ross, swore in an affidavit dated ...

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 22:31

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 22:28

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 22:26

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 11:35

Natural News is about to begin releasing lab test results for off-the-shelf food, supplement and pet food products, covering heavy metals, nutritive minerals, pesticides and herbicides. These details will be released exclusively to Natural News email newsletter subscribers (FREE) and will NOT be publicly posted on the website. To be alerted, join our free email newsletter now, and watch for lab test results in the weeks ahead.

Enter your email address below to subscribe to our email announcement list (but don't use gmail). Your privacy is protected and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you don't join our email list, you may never see our valuable content again via Facebook, Google or YouTube. CENSORSHIP has now reached EXTREME levels across the 'net. The truth is being suffocated. Subscribe now if you want to escape the delusional bubble of false reality being pushed by Google and Facebook.

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 04:13

It's always an indelible experience for me as I watch some fellow physicians defend their actions, while others quickly admit to their mistakes or judgment lapses. No matter the circumstances, though, none of us ever want to hear the term "preventable death."

When that happens, it's an admission of failure and a breakdown of our entire medical system. In all my years of attending these meetings, I've only heard the term on a few rare occasions. Each time, it's caused the room to go stone silent.

Yet in Puerto Rico I have heard the term several times a day, every day, as local doctors, mayors and citizens worry that many of the most vulnerable citizens are at risk, mostly due to a failure of a timely, coordinated response by the authorities, both federal and territorial.

For want of insulin, blood pressure medications and antibiotics, things widely available at any neighborhood pharmacy in the US mainland, people in Puerto Rico will die -- are dying -- preventable deaths.

Puerto Rico was not a healthy island before the hurricanes devastated its infrastructure and lines of communication. Diabetes is rampant, and residents are older and poorer than on the mainland. Add an economic recession and a shortage of medical specialists, and you have the perfect storm. There may be 10s of thousands of hardy people who survived the hurricane and are now struggling to stay alive in its aftermath. They are teetering on the edge, with hardly any reserve.

I don't think I will ever understand or accept meaningless suffering. As a doctor and a journalist who has worked in disaster zones for 15 years, it is one of the most frustrating things on which I report. As a human, it makes me question what we hold most important and dear.

A few days ago, 62-year-old Josefina Alvarez lay sweltering on a cot in a shelter not far from San Juan. It was suffocating in there. The humidity was so thick I could barely breathe. No food, and just a few bottles of water. I saw one filled with urine on a windowsill.

For 10 days before my visit, she had battled unstable blood sugars, progressively lower oxygenation to her lungs and an infection that now required IV antibiotics. She survived the hurricane but was now quickly deteriorating and at real risk of developing sepsis: an overwhelming body infection that could kill her. As I saw her laying on that cot full of tears, pleading for help, I found myself suddenly crying with her, physically hurting with her. And suddenly I could not help but imagine my own family -- my own mother, dignified and hardworking -- begging for a simple medication that could save her life.

You try it. Think of your own family in the horror of a situation like that. It will knock the wind out of you.

Luckily, we were able to help Josefina evacuate to a hospital, where she needed antibiotics and an operation to clear the infection that caused her to be so sick.

The very next day, I traveled to Barrio Melilla outside Loiza, again not far from San Juan, with a team of medical volunteers from Project Hope, an international non-governmental organization. There we found more of the hurricane's walking wounded.

People like Jobita Cumaquita, battling both cancer and diabetes, but more concerned with how her 22-year-old granddaughter, Estefani, will manage without her father. A couple of days before the storm hit, he went to the hospital for an elective visit to address his blood sugar. He had made similar visits many times before, Estefani said, and he had always come home healthy shortly after treatment. But in the immediate aftermath of Maria, when they went to check on him, they were shocked to discover that he had died days before.

In the chaos that has gripped Puerto Rico following the storm, the family has struggled to get details about the circumstances of his death -- a sadly common byproduct of everything the storm turned upside-down. But the routine nature of his visit has the family wondering: Was his death due to fallout from the storm? We may never know.

What we do know is there are thousands of Josefinas, Jobitas and Estefanis here in Puerto Rico. They are too bed-ridden to leave their homes, or lack gasoline, or the ability to communicate with the outside world. They are mourning the loss of a loved one, or at the very least lamenting the terrible damage to their homes, their livelihoods, their way of life.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

These are the people we must help now, the people for whom we can make a huge difference as doctors, nurses, politicians, humans. We cannot take our attention off of what is happening here in Puerto Rico.

Know this. When you hear the death toll has increased from the current official number of 16, know that most every additional death need not have happened. They were preventable.

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 04:12

The world's largest annual gun show will go on as planned in Las Vegas.

National Shooting Sports Foundation which hosts the ''SHOT Show'' said they would not be discussing any questions relating to Sunday's massacre, including a venue change for the Jan. 23-26 show, which is being held about four miles away from where Stephen Paddock killed 59 people and injured hundreds more using an array of high-powered assault rifles.

''Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of all those killed and injured in the criminal attack in Las Vegas,'' the foundation said in a statement Tuesday. ''Out of respect for the families of the victims and the law enforcement process, we are not going to comment or participate in media requests made relating to this attack.''

Around 65,000 industry professionals and media attended last year's Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show at the Sands Expo Center, Fox reported.

''SHOT Show,'' is the fifth-largest trade show in Las Vegas with last year's event showcasing over 6.5 million pounds of guns, gear and exhibits relating to hunting, shooting and fishing.

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 12:39

An Australian man who was staying in the room next to the shooter in the Mandalay Bay has confirmed he witnessed multiple gunmen involved in the Las Vegas attack.

''There were multiple people dead and multiple shooters. I was just hiding waiting for police to come get us. I got outside safely and was hiding in bushes,'' Brian Hodge told Australia's Courier-Mail.

Mr. Hodge, who was staying in room 32134, next door to Stephen Paddock in room 32135, also provided important information when he revealed that a security guard was killed by police.

''My floor is a crime scene. They killed a security guard on my floor.''

Who was the ''security guard'' who was killed by police?

Wendy Miller from Cooroy, on the Sunshine Coast '' another Australian caught up in the Las Vegas shooting '' may have provided a missing piece of the puzzle. Also speaking to the Courier-Mail, Ms Miller said she was at a bar in the nearby Luxor Hotel with her husband when she saw what she described as a ''man of interest'' run by.

Ms Miller said the man sprinted through her hotel after coming off an escalator from the Mandalay Bay.

''The man that they [security] were chasing was wearing a security jacket like them,'' she said.

Mr Hodge's eyewitness report of multiple gunmen and a dead security guard, and with Ms Miller's report of a security guard being chased by authorities, suggest that the mainstream media narrative of the ''lone wolf'' gunman is not the truth.

The fact is that this was an orchestrated, co-ordinated attack by multiple conspirators, and the mainstream media are attempting to cover it up.

Video footage confirms multiple shooters

Two explosive videos provided to Your News Wire have also confirmed there were multiple shooters involved in a co-ordinated attack, and the mainstream media of a ''lone wolf'' gunman operating without a motive is a lie.

Both videos show gunfire originating from the fourth floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, much lower than the 32nd floor, where the mainstream media is claiming Stephen Paddock, a ''lone wolf'', fired on the crowd using an automatic weapon.

The mainstream media narrative regarding Paddock's motives have also been debunked by FBI sources who reportedly claimed the shooter has links to Antifa as well as ISIS. But mainstream media is actively covering up the information, claiming Paddock had ''no political or religious affiliations or interests.''

The fact is the Las Vegas shooting was clearly a co-ordinated false flag attack, orchestrated by Paddock as well as at least one other as yet unidentified gunman operating from the fourth floor of the hotel. The mass shooting and scores of dead will be used by the elite to further push their nefarious agenda.

Anybody who looks into the information available to them on the internet will arrive at the same conclusion. Unfortunately anybody who relies on mainstream media for their information will be force-fed a very different conclusion.

The questions must be asked: why is the mainstream media covering for a mass murderer? Why are they attempting to rewrite his past and erase his political affiliations?

The answers are simple. The corporate media, controlled by a small, elite oligarchy, is operating on behalf of the New World Order, attempting to mislead the public into believing their enemies are their friends, and their friends are their enemies.

It doesn't suit the mainstream media's agenda to have an Antifa member responsible for the worst mass shooting in American history. They are actively engaged in covering up this fact up so they can continue pushing the New World Order's sick and twisted agenda.

Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter, was an Antifa member who carried out the worst mass shooting in American history in order to create further division in American society, push the country towards civil war, and further the agenda of the elites.

Official Antifa facebook page, Antifa Melbourne, congratulated Stephen Paddock after the bloodiest mass shooting in America's history, before deleting the post after a torrent of criticism.

There is an active campaign to sow division and create chaos in the United States. Organized groups are working on behalf of global organizations with the most nefarious of goals. We need to wake up and stop believing everything fed to us by the mainstream media. They have proven themselves completely unreliable.

We need to stop hiding from the truth.

Baxter DmitryBaxter Dmitry is a writer at Your News Wire. He covers politics, business and entertainment. Speaking truth to power since he learned to talk, Baxter has travelled in over 80 countries and won arguments in every single one. Live without fear.Email: baxter@yournewswire.com

Follow: @baxter_dmitry

Latest posts by Baxter Dmitry (see all) Previous Las Vegas: Video Footage Confirms Multiple Shooters, Co-ordinated Attack

Next British Schools 'Ban' Jesus Christ Nationwide

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:48

Natural News is about to begin releasing lab test results for off-the-shelf food, supplement and pet food products, covering heavy metals, nutritive minerals, pesticides and herbicides. These details will be released exclusively to Natural News email newsletter subscribers (FREE) and will NOT be publicly posted on the website. To be alerted, join our free email newsletter now, and watch for lab test results in the weeks ahead.

Enter your email address below to subscribe to our email announcement list (but don't use gmail). Your privacy is protected and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you don't join our email list, you may never see our valuable content again via Facebook, Google or YouTube. CENSORSHIP has now reached EXTREME levels across the 'net. The truth is being suffocated. Subscribe now if you want to escape the delusional bubble of false reality being pushed by Google and Facebook.

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:17

Authorities say the guns were found in the former officer's vehicle. (U.S. Attorney's Office for the District)

A former Tennessee police officer who was arrested outside the White House on Sunday had a cache of weapons in his car and told authorities he came for help removing a chip he thought had been implanted in his head, according to court documents.

Several of the firearms were loaded and some were described as assault-style weapons, including an AR-15 and an AK-47, according to authorities.

A spokesman for the Memphis Police Department said the suspect, Timothy J. Bates, 37, of Collierville, Tenn., had been an officer there for 13 years before leaving in 2013. Court records show he was allowed to retire early because of medical issues.

A D.C. Superior Court judge on Monday ordered Bates detained until a preliminary hearing on Thursday. An arrest affidavit says Bates was committed for mental health issues in February.

Bates is charged with several firearms offenses. His relatives could not be reached. His attorney, Lisbeth Sapirstein, declined to comment.

Authorities said uniformed U.S. Secret Service officers stopped Bates about 7:15 a.m. on Sunday near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW after it appeared he was about to urinate in public.

Bates told the officer that he drove through the night from Tennessee and ''came to the White House in order to speak with Adm. Mike Rogers and Gen. Jim Mattis for advice on missing paychecks and how to get the dog chip out of my head,'' according to the affidavit. Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers is director of the National Security Agency; Mattis is the secretary of defense.

The arrest affidavit says Bates told the officers that a chip had been implanted while he was on the police force in Memphis and that it was part of a $28.7 million project called ''MK Ultra.''

Police said they searched Bates's silver 2009 Nissan 370Z and found guns, ammunition and other weapons.

The guns, according to the arrest affidavit, include a Bushmaster M-4 semiautomatic rifle along with 90 rounds of ammunition; an AR-47 rifle; a Norinco AK-47 rifle; a .45-caliber Glock pistol; an Intratec Tec-9 pistol with a silencer; a Rossi .357-caliber revolver and a Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handgun. Police said they also recovered a Vulcan V10 .45-caliber firearm, which they said qualifies as a fully operational machine gun.

Authorities said the firearms are illegal in the District. Court papers did not describe any plan to use the weapons.

The affidavit says the Bushmaster and AK-47 rifles were in the car and ''within arms reach of the driver.'' One was out of its case and on the passenger seat; the other was in a case between the passenger and driver's seats.

Authorities also said they found a set of brass knuckles, a blackjack and three knives.

Magda Jean-Louis and Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.

Port scans are the equivalent of casing the joint. NOT penetration (I'm an expert as you know)

I have learned today that two people [Update, make that three!] who are friends/colleagues of friends of mine have died in the Las Vegas shooting. I do not know those who are dead. I don't need your condolences, prayers or wishes. I am sad for my friends who have lost friends, but I don't know those who are lost personally. I am angry. Deeply angry. My nation has been hijacked by heartless, soulless lunatics. You do not represent me or anyone I know, love and respect. You can take our health care, a woman's rights over how own body, the value of our votes through gerrymandering, our education with idiots like Betsy Devos at the helm, and our very lives via the tweeting, orange maniac and his dotard associates Kim and Vlad, but you will never be my voice or my representatives. You do not value life, or you would fight to control the gun lobby harder than you fight to invade my body and MY CHOICE. You would shut up about taking a knee at a fucking football game where much of the crowd has a sweaty flag bandanna on their head or in their pockets, and plasters their July 4th and Labor Day tables with every variation of the commercial bastardization of our flag, all so we can eat our potato salad and wipe our brows. You would pay attention to the drug epidemic in our country not by imprisoning citizens of color for drug offenses, but by treating all addicts with the care you are evidencing with concern for the opiod epidemic, a much whiter shade of drug problem. You would not roll back EPA protections so you can pocket more profits, while letting American Citizens of Latino descent suffer and die in Puerto Rico. You would not ignore the very real and now present threat of global warming. And you would not look upon the bodies of dead Americans, killed largely by sick white American home grown terrorist men with legal fire arms, weapons with rounds only intended to kill the most people in the shortest amount of time, and shrug and worship at the altar of your 2nd amendment rights.. YOU ARE ALL SICK SOB'S. YOU DO NOT REPRESENT ME. I HATE YOU ALL FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY FIGHTING HEART. YOU SUCK. YOU ARE LIARS. YOU ARE SELFISH. YOU LACK ANY MORALITY. YOU WILL ALL ROAST IN HELL, AND I WISH YOU A SPEEDY JOURNEY TO GET THERE!

I am a nurse and work in a nursing home.

In healthcare, we always complain about full moons causing increase negative behaviors of patients (sundowning/restlessness). Even though science has debunked this this, most healthcare workers know it to be truth.

As an avid aurora watcher, I pay attention to CME and solar flare activity. Since I don't live north enough, I only get auroras with the CME or big solar flares.

I have noticed that CME/solar flare events and increased negative patient behavior run together. Not sure if one impacts the other but weird coincidence.

Suzy

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 02:59

Though the Commonwealth government has its own tax laws, Puerto Ricans are also required to pay most US federal taxes,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] with the major exception being that most residents do not have to pay the federal personal income tax.[9] In 2009, Puerto Rico paid $3.742 billion into the US Treasury.[10] Residents of Puerto Rico pay into Social Security, and are thus eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement. However, they are excluded from the Supplemental Security Income.

The federal taxes paid by Puerto Rico residents include import/export taxes,[11] Federal commodity taxes,[12] social security taxes,[13] among others. Residents also pay federal payroll taxes, such as Social Security[14] and Medicare taxes.[15]

Only certain residents of Puerto Rico are required to file federal income tax forms. According to the Internal Revenue Service:

In general, United States citizens and resident aliens who are bona fide residents of Puerto Rico during the entire tax year, which for most individuals is January 1 to December 31, are only required to file a U.S. federal income tax return if they have income sources outside of Puerto Rico or if they are employees of the U.S. government. Bona fide residents of Puerto Rico generally do not report income received from sources within Puerto Rico on their U.S. income tax return. However, they should report all income received from sources outside Puerto Rico on their U.S. income tax return. Residents of Puerto Rico who are employed by the government of the United States or who are members of the armed forces of the United States also should report all income received for their services to the government of the United States on their U. S. income tax return.

United States citizens or resident aliens who are not bona fide residents of Puerto Rico during the entire tax year are required to report all income from whatever source derived on their U.S. income tax return. However, a U.S. citizen who changes residence from Puerto Rico to the United States and who was a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico at least two years before changing residence can exclude from U.S. taxable income the Puerto Rican source income received while residing in Puerto Rico during the taxable year of such change of residence. [16]

Bona fide residents of Puerto Rico cannot claim deductions and/or credits allocable to or chargeable against Puerto Rican source income that is excluded from a U.S. tax return. The deductions and credits not attributable to specific income must be divided between excluded income from sources in Puerto Rico and income from all other sources to find the part that can be deducted or credited on a U.S. tax return. Examples of deductions not attributable to specific income include alimony, the standard deduction, and certain itemized deductions such as medical expenses, charitable contributions, and real estate taxes and mortgage interest on your personal residence. Personal exemptions are generally allowed in full.

If you have taxable Puerto Rican source income on your U.S. income tax return, then you can claim a credit for foreign taxes paid to Puerto Rico. However, you are not allowed to claim a credit for foreign taxes paid with respect to Puerto Rican source income that is excluded from a U.S. tax return. Therefore, to properly calculate your foreign tax credit, you must reduce your foreign taxes paid by the amount of taxes allocable to excluded Puerto Rican source income.[17]

Employers in Puerto Rico are subject to both Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax (a payrollwithholding tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare) and the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA). Employers in Puerto Rico must withhold the employee portion of FICA taxes from their employees' wages and contribute the employer portion of FICA.[18]

Puerto Rico imposes a separate income tax in lieu of federal income tax.[19][20][21] All federal employees,[22] those who do business with the federal government,[23] Puerto Rico-based corporations that intend to send funds to the US,[24] and some others also pay federal income taxes (for example, Puerto Rican residents who are members of the US military,[22] and Puerto Rico residents who earned income from sources outside Puerto Rico[25]).

In addition, because the cutoff point for income taxation is lower than that of the US IRS code, and the per-capita income in Puerto Rico is much lower than the average per-capita income on the mainland, more Puerto Rico residents pay income taxes to the local taxation authority than if the IRS code were applied to the island. That occurs because "the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico government has a wider set of responsibilities than do U.S. State and local governments."[26] As residents of Puerto Rico pay into Social Security, Puerto Ricans are eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement but are excluded from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico residents, unlike residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and residents of the 50 States, do not receive the SSI),[27] and the island actually receives less than 15% of the Medicaid funding it would normally receive if it were a state. However, Medicare providers receive less-than-full state-like reimbursements for services rendered to beneficiaries in Puerto Rico even though the latter paid fully into the system[28] In general, "many federal social welfare programs have been extended to Puerto Rican (sic) residents, although usually with caps inferior to those allocated to the states."[29][30] A common misconception is that the import/export taxes collected by the U.S. on products manufactured in Puerto Rico are all returned to the Puerto Rico Treasury. That is not the case, as such import/export taxes are returned only for rum products, and even then, the US Treasury keeps a portion of the taxes.[31]

The main body of domestic statutory tax law in Puerto Rico is the Internal Revenue Code of Puerto Rico (Spanish: C"digo de Rentas Internas de Puerto Rico). The code organizes commonwealth laws covering commonwealth income tax, payroll taxes, gift taxes, estate taxes and statutory excise taxes.

Sales tax Edit On July 4, 2006, the government approved Law Number 117, The 2006 Contributive Justice Law, establishing a tax with a 5.5% rate at state level and an optional 1.5% rate at municipal level. The tax went into effect on November 15, 2006. The tax is better known as the Sales and Use Tax' (Impuesto sobre Ventas y Uso), often referred to by its Spanish acronym "IVU". The law amended Article B of the Code and created subarticle BB. On July 29, 2007, the government approved Law Number 80, making the tax mandatory for all municipalities of the island. Also, the tax rates changed to 6% at the state level and 1% at the municipal level.

The tax originated in some municipalities (Caguas, Yauco and Villalba) in 2005. Seeing the economic success of these municipalities, many other municipalities enacted sales tax ordinances, usually by copying the ordinance of Caguas. By the middle of 2006, more than 30 municipalities had enacted sales and uses taxes on the island. During the second and third quarters of 2006, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico suffered several political struggles in its Legislative Assembly. They were largely caused of the budget deficit of the government and the refusal of the Legislative Assembly to approve the taxes proposed by the Governor of the Island. Government offices were shut down until the Assembly approved Law 117, which included the first sales tax of that possession of the United States.

On July 1, 2006, the first Commonwealth-wide sales tax was approved with a 5.5% rate at state level and an optional 1.5% rate at municipal level. The adoption of the municipal tax was mixed. The tax went into effect on November 15, 2006. Since the tax reform of July 2007, the tax is applied in all 78 municipalities of the island and at Commonwealth level. On February 6, 2008, the governor of the island proposed to remove the state part of the IVU. Also, with the February 6, 2008 changes, the tax rates are now 6% at the state level and 1% at the municipal level.[32]

On July 1, 2015, the sales tax rate was increased to 11.5%, in response to the island's suffering economy. The new tax contributes 1% to the municipality and 10.5% to the state.[33]

The IVU is scheduled to expire on April 1, 2016, to be replaced with a value-added tax (VAT) of 10.5% for the state level, with the 1% IVU continuing for the municipalities.[34]

On 2 May 2016 the House of Representatives voted to repeal the adoption of value added tax (VAT), followed shortly by the Senate on 5 May 2016. The Legislature has decided to continue the existing Sales and Use Taxation (SUT) system. [35]

On the town where my mother reside nothing happen. An over flowed creek flooded part of the town but not at rooftop heights. Yes, they are out of power due to old powerlines, unable to up keep because they are broke, not enough workers because they are broke. Is funny how the news show fotos of poor areas in the same way a Trailer Park is viewed after a Tornado. If you see the PR landscape, the center is a Mountanous Region. Is not uncomon to see landslides, fallen trees, erroded roads. Compound the situation with decaying infrastructure and a weak economy.... it does not take much to create havoc. Is more of a logistical nightmare than anything else. Believe it or not, fuel is one of the biggest problem because it has to be imported. Before we had the CORCO oil refinery. Now sits derelict next to the highway in Peñuelas/Guayanilla (the Wiki got a decent photo on looks today). If it was open, they would had all the need it fuel.

The San Juan mayor is a showboater. She is aspiring to be the next Governor. Playing the old rule of "Do not let a good tragedy go to waste". Keep in mind, the Progressive Party (Liberals) are in power. There is a recording in Spanish with subtitles about a gal that works with the State P olice. She is crying over the air waves complaining about the San Juan mayor holding the aid. Also said, that she will do nothing unless a camera was behind her. Perhaps you guys got the audio but here is the link... https://youtu.be/5Uc1pPsKt_s

Keep in mind, Puerto Rico's building codes, Storms and Hurricanes are taken in consideration. For example, Windows have to be the Shutter Metal type. The houses are made on Concrete for many obvious reasons (will not rot) that suit the Tropic. My parent's house is a bunker. Was made by pouring Concrete into molds, also, the roof is on Concrete. However... some building codes are not enforced due to the fact the Gov is corrupted and inspectors do not simply care (lazy). So people do whatever the heck they want on private residences.

You can google for more links to the story. Essentially Catalan used IPFS to create their site for voting information since it is distributed over P2P. The Spanish government went ahead and blocked the TLD which is the easy way of accessing the site however the hashed links still work. Had they done it right I would have had a lot more TLDs ready to simply point to the has redirect, anyway.

In the morning John and Adam,

I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon Spanish time, so who knows what will happen in the following hours.

You probably know the basics by now: similar to a US State, Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain. For decades, there has been a significant part of the Catalan people who would prefer to be independent. So, the Government of Catalonia held a referendum last Sunday in order to leave Spain. But because it was announced unilaterally and was not authorized by the Spanish Government, it was deemed illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

On the days prior to the referendum, Spanish authorities blocked access to a number of websites put up by the Catalan Government to halt the process before the referendum could take place. On voting day, Catalonia's autonomous police corps were instructed to follow orders from their superiors in Madrid and seize ballots, ballot boxes and any other instrument needed to make the referendum happen, and a group of Spanish police were sent over to cooperate with their Catalan colleagues. Unfortunately, too many people were already riled up and were unwilling to go ahead with orders or stay at home and not vote. As a result, we saw:

• Clashes between the Spanish police and people barricading the polling stations

• Around 800 injured (mostly minor) among cops and voters

• People voting without a valid ID, and up to 4 times throughout the day in different polling stations (people even tweeted pictures of themselves voting more than once...)

• 92% of the votes counted were pro-independence with 43% turnout

With the exception of Venezuela, not a single foreign country is siding with the Catalan Government on this matter, and there will likely be harsh sanctions against the organizers. If the Catalan Government chooses to declare Catalonia an independent state (which they likely will), it will be considered a Coup by the Spanish Government.

Regardless of how this is solved, the bigger problem is the emotional tension among Spaniards. My Facebag is littered with people furious on both sides of the discussion; I'm genuinely worried about what will happen from here. Last time we were this mad at eachother we had a civil war.

Thank you for the BEST PODCAST IN THE UNIVERSE and for keeping me sane. From Madrid,

Gregory MacGregor

P.S. in English it's pronounced "Barselona", not "Barthelona". That just sounds weird.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:10

We live in tumultuous times and the Las Vegas shooting is proof of that. On top of the natural disasters and horrific shooting that just took place, now the radical left-wing organizations who are known as Antifa and BLM are planning to do riots nationwide throughout the United States.

They plan to begin their riots on November 4th, 2017 throughout the United States. In addition to riots, their plan will include violence and acts of terrorism.

While the mainstream media is vague and rarely reports on what terrorists are planning, the terrorist organization is being very open about their planning. In fact, recently they shut down the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles while holding the sign ''it begins.'' If this doesn't sound like a warning sign then we don't know what does.

To learn more about what the Antifa is planning and how you should start preparing ahead of time for these acts of terror and potential disasters in the future, visit the next page.

Don't forget to watch the video at the end. We bet you didn't see this video on any of the main news channels!

came in Monday and my Global Entry said "not a valid document". I just went to their office. "Sir, your passport expired." Me: "no it hasn't, 5 years left". Them: "your *last* passport expired". Me:"the one I replaced in 2014?". Them:"yes. It's your responsibility to update it in our system". Uh, ok...I guess I should say it expires in 2238.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:19

We have been anaesthetised to the depressing nature of news coming out of the Middle East, but we can't be allowed to forget what is happening in Qatar

Your name is Sumon, and you live in a small village in rural Bangladesh. One day you're visited by a casual acquaintance you've known since childhood, who has an opportunity. He's recruiting for a clerical job, he knows you've always been bright and ambitious, and he wants you. He'll take care of everything: paperwork, passport, medical, transport. He'll even act as a reference if you need a bank loan. The promised salary '' $400 dollars US a month '' is literally more money than you've seen before in your life.

Of course, you're no mug. You've heard the stories. But this is an old friend. Your children go to school together. He works for the local government. He wants to help. A fresh start, financial security, a better future for your family. Besides, what's the alternative? Stay in your village and slowly get old?

So you sign. There's a small recruitment fee to be paid, plus the cost of your orientation seminar, medical examination, insurance. You sell some land, empty your savings, lean on your extended family for support, and borrow the rest against future earnings. It's a big, life-changing step. But with your handsome salary, you reckon you'll be able to break even and start sending money home within a few months. You're doing this so your children won't have to.

A worker contemplates his life in Qatar (Getty)

Alas, when you land in Doha, the goalposts have shifted slightly. This much becomes apparent when you're handed a helmet and a high-viz jacket and told to present yourself at a building site at 6am the following morning. You're not working as a clerk in an office, you're building a football stadium. They're not quite sure who told you the $400 a month figure, but it's actually going to be $200, less miscellaneous costs. The recruitment fee isn't $200 as you'd agreed, but $2000, plus the cost of your flight to Qatar. Your crisp new passport is confiscated. You cannot quit your job. You cannot leave the country. And before you have even clocked in for your first shift, you owe your employer the equivalent of two years' wages.

And so quite suddenly, you are plunged into a bewildering world of alienation and exploitation, long hours and back-breaking toil in baking heat. Twelve hours a day, six days a week. At night, you sleep on a filthy bunk bed. At least your wages are getting paid on time. You're one of the lucky ones. Talking to other migrant workers in one of the many makeshift camps dotted around the outskirts of Doha, you find others who are having money withheld for two, three, sometimes even six months.

It is a world of instability and euphemism. Co-workers keel over, and within minutes they've been spirited away under a thick blanket, declared ''absent'' and never seen again. If you try and visit a shopping mall on a rare day off, a stern-looking security guard will tell you this is a ''family zone'' and escort you off the premises. Really, you're not an employee at all, but an indentured labourer. And really, you're not building a football stadium. You're building a mausoleum.

No doubt you're aware, on some elemental level, that the 2022 World Cup is a Bad Thing. The deluge of negative press that has engulfed Qatar's winning bid for the last seven years has ensured that much. Yet at the same time, the sheer relentlessness of depressing news coming out of the region has anaesthetised us to it. After all, there is plenty of competition for people's outrage these days. The upshot is that however bad you think the 2022 World Cup is, chances are it's even worse than that.

The lack of tangible, recognisable human faces to put on the story is another factor. That's why I made Sumon up. He doesn't exist. His story never happened. But of course, he does, and it did. Sumon exists around 2.3 million times over. His story happened yesterday, and it will happen again today, and again tomorrow.

Migrant workers are being used to build Qatar's World Cup stadiums

Last week, the charity Human Rights Watch issued its latest report into the conditions of migrant workers in Qatar. It found that regulations meant to protect workers from heat and humidity were still woefully inadequate. It found that hundreds of migrant workers were dropping dead on construction projects every year, but it's hard to be sure exactly how many and how they're dying, because Qatar won't tell us, or even carry out post-mortems. The few deaths that are officially accounted for are generally given conveniently vague descriptions like ''unknown causes'', ''natural causes'' or ''cardiac arrest'', giving the impression that they are simply part of the rich circle of life. They just died, OK? These things happen.

HRW has been banging on about this sort of stuff for years, patiently pointing out the ways the country tries to resist external oversight, promises reforms that are either not enforced or only apply to the tiny fraction of the workforce actually building World Cup stadiums. Yet its latest report raised barely a murmur. Another story about Qatar? Mmm, yes, how ghastly. And so over the years, Qatar 2022 has slipped down the emotional radar, swallowed up by newer, sexier Bad Things.

The artists' impressions of Qatar stadia are sexy, but the issues seem to no longer be

One of the reasons you don't see or hear from the victims of Qatar's cruelty is that it's almost impossible to get to them. In March last year, a UN delegation visited Qatar to check on progress, investigate working conditions and generally have a little mosey around. They spoke to a Nepalese construction worker, who had the temerity to answer their questions truthfully. The worker was summarily fired, and ordered to get on the first plane back to Nepal. Along the way, someone realised that because the worker no longer had a work sponsor, he could be thrown in jail. So he was thrown in jail.

There is a temptation to attribute all this to simple, rapacious, market capitalism. After all, rich people have been exploiting poor people since the dawn of time. Yet to describe the Qatar World Cup as simply a labour rights scandal would be to let it grotesquely off the hook. To understand why, you need to understand the demographics of Qatar.

Amnesty: Qatar World Cup stadium workers suffer abuse

Fifty years ago, you could have quite comfortably seated the entire country in one of their swanky new World Cup stadiums. Now, Qatar's population is 2.6 million, of whom nearly 90 per cent are migrant workers. For native Qataris, in control and yet massively outnumbered, the primal and perpetual fear is that the foreign-born population '' overwhelming working-age and male '' will somehow unite, coalesce, perhaps even mobilise against them. It is why the idea of any form of organised labour is met with horror from the local population, who see this as a national security issue. And it explains the systematic and quite overt discrimination that migrant workers face, even when outside the workplace.

Certain public spaces in Doha '' markets, shopping malls, town squares '' have been designated as ''family zones'': in effect, for locals and Westerners only. Armed security guards patrol these areas, escorting those of south Asian appearance firmly towards the exits. Migrants are even banned from living in certain areas. A few years ago, the country's Central Municipal Council proposed designating Friday '' most workers' only day off '' a ''family day'', during which non-Qataris would be banned from entering the country's many popular shopping malls.

A migrant worker gets ready for bed in his sleeping quarters (Getty)

This is segregation by stealth.

And in five years' time, this is the country that will throw open its arms and host the biggest footballing party on Earth. The 2022 World Cup is a tournament being built on a graveyard of human bodies, to prop up a society founded upon the most basic type of racism. Qatar's gamble is that the wider world, distantly absorbed in its own problems, won't care enough to make it stop. It's a gamble they're winning.

So, here comes the big question. What can you '' the erudite, empathetic, informed reader of The Independent, scrolling through this article over your lunch break through a flurry of push notifications '' do about it? One thing we probably can't do, unfortunately, is take the World Cup away. If Qatar was going to be stripped of the tournament, it would have happened in the last seven years, not the next five. And it is telling that much of the Western media continues to train its outrage on the Qatari bid itself, and the accusations of vote-buying in the Fifa executive committee. Exploit all the migrant labour you want, guys, but at least be above board about it, yeah?

What you can do is follow the money. Once Fifa have taken their cut, the revenues generated by a World Cup flow back into the game via its member associations. That means the FA '' our Football Association '' stands to financially benefit from a Qatar World Cup, assuming England qualify. That's money going into your local FA, your local club, your local pitches. If that makes you feel uneasy, why not tell them about it?

The other thing you can do is see. Qatari soft power is everywhere you look, especially if you live in a big city like London or New York. If you shop at Sainsbury's, fly British Airways or hold an account at Barclays Bank, you are indirectly funding the Qatari state. And if you watch the Premier League or Champions League, you are watching a game fattened and buttressed by Qatari money, whether it is the direct product of Paris Saint-Germain's investment in players like Neymar, or simply a market grotesquely inflated by their transfer fees.

Which is not to guilt-trip anybody. We all have to live our lives: I'll still shop at Sainsbury's, it's the closest supermarket to the Tube station. I'll still watch PSG, because how could you love football and not? But the first step to solving any problem is to see it, recognise it, understand how it fits into the world we inhabit. And so perhaps the next time you see Kylian Mbappe bearing down on goal, or glimpse the Shard through your window, perhaps you'll also see Sumon, stepping on a plane to begin what he comically imagines will be a better life.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 04:39

Metro

By Melkorka Licea

September 30, 2017 | 4:27pm

Helayne Seidman

He hates law and order on the streets '-- but he loves it between the sheets.

The anarchist John Jay College professor who tweeted ''it's a privilege to teach future dead cops'' says publicly that he despises authority and punishment, but privately he's seeking a dominatrix to rule him with an iron fist.

Michael Isaacson's personal profile on FetLife '-- an online social network for people interested in bondage, domination, sadomasochism and all manner of kink '-- proclaims ''I need a domme'' to choke, waterboard and smother him.

The naughty professor, who was suspended a few weeks ago from his job at the CUNY college for future criminal-justice professionals, proudly posts photos of himself shirtless and hogtied.

Despite his love of being restrained, the 29-year-old adjunct economics professor has consistently expressed his hatred for law enforcement, government and imprisonment.

''I critique policing as an institution which operates at the behest of a state that increasingly represents the weapons and prison industry,'' he wrote to The Post.

The ''antifa'' advocate admits that occasionally he will act dominant in bed, but usually because of his ''subby'' '-- or submissive '-- eagerness to please.

When he puts on his ''dom'' hat, he likes ''calling my subs dirty fascist lapdog whores,'' he writes.

Isaacson first got involved with the kink scene to please his partners and despite ''all the whips and chains,'' the community is ''really welcoming'' and based on consent, he told The Post last week.

Posting under the moniker ''FellowSpaceCadet,'' he last updated his profile Monday.

Among some of his many listed fetishes is ''mummification'' and ''puppy play.'' For the uninitiated, the latter means dressing up and acting like a dog.

But, he reveals, there is one thing the educator finds sexually out-of-bounds '-- ''teacher/student role play.''

Isaacson describes himself as ''polyamorous'' and ''pansexual,'' meaning he is looking for romantic relationships with multiple people of any gender.

The controversial academic was suspended from John Jay College on Sept. 15 after tweeting in August, ''Some of ya'll might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege to teach future dead cops.''

The police union demanded Isaacson be fired, and Mayor de'‰Blasio condemned him, tweeting, ''New York City won't stand for the vile anti-police rhetoric of Michael Isaacson and neither should John Jay College.''

Isaacson told The Post he has since received a barrage of death threats, including a beheaded photo of himself.

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 23:31

Trade was a defining issue for candidate Donald Trump in 2016, when he lambasted American NAFTA negotiators for "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere" and an unconscionable strike against U.S. manufacturing jobs. As president he upended the Trans-Pacific Partnership for similar reasons. His biggest data point, wielded like a cudgel: America's $500 billion annual trade deficit.

But the numbers are going against Trump so far: the U.S. trade deficit was $44 billion in August, for example, above the monthly average of $42 billion in 2016, Barack Obama's last full year in office. As you see in the chart below, the 2017 monthly average of $45.6 billion is far worse than any year of Obama's presidency apart from 2011, when the deficit was $45.7 billion.

Why it matters: Trump may come to regret using the trade deficit as an economic scorecard, because its overall size is driven by forces over which the U.S. can exercise only limited influence, like foreign central bank actions or trade policies.

The tale of steel: The recent struggles of the American steel and aluminum industries exemplify the shortcomings of Trump Administration trade policy. In April, Trump announced an investigation into the global steel market, to learn whether foreign competition was damaging U.S. national security by limiting American steel aluminum manufacturing capacity.

Imports erupted: The announcement of the investigation ignited a surge in U.S. steel imports, as buyers sought cheap steel before tariffs were enacted and U.S. trade partners retaliated.Now exporters have the worst of both worlds: Trump's tough trade talk is causing uncertainty in exporting industries, and Republican opposition to protectionist policies. Meanwhile, his unwillingness to ruffle Chinese feathers amid the North Korean nuclear standoff means the enactment of no new, tough tariffs or other punitive measures.If economic nationalism is your thing, why there may still be hope: Candidate Trump departed from Republican orthodoxy, vowing to rip up NAFTA, label China a currency manipulator, and slap high import tariffs on products from countries that reject his notion of fair trade.So far, President Trump has declined to do any of those things, despite the fact that presidents have wide authority to act unilaterally.But Alan Tonelson, a former research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council and longtime advocate for protectionist trade policy, argues that Trump will eventually move to enact tariffs or ax trade deals. "He won't want to face his base come election time empty handed," Tonelson told Axios.Why it may be too late: Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden, tells Axios that even if Trump gets aggressive with new tariffs, he will produce few benefits for the displaced workers who voted for him. That's because jobs lost to events like China's 2001 accession to the WTO are already gone, and new tariffs won't bring them back.

Bernstein argues that trade policy does need to be overhauled, but that more important is a more robust safety net for displaced workers, including retraining for current jobs.Be smart: The Democratic Party are likely to lead the charge in this direction. Few elected GOP officials have rallied to Trump's anti-trade platform, and Dems, humiliated by their performance in the rust belt last year, are likely to try to capture these voters with a pitch distant from the free-trade status quo.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 23:22

Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning

Bringing together a growing community of researchers and practitioners concerned with fairness, accountability, and transparency in machine learningThe past few years have seen growing recognition that machine learning raises novel challenges for ensuring non-discrimination, due process, and understandability in decision-making. In particular, policymakers, regulators, and advocates have expressed fears about the potentially discriminatory impact of machine learning, with many calling for further technical research into the dangers of inadvertently encoding bias into automated decisions.

At the same time, there is increasing alarm that the complexity of machine learning may reduce the justification for consequential decisions to ''the algorithm made me do it.''

The annual event provides researchers with a venue to explore how to characterize and address these issues with computationally rigorous methods.

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:01

The United States has given Cuba seven days for 15 employees at its embassy in Washington to leave the country, a State Department official told reporters on Tuesday.

Cuba protested the action and blamed the Trump administration for a deterioration in bilateral relations.

U.S. authorities also confirmed that a 22nd American diplomat is suffering from symptoms tied to a mysterious sonic attack in Havana. The U.S. has been unable to determine who or what is behind the attacks.

The U.S. decision to boot two-thirds of Cuban staff at the embassy was communicated to Cuba Ambassador Jos(C) Ram"n Caba±as on Tuesday morning, the official said. The U.S. gave Cuba a list of the personnel it wants out of the country, although they were not declared ''persona non grata.''

''The decision was made due to Cuba's failure to take appropriate steps to protect our diplomats in accordance with its obligations under the Vienna Convention,'' Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement. ''This order will ensure equity in our respective diplomatic operations.''

Cuba responded to the measure with indignation.

''MINREX (Foreign Ministry) strongly protests and denounces this unfounded and unacceptable ... eminently political decision,'' Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

The United States has responded ''in a hasty, inappropriate and unthinking manner and without evidence on the alleged facts in which Cuba has no responsibility,'' he added.

The foreign minister raised doubts about the attacks and said that the Cuban investigation team concluded that ''there is no evidence of the occurrence of the alleged incidents or the causes or origin of the health conditions reported by U.S. diplomats and their families.''

Rodr­guez said U.S. agencies investigating the alleged attacks traveled to Cuba for the first time in 50 years in June, August and September of this year, and met with their Cuban counterparts. But the United States did not send the necessary evidence to clarify the facts or offer access to those affected, despite the insistence of the Cuban government, he said. He also added that Cuban investigators have not identified ''perpetrators, or persons with motivation or means, nor has the presence of suspicious persons'' been established in the country.

Rodr­guez mentioned that the Cuban government is not ''familiarized'' with equipment that could have caused the attacks and immediately reinforced the security to U.S. diplomats.

Later, Rodr­guez unleashed strong criticism of the State Department and the statements made by the U.S. official who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, calling them ''science fiction'' and ''empty rhetoric.''

Only one consular officer will remain at the Cuban embassy in Washington. The expulsion of Cuban personnel will mean that travel will remain in limbo for the hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans flying to the island every year to visit relatives.

The U.S. also suspended the processing of all visas in Havana, which has created uncertainty among Cuban families divided by the Florida Straits.

''We are evaluating the impact of the reduction of personnel on these services but the secretary's focus is on the safety and well-being of the diplomatic personnel,'' the official said.

The move comes after the United States last week announced it would be reducing non-essential American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana by 60 percent as a measure of protection from the sonic attacks that have affected at least 22 diplomats and family members. Among the first affected were members of intelligence agencies working under diplomatic cover, the Associated Press reported. All nonessential personnel is expected to be back in the U.S. by the end of this week.

The State Department has not disclosed the size of its mission in Cuba. But James Cason, who served as chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana between 2002 and 2005, said that about 50 diplomats are stationed there. The Cuban mission in Washington had about 20 fewer employees during those years and is likely about the same today, he added.

For the U.S. to consider restoring the operations at its embassy in Havana, ''we will need full assurances from the Cuban government that these attacks would not continue,'' the State Department official said. He added that expelling the 15 Cuban diplomats ''does not signal a change of policy or a determination of responsibility'' but ensures ''equity on the impact of our respective operations.''

Meanwhile, diplomatic relations will be maintained and Cuba has said it will continue investigating, the official told reporters.

Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio, who previously called for the closing of the embassy in Havana, ''commended'' the State Department for expelling the Cuban diplomats.

''No one should be fooled by the Castro regime's claim it knows nothing about how these harmful attacks are occurring or who perpetrated them,'' Rubio said in a statement. ''I have called on the State Department to conduct an independent investigation and submit a comprehensive report to Congress, and I look forward to reviewing it.

''At this time, the U.S. embassy in Havana should be downgraded to an interests section and we should be prepared to consider additional measures against the Castro regime if these attacks continue,'' he added.

Engage Cuba, a coalition of several companies and organizations lobbying to end the U.S. embargo, criticized the expulsion of personnel from the Cuba Embassy. .

''Expelling Cuban diplomats will not solve this mystery; it will not improve the safety of U.S. personnel, but it will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans to visit their families on the island,'' James Williams, the organization's president, said in a statement.

And Tampa Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) called the suspension of visas irresponsible.

''Irresponsible for U.S. not to have plan for family travel, visas, '' she wrote on Twitter.

The Cuban government has so far denied any responsibility for the attacks. The Cuban embassy has not immediately responded to a request for comment but the reduction of staff will affect the consular services in Washington.

Cuba requires entrance visas to its citizens as well as the use of a Cuban passport to travel to the island, regardless of whether the individual born in Cuba is a U.S. citizen or from other countries. The renewal of passport or its authorization is an expensive process and an important source of income for the Cuban government. A new passport or renewal costs $350 plus postage. Extension and entry clearance with a U.S. passport (only for those who left Cuba before 1970) costs $160. And waiting times for these procedures can last for months.

In the past, Cuban diplomats have complained that the United States has not allowed more people to be hired to meet the demand of hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans who travel to Cuba every year.

''The Cuban embassy in Washington does not operate in a normal way, even after the reestablishment of relations,'' in 2015, said Yuleika P(C)rez, manager of Tocororo Travel, a travel agency based in Miami, that also offers assistance in consular matters. ''Before the resumption of diplomatic relations, the delay [to obtain passports and visas] was around a year. Something similar will probably happen again for consular services,'' she said.

Miami Herald reporter Patricia Mazzei and el Nuevo Herald correspondent Mario J. Pent"n contributed to this story.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 15:11

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:36

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise spoke at length about gun control in a new interview tonight, telling Fox News he is ''absolutely'' as strong as ever on the Second Amendment.

The Republican representative from Louisiana recently returned to Congress after he was shot by a gunman in June at a Congressional baseball practice. After a long medical recovery, he'll face revived conversations with fellow congressmen and women on gun control. His return came just days before the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

''You're part of a club, an unfortunate club, of people who know what it's like to be shot at,'' Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum said to the congressman.

Will that experience change how Scalise thinks or votes?

''I think it's fortified it,'' Scalise said. ''We shouldn't first be thinking of promoting our political agenda. And I think we see too much of that, where people say OK, now you have to have gun control.''

Scalise questioned the effectiveness of bills pushed by Democrats and a handful of Republicans following recent mass shootings, like expanded background checks. Stephen Paddock, the alleged Las Vegas shooter, passed background checks and purchased his guns legally.

''So to promote some kind of gun control, I think, is the wrong way to approach this,'' Scalise said.

When pushed on specific restrictions for weapons as deadly as the semi-automatic rifles used by the Las Vegas shooter, Scalise pointed to mental health legislation Congress passed last year.

''One thing we've seen over the years is that a lot of these mass shootings involve people with mental health issues,'' he said.

''We actually addressed this in Congress just a few months ago. We passed a bill called The Twenty-First Century Cures Act, that had a major reform of our mental health system,'' Scalise said, adding that a new position was created within the Louisiana Department of Health for an assistant secretary for mental health.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:29

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:20

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:17

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:17

Lawrence: No one defended Trump after ...

NBC News reports Rex Tillerson called Trump a "moron" at a Pentagon meeting. Tillerson didn't deny it and, to make matters worse, not one official or aide came out to defend the president. Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with Max Boot, Betsy Woodruff, and...

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

10/04/17

Duration: 11:49

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:54

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:47

Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, former first lady Michelle Obama said when she attended the State of the Union address she would notice the Republican side was ''all men, all white,'' and that was why she argued many people of color ''don't trust politics.''

Speaking about diversity, Obama said, ''We should be working actively to mix it up, so we're getting a real broad range of perspectives on every issue. Shoot, I would see that in Congress.''

She explained, ''At the State of the Union address '... when you are in the room what you can see is this real dichotomy. It's a feeling of color almost. On one side of the room is literally gray and white. Literally, that is the color palette on one side of the room. On the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens. Physically, there's a difference in color, in the tone, because on one side all men, all white, on the other side some woman, some people of color.''

She continued, ''I look at that, and I go, no wonder. No wonder we struggle, no wonder people don't trust politics. We're not even noticing what these rooms look like.''

She added, ''If people haven't had the experience of being other and out, and you are trying to fix the problem of those folks, it's hard to come up with the right answer when you haven't lived it.''

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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Source: Washington Free Beacon

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:45

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:44

The latest press conference from Las Vegas reveals some stunning information. During the Q&A within the latest update the Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo noted the shooter Stephen Paddock had an apparent escape strategy to survive the attack.

As more information is revealed the scope of the pre-planning by Stephen Craig Paddock lends to a strong probability that more than one person is involved. [We'll keep looking for better video of latest presser.] Better (full) video found:

*Paddock led a secretive life. No social media presence.*Paddock previously scouted a prior venue.TIMELINE: *10:05pm shooting begins. Suspect on 32nd floor.*10:12pm First two officers arrive on 31st floor stating gunfire origin on 32nd floor.

*10:15pm Last shots fired by suspect.

*10:17pm First two officers arrive on 32nd floor.

*10:18pm Security guard, Jose Campos tells police he was shot and exact room location.

*10:26-10:30pm Eight additional officers arrive on 32nd floor. Begins evacuation.

*10:55pm Eight additional officers arrive at suspect hotel room door.

*11:20pm Initial room breach. Suspect located. 2nd Door (room) identified.

*11:27pm Second breach, 2nd room. Radio: All Clear '' Suspect Down.

*over 200 strafing rounds were fired through the door at the responding Mandalay Bay security guard, Jose Campos.*several of the weapons Paddock was using jammed during the shooting.*gunman had an apparent escape strategy (unidentified).*non of the cameras discovered (4) were recording.*suspect vehicle held ten 1lb containers of tannerite explosive. Two 20lb containers of tannerite and an additional 1,600 rounds of ammunition.*no idea why Paddock did not utilize explosives. Why bring them?*police still seeking tips on Stephen Paddock activity for months, weeks, days up to the event.*motive still unknown. Local LEO does not know results from FBI interview with Ms. Danley.*the possibility of an accomplice is strong.*there was a great deal of premeditation involved in carrying out this attack.*possibility of Paddock having done pre-surveillance of alternate attack venue.*thousands of rounds of ammunition present in room.*no suicide note was found in the room.*assumption is Paddock stopped shooting because security guard knock spooked him.*Paddock was gambling at some points prior to the shooting. Did not appear to have companion for gambling.*Paddock purchased 33 weapons in October 2016. Police are interested in what took place in/around October 2016 to elicit his bulk purchase of firearms.*police see evidence he planned to survive and escape. Would not elaborate.*residence in Reno large ammo and firearms. Residence in Mesquite large ammo and firearms. All indications point toward having some form of assistance.

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:47

More than 50 people were killed and over 200 more injured after the Las Vegas shooting, according to Las Vegas police.

Chilling video has emerged showing the moment gunshots ring out during the busy music festival, cutting short Jason Aldean's appearance as the packed out audience escaped the shooter in terror.

Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed the shooter, Stephen Paddock, had been killed by police, adding his flatmate Marilou Danley, who was sought as part of the investigation is now believed not to be involved.

One woman, who was at the Route 91 music event, claimed an unidentified woman had told other concert-goers they were ''all going to die'' after pushing her way to the front of the venue.

GETTY'SKY

Las Vegas shooting: Witness claims a woman told crowd "everyone is going to die" The witness, 21, told local news: ''She had been messing with a lady in front of her and telling her she was going to die, that we were all going to die.

''They escorted her out to make her stop messing around with all the other people, but none of us knew it was going to be serious.''

She described the lady as Hispanic. The lady was escorted from the venue along with a man.

The unnamed witness, who was attending the event on her 21st birthday, described the pair as short, both around 5 ft 5ins to 5ft 6ins tall, and looked like ''everyday people''.

GETTY

Concert-goers were forced to flee after the gunman opened fire She added she and her friends had just made it back to their hotel room when the gunfire started.

Marilou Danley, a person of interest in the Las Vegas Police investigation, was said to be an Asian woman and approximately 4ft 11ins in height.

Mr Lombardo said: ''We have not located her at this time ad we are invested in talking to her for follow-up.''

There is no confirmed police link to the eyewitnesses' claim and Marilou Danley.

Ms Danley and her vehicle has now been located by the police, and it has been confirmed she is not believed to be involved in the mass shooting.

GETTY

The shooting is now the deadliest in US history Police are also looking for two cars, a Hyundai Tuscon B40 with Nevada plate 114B40 and a Chrysler Pacific Touring with the licence plate 19D401.

Both vehicles are registered to the suspect located the Las Vegas hotel.

The attack is now the deadliest shooting in US history.

The massacre surpasses the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub in June 2016 when 49 people were killed.

59 killed at Las Vegas mass shooting: Photos Tue, October 3, 2017 Getty Images

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People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard

Mr Lombardo confirmed one of the victims was an off-duty police officer who worked for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Another one of the department's officers is in a critical condition, the Sherriff added he expects the investigation to be long and protracted.

Mr Lombardo said: "We are looking at in excess of 50 individuals dead and over 200 individuals injured ... Obviously, this is a tragic incident and one that we have never experienced in this valley. My condolences go out to the loved ones.

''That number for family and friends to get an update on loved ones is 1866 535 5654.''

While discussing the suspect, he added: ''We located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied. All's we know is that they were rifles. We are executing a search warrant on the room.We have officers at his residence, and we will be executing a search warrant there also shortly.

''It is going to be a long and tedious investigation. We are bringing in all the resources of the FBI to assist us in this investigation, in particular to their victim witness advocates and their CSI folks to help us process the scene and ensure that we are getting all the evidence that we can possibly obtain.''

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:36

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise spoke at length about gun control in a new interview tonight, telling Fox News he is ''absolutely'' as strong as ever on the Second Amendment.

The Republican representative from Louisiana recently returned to Congress after he was shot by a gunman in June at a Congressional baseball practice. After a long medical recovery, he'll face revived conversations with fellow congressmen and women on gun control. His return came just days before the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

''You're part of a club, an unfortunate club, of people who know what it's like to be shot at,'' Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum said to the congressman.

Will that experience change how Scalise thinks or votes?

''I think it's fortified it,'' Scalise said. ''We shouldn't first be thinking of promoting our political agenda. And I think we see too much of that, where people say OK, now you have to have gun control.''

Scalise questioned the effectiveness of bills pushed by Democrats and a handful of Republicans following recent mass shootings, like expanded background checks. Stephen Paddock, the alleged Las Vegas shooter, passed background checks and purchased his guns legally.

''So to promote some kind of gun control, I think, is the wrong way to approach this,'' Scalise said.

When pushed on specific restrictions for weapons as deadly as the semi-automatic rifles used by the Las Vegas shooter, Scalise pointed to mental health legislation Congress passed last year.

''One thing we've seen over the years is that a lot of these mass shootings involve people with mental health issues,'' he said.

''We actually addressed this in Congress just a few months ago. We passed a bill called The Twenty-First Century Cures Act, that had a major reform of our mental health system,'' Scalise said, adding that a new position was created within the Louisiana Department of Health for an assistant secretary for mental health.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:29

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:17

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:17

Lawrence: No one defended Trump after ...

NBC News reports Rex Tillerson called Trump a "moron" at a Pentagon meeting. Tillerson didn't deny it and, to make matters worse, not one official or aide came out to defend the president. Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with Max Boot, Betsy Woodruff, and...

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

10/04/17

Duration: 11:49

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:54

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:47

Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, former first lady Michelle Obama said when she attended the State of the Union address she would notice the Republican side was ''all men, all white,'' and that was why she argued many people of color ''don't trust politics.''

Speaking about diversity, Obama said, ''We should be working actively to mix it up, so we're getting a real broad range of perspectives on every issue. Shoot, I would see that in Congress.''

She explained, ''At the State of the Union address '... when you are in the room what you can see is this real dichotomy. It's a feeling of color almost. On one side of the room is literally gray and white. Literally, that is the color palette on one side of the room. On the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens. Physically, there's a difference in color, in the tone, because on one side all men, all white, on the other side some woman, some people of color.''

She continued, ''I look at that, and I go, no wonder. No wonder we struggle, no wonder people don't trust politics. We're not even noticing what these rooms look like.''

She added, ''If people haven't had the experience of being other and out, and you are trying to fix the problem of those folks, it's hard to come up with the right answer when you haven't lived it.''

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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Source: Washington Free Beacon

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:45

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:44

The latest press conference from Las Vegas reveals some stunning information. During the Q&A within the latest update the Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo noted the shooter Stephen Paddock had an apparent escape strategy to survive the attack.

As more information is revealed the scope of the pre-planning by Stephen Craig Paddock lends to a strong probability that more than one person is involved. [We'll keep looking for better video of latest presser.] Better (full) video found:

*Paddock led a secretive life. No social media presence.*Paddock previously scouted a prior venue.TIMELINE: *10:05pm shooting begins. Suspect on 32nd floor.*10:12pm First two officers arrive on 31st floor stating gunfire origin on 32nd floor.

*10:15pm Last shots fired by suspect.

*10:17pm First two officers arrive on 32nd floor.

*10:18pm Security guard, Jose Campos tells police he was shot and exact room location.

*10:26-10:30pm Eight additional officers arrive on 32nd floor. Begins evacuation.

*10:55pm Eight additional officers arrive at suspect hotel room door.

*11:20pm Initial room breach. Suspect located. 2nd Door (room) identified.

*11:27pm Second breach, 2nd room. Radio: All Clear '' Suspect Down.

*over 200 strafing rounds were fired through the door at the responding Mandalay Bay security guard, Jose Campos.*several of the weapons Paddock was using jammed during the shooting.*gunman had an apparent escape strategy (unidentified).*non of the cameras discovered (4) were recording.*suspect vehicle held ten 1lb containers of tannerite explosive. Two 20lb containers of tannerite and an additional 1,600 rounds of ammunition.*no idea why Paddock did not utilize explosives. Why bring them?*police still seeking tips on Stephen Paddock activity for months, weeks, days up to the event.*motive still unknown. Local LEO does not know results from FBI interview with Ms. Danley.*the possibility of an accomplice is strong.*there was a great deal of premeditation involved in carrying out this attack.*possibility of Paddock having done pre-surveillance of alternate attack venue.*thousands of rounds of ammunition present in room.*no suicide note was found in the room.*assumption is Paddock stopped shooting because security guard knock spooked him.*Paddock was gambling at some points prior to the shooting. Did not appear to have companion for gambling.*Paddock purchased 33 weapons in October 2016. Police are interested in what took place in/around October 2016 to elicit his bulk purchase of firearms.*police see evidence he planned to survive and escape. Would not elaborate.*residence in Reno large ammo and firearms. Residence in Mesquite large ammo and firearms. All indications point toward having some form of assistance.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2017 04:20

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SAMANTHA Armytage has fired another shot in her stoush with Kathy Griffin, branding the controversial US comedian ''unwell''.

In August, the pair got into an uncomfortable spat during a live interview on Sunrise, when Armytage brought up Griffin's widely-criticised photoshoot with a bloodied severed head resembling Donald Trump, and asked if she'd gone too far.

Griffin fired back angrily: ''You're full of crap. Stop this. You know this. Stop acting like my little picture is more important than talking about the actual atrocities that the President of the United States is committing.''

Appearing on Mark Latham's Outsiders program this week, Armytage explained that she'd felt a responsibility to their audience to ''call [Griffin] on it'' because no one else had done so during her promotional interviews.

''As a journo, I sensed that she was happy to give it but not take it. Personally, I think the beheading joke wasn't very funny,'' she told the panel.

''Comedians are an interesting mob to interview '-- they're very rarely like they are on TV or on the stage.''

During the Outsiders segment, the TV presenter also made the surprising revelation that Trump's presidential victory had proven pretty lucrative for her.

''I made quite a bit of money on him winning because I bet on him when he was paying 100 to 1,'' Armytage said.

''I'd heard Dad '-- and other people in the country '-- complaining about the disconnect between the city and the media, and I could see that the commentary in the media was really out of touch with the average person.

''I kind of sensed that the 'silent majority' was going to come crashing down on them, because they were getting very frustrated.''

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 23:09

Weekend Express with Lynn Smith

Canadian authorities say two incidents in Edmonton are being investigated as acts of terrorism after a man struck a police officer with a car before stabbing him and later plowed a truck into pedestrians on a busy street, injuring at least four people.

Source: HLN

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 22:17

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 18:12

Bombshell: Mandalay Bay Memo Allegedly Shows Owner Connected to Antifa Groups >> Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!Bombshell: Mandalay Bay Memo Allegedly Shows Owner Connected to Antifa Groups >> Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 12:05

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Media caption Carles Puigdemont spoke to the BBC on Tuesday eveningCatalonia will declare independence from Spain in a matter of days, the leader of the autonomous region has told the BBC.

In his first interview since a disputed vote on Sunday, Carles Puigdemont said his government would "act at the end of this week or the beginning of next".

Meanwhile, Spain's King Felipe VI said the vote's organisers had put themselves "outside the law".

He said the situation in Spain was "extremely serious", calling for unity.

Tensions between Spain and the north-eastern Catalonia region continue to mount, days after the vote was marred by violence involving national police.

The Spanish High Court said it had begun an investigation into key Catalan figures on Wednesday on suspicion of sedition - inciting rebellion against the state - including the head of Catalonia's regional police.

Josep Lluis Trapero, who leads the Mossos d'Esquadra force, is suspected of failing to control a demonstration during a police raid on Catalan government offices before the vote.

More on Catalan crisisWhat did Catalan leader say?In his BBC interview, Carles Puigdemont said his government would "act at the end of this week or the beginning of next".

He also revealed there was currently no contact between the government in Madrid and his devolved administration.

When asked what he would do if the Spanish government were to intervene and take control of Catalonia's government, Mr Puigdemont said it would be "an error which changes everything".

Under Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, the government in Madrid is permitted to impose direct rule on an autonomous regions.

What happens now?Groups in the Catalan parliament have agreed that parliament should meet in full assembly on Monday. Mr Puigdemont could use that occasion to make a unilateral declaration of independence.

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Media caption The BBC's Tom Burridge on how the crisis in Spain is likely to unfoldHe was due to make a statement at 21:00 (19:00GMT) on Wednesday.

The Spanish government has vowed to resist any declaration of independence, with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy saying the vote made a "mockery" of democracy.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau has called on both sides to talk. "Neither a declaration of independence nor article 155. More than ever we need dialogue and bridges," she tweeted.

The European parliament was due to debate the crisis on Wednesday afternoon.

Many Catalans have been angered by the European Commission's statement on Monday that events in Catalonia were an internal issue for Spain.

Why is king's intervention significant?Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption King Felipe VI: "Catalan society is fractured"In his televised address, King Felipe said the Catalan leaders who organised the referendum showed their "disrespect to the powers of the state".

"They have broken the democratic principles of the rule of law," he said.

But many Catalans were more concerned about what the king did not say, reports the BBC's Patrick Jackson, who watched the address in a bar in Barcelona city centre.

"There were no words about the scenes of police beating voters on Sunday, no urgent appeal for dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan governments, no acknowledgment of the real hunger here for independence or at least a proper, legal referendum, not even a word or two of Catalan," he says.

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Media caption Clare and Kike react to the Spanish king's addressIt was a missed opportunity to push the two sides towards dialogue, said one customer in the bar.

What happened during Sunday's vote?Nearly 900 people were hurt as police violently tried to enforce a Spanish court order suspending the vote, which the government had declared illegal.

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Media caption Riot police were seen using batons and kicking people to block votingSome police officers were seen firing rubber bullets, storming into polling stations and pulling women by their hair.

Thirty-three police officers were also injured, local medical officials said.

Shocked by what they had seen, hundreds of thousands of Catalans joined street protests on Tuesday. A general strike was also called in protest at "the grave violation of rights and freedoms" seen during the ballot.

What about the ballot results?More than 2.2 million people voted on Sunday, according to the Catalan government. Officials put the vote in support of independence at nearly 90%, but official results have not yet been released.

There are several reports of gaping irregularities, partly attributed to a system which permitted voters to cast their ballots anywhere in a bid to get around the police measures to stop the vote. Spanish media carried reports of some Catalan areas counting far more votes than residents.

Catalan officials said the turnout was 42%, potentially weakening the position of Mr Puigdemont.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Protesters blocked a street outside a police station in Barcelona Image copyright EPA Image caption The strike shut down the huge Barcelona wholesale market Mercabarna Are you in the region? Have you taken part in any protests? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

WhatsApp: +44 7525 900971Send pictures/video to yourpics@bbc.co.uk Upload your pictures / video hereTweet: @BBC_HaveYourSaySend an SMS or MMS to 61124 or +44 7624 800 100

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 11:40

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Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:48

Jay Dyer is a public speaker, lecturer, comedian and author of Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film, as well as the host of the JaysAnalysis Podcast/Esoteric Hollywood. He is also a regular contributor to 21stCenturyWire, Soul of the East and the Espionage History Archive. Jay's work covers a wide variety of subjects, including metaphysics, film analysis, theology, geopolitics, literature, and history.

Jay returns to Red Ice to discuss the recent mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas. We discuss the various odd circumstances regarding the event, ranging from the high kill ratio to Stephen Paddock's curious background. Jay reminds us that the mainstream media isn't to be trusted, given their slanted coverage of mass shootings in the past. We then discuss some of the more amusing responses to the tragedy, such as Hillary Clinton calling for a ban on silencers. The show covers much more, including how our globalist overlords benefit from terror and chaos.

Relevant Linksjaysanalysis.com

PayPal.me/RedIce

More from Guest(s) / Speaker(s)The Strange Facets of the Las Vegas ShootingTwin Peaks Returns: Esoteric Symbolism Behind David Lynch's Most Notable TV ShowTwin Peaks Returns: Esoteric Symbolism Behind David Lynch's Most Notable TV ShowDisappointment of Trump Submitting to Neocon PressureBehind Flynn's Removal: The Deep State War Against Trump, Russia & Sovereign NationsBehind Flynn's Removal: The Deep State War Against Trump, Russia & Sovereign NationsEsoteric Hollywood: How to Destroy the Entertainment-Industrial ComplexThe Final Presidential Debate Live: Trump vs Hillary, Nationalism vs GlobalismHillary Clinton as President: Disaster for US-Russia Relations & the War in SyriaComments

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:38

Hate-filled progressives seem to be no longer able to mimic mentally healthy human beings in their reactions to the mass slaughter and maiming of innocents at a country music festival. So anxious are they to display their superiority that they unmask their inhumanity, and their eagerness to exploit suffering.

MSNBC sent Chris Hayes to Las Vegas to cover the story, and it appears from his fractured syntax that the stress, and possible a lack of sleep was getting to him when he interviewed Danny Tarkanian, who is running for the Senate seat in Nevada on the ballot next year. Video of the entire 5 minute segment is embedded below. But the highlight was when Hayes lapsed into partial incoherence, but managed to get to his agenda item of gun control. [rush transcript via Grabien]

'...there are Senate Democrats today who were talking about guns. And Chris Murphy who represents Connecticut where Newtown happened and things like that that in the absence of that, that there is (sic) some concrete things that Congress can do to reduce the incidents of gun violence and mass shootings in this country. That something you think is achievable, I guess, is the question before you think it's advisable?

Tarkanian's response shamed Hayes and challenged the logic of passing more laws to control someone who already has broken multiple laws.

Look, I think that any time an activity like this can happen in our country, it's wrong. And something needs to be done to stop it. The bodies aren't even cold yet. And we're going to sit here and politicize this thing? Why don't you wait until there is some time for the people to grieve and get over this, and then you can figure out exactly how did the guy get his guns, how did he get ten guns like that? Did he break the law to get him? Are you going to pass laws that will stop someone from breaking the laws? We don't even know what happened yet. I think the best thing to do is one, focus on the great work people here in Las Vegas did, first with the police officers and the firemen, helping to minimize what the shooter was able to do. The incredible work by all the people in the hospitals and the emergency rooms. You know, the people that are giving blood. It's four hours just to get for you to wait in line to give blood here in Las Vegas. The churches are involved. I'm going to a vigil at 6:00 at my church. We're doing some wonderful things in this community to try to minimize this horrendous act that happened here there is going to be time to politicize this later on. And if there are solutions, to come up with those solutions.

Hayes could not let it drop, though he offered ritual acknowledgment of the many heroes, he went right to his Trump-hating agenda with a non sequitor reference to a phony charge made by the Left on Trump's policy on entrants to the US from terror states:

''And I understand and respect what you're going through here. I just want to follow up on that question politicize. Because when a murderer killed dozens of people at the pulse nightclub in Orlando, the president of the United States, the man you support, and whose support you boasted of called for banning a billion people worldwide in the wake of that, and the bodies hadn't even been identified. Isn't that politicizing too?''

Tarkanian would have none of it:

I think you love to misquote President Trump. And that's all good and well for your viewership. I'm not going to get into that today when this has been the worst tragedy that happened to my city and you want to start taking potshots at the president. Let's talk what happened here, what our city is going through and what we're trying to do to get through this really, really difficult period of time.''

Hayes's response was weak. He had been called out on his own airwaves. It seems that fewer people are willing to let media slanders pass unnoted.

Here is the video:

Hate-filled progressives seem to be no longer able to mimic mentally healthy human beings in their reactions to the mass slaughter and maiming of innocents at a country music festival. So anxious are they to display their superiority that they unmask their inhumanity, and their eagerness to exploit suffering.

MSNBC sent Chris Hayes to Las Vegas to cover the story, and it appears from his fractured syntax that the stress, and possible a lack of sleep was getting to him when he interviewed Danny Tarkanian, who is running for the Senate seat in Nevada on the ballot next year. Video of the entire 5 minute segment is embedded below. But the highlight was when Hayes lapsed into partial incoherence, but managed to get to his agenda item of gun control. [rush transcript via Grabien]

'...there are Senate Democrats today who were talking about guns. And Chris Murphy who represents Connecticut where Newtown happened and things like that that in the absence of that, that there is (sic) some concrete things that Congress can do to reduce the incidents of gun violence and mass shootings in this country. That something you think is achievable, I guess, is the question before you think it's advisable?

Tarkanian's response shamed Hayes and challenged the logic of passing more laws to control someone who already has broken multiple laws.

Look, I think that any time an activity like this can happen in our country, it's wrong. And something needs to be done to stop it. The bodies aren't even cold yet. And we're going to sit here and politicize this thing? Why don't you wait until there is some time for the people to grieve and get over this, and then you can figure out exactly how did the guy get his guns, how did he get ten guns like that? Did he break the law to get him? Are you going to pass laws that will stop someone from breaking the laws? We don't even know what happened yet. I think the best thing to do is one, focus on the great work people here in Las Vegas did, first with the police officers and the firemen, helping to minimize what the shooter was able to do. The incredible work by all the people in the hospitals and the emergency rooms. You know, the people that are giving blood. It's four hours just to get for you to wait in line to give blood here in Las Vegas. The churches are involved. I'm going to a vigil at 6:00 at my church. We're doing some wonderful things in this community to try to minimize this horrendous act that happened here there is going to be time to politicize this later on. And if there are solutions, to come up with those solutions.

Hayes could not let it drop, though he offered ritual acknowledgment of the many heroes, he went right to his Trump-hating agenda with a non sequitor reference to a phony charge made by the Left on Trump's policy on entrants to the US from terror states:

''And I understand and respect what you're going through here. I just want to follow up on that question politicize. Because when a murderer killed dozens of people at the pulse nightclub in Orlando, the president of the United States, the man you support, and whose support you boasted of called for banning a billion people worldwide in the wake of that, and the bodies hadn't even been identified. Isn't that politicizing too?''

Tarkanian would have none of it:

I think you love to misquote President Trump. And that's all good and well for your viewership. I'm not going to get into that today when this has been the worst tragedy that happened to my city and you want to start taking potshots at the president. Let's talk what happened here, what our city is going through and what we're trying to do to get through this really, really difficult period of time.''

Hayes's response was weak. He had been called out on his own airwaves. It seems that fewer people are willing to let media slanders pass unnoted.

Here is the video:

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:31

The mainstream media narrative about the Las Vegas shooting has been debunked by two explosive videos provided to Your News Wire that confirm there were multiple shooters involved in a co-ordinated attack.

Both videos show gunfire originating from the fourth floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, much lower than the 32nd floor, where the mainstream media is claiming Stephen Paddock, a ''lone wolf'', fired on the crowd using an automatic weapon.

The mainstream media narrative regarding Paddock's motives have also been debunked by FBI sources who reportedly claimed the shooter has links to Antifa as well as ISIS. But mainstream media is actively covering up the information, claiming Paddock had ''no political or religious affiliations or interests.''

The fact is the Las Vegas shooting was clearly an co-ordinated false flag attack, orchestrated by Paddock as well as at least one other as yet unidentified gunman operating from the fourth floor of the hotel. The mass shooting and scores of dead will be used by the elite to further their nefarious agenda.

Anybody who looks into the information available to them on the internet will arrive at the same conclusion. Unfortunately anybody who relies on mainstream media for their information will be force-fed a very different conclusion.

The questions must be asked: why is the mainstream media covering for a mass murderer? Why are they attempting to rewrite his past and erase his political affiliations?

The answers are simple. The corporate media, controlled by a small, elite oligarchy, is operating on behalf of the New World Order, attempting to mislead the public into believing their enemies are their friends, and their friends are their enemies.

It doesn't suit the mainstream media's agenda to have an Antifa member responsible for the worst mass shooting in American history. They are actively engaged in covering up this fact up so they can continue pushing the New World Order's sick and twisted agenda.

Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter, was an Antifa member who carried out the worst mass shooting in American history in order to create further division in American society, push the country towards civil war, and further the agenda of the elites.

Official Antifa facebook page, Antifa Melbourne, congratulated Stephen Paddock after the bloodiest mass shooting in America's history, before deleting the post after a torrent of criticism.

There is an active campaign to sow division and create chaos in the United States. Organized groups are working on behalf of global organizations with the most nefarious of goals. We need to wake up and stop believing everything fed to us by the mainstream media. They have proven themselves completely unreliable.

We need to stop hiding from the truth.

Baxter DmitryBaxter Dmitry is a writer at Your News Wire. He covers politics, business and entertainment. Speaking truth to power since he learned to talk, Baxter has travelled in over 80 countries and won arguments in every single one. Live without fear.Email: baxter@yournewswire.com

Follow: @baxter_dmitry

Latest posts by Baxter Dmitry (see all) Previous Trump Dedicates Golf Trophy To Hurricane Victims

Next Hotel Guest Next Door To Las Vegas Shooter Saw 'Multiple Gunmen'

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 10:58

AS I SAID BEFORE, AVOID LARGE CROWDS BECAUSE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS SEEK THEM (VEGAS SHOOTING)

People need to realize these are times of war and Islamic Jihadists, many financed by Petro-Dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and possibly Iran and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) are looking at making maximum damage and casualties like the massacre of Las Vegas, whether in North America, Europe, Asia or anywhere else around the world. Hopefully, Trump will realize sooner rather than later, that selling any weapons to the Middle East is a bad idea, and contracts need to be cancelled immediately, no matter what US and international war profiteers think. Trump needs to tighten up the Travel ban to include those of the ban countries, and via other countries like Australia, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and if any risks at all to US citizens, then it's not worth the risk. Countries on the travel ban should be cut from the internet to stop their recruiting efforts and the spreading of their hateful propaganda. Las Vegas casualties, more than 50 dead and hundreds injured. Sympathy to the families and courage to the wounded; be safe.

https://www.facebook.com/Breitbart/videos/10159925328300354/

Since at least 2014 The Obama administration knew that Saudi Arabia & Qatar were financing Islamic State terrorists ISIS, along with other violent Islamic extremists; and for decades it's been known that they were abusing basic human rights, so how much does it take to stop selling them any weapons and put them on the travel ban as well. Trump should also order a massive surprise attack on ISIS as a responds to the Vegas massacre, like they never seen before; even the son of Bin Laden should also be targeted.

https://www.facebook.com/233399193695938/photos/p.541792672856587/541792672856587/

The Islamic State ISIS terror group claimed the 64-year old Vegas shooter ''Stephen Paddock'' converted to Islam a few months ago, through its official Amaq news channel. They said the attack, the deadliest mass shooting in US history, was carried out by a soldier of the caliphate and was done in response to calls to target coalition countries. In another statement released hours later, ISIS referred to Paddock by the war name ''Abu Abd al-Barr al-Amriki'' and said he answered a call to arms by its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

https://www.facebook.com/233399193695938/photos/p.541870652848789/541870652848789/

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 09:38

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 03:05

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Tue, 03 Oct 2017 00:36

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas City Hall was closed for business Friday as first responders teamed up for an active shooter drill.

It seemed like a real crime scene. Police tape blocked off multiple streets. A command post was set-up in front of Las Vegas City Hall, and dozens of police officers and emergency responders from a number of agencies were present.

But, the scene was all a drill intended to train first responders on an active shooter situation.

Media were not allowed inside City Hall during the exercise, because it played out like a real-life scenario.

Watch City of Las Vegas video of the drill

Police were briefed on the situation. Two active shooters entered City Hall and shot multiple victims. From there, it was up to first responders to react.

Police went in first and engaged in a firefight with the suspects. Additional police and emergency medical technicians followed, once the lobby was secure, to help the victims in the mock shooting.

North Las Vegas Fire Chief Jeff Lytle commended the efforts of the response agencies.

''As a citizen, I'm comforted in knowing that there's training being done to ensure that, when we have this event, that people are trained, that people are skilled, and that they're ready for this event. So, as a citizen, I am thankful that's being done,'' he said.

Personnel from Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Clark County participated in the drill. The main purpose is to ensure multiple agencies work together during a mass casualty event.

The training will be reviewed by each department to determine any weaknesses.

Several dignitaries also observed the drill, including U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (Nevada-D), Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Coffin and Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 21:15

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 21:11

Were The Guns Paddock Used Legal?As I just stated in my previous article, we shouldn't jump to conclusions. What I want to do here though is walk you through my thought process and how I got to the conclusion that I came to with my expertise in firearms. First, a little history about myself.

I am a Marine that served a few years on active duty. Now, I work with a firearms manufacturing business and I am constantly around all types of firearms.

Multiple mainstream news outlets are claiming that the primary weapon used was an M249 SAW. I will say for 100% certain that was not the primary weapon used. The weapon used in this shooting has a cyclic rate of fire of around 600 rounds per minute. An M249 has a cyclic rate of about 900 rounds per minute.

Before I jump into the deeper details I want to give you a quick rundown on what I believe is true (with the current information at hand).

Primary weapon was not legal. Full auto machine guns have not been legal since the NFA for your everyday citizen to own.Use of devices like Binary triggers and the like do not stand up to the cadence and pace that was kept.Most likely a belt fed machine gun firing a heavier type bullet (I.E. 7.62 and up)Here is the reasoning for the last two points and then I will tell you what firearm I believe he used at the end.

Binary and Echo triggers have variants in the cadence and do not keep steady pace. In the main video that has gone viral people have mentioned the break in cadence around the 56 second mark. That sounds exactly like a metal linked belted machine gun sounds like if the links snag and force a slow down in the rate of fire. Also the time between 100 round burst would also fall in line with the standard link amounts for nut sacks (belt feeding device for machine guns) and the reloading time. Below I will be walking you through some videos to compare and contrast.

First the main video. I want you to pay attention to the time it takes for his first burst to stop and the approximate rounds that were fired. Also pay attention around 56 second for the slow down in cadence.

Up next I want to show you what it is not. It is not an RPK, M4, M249, PKM, and most likely not magazine fed.

Here is a full auto M4 firing. Much faster than the Las Vegas shooting.

I'm also going to just peg all belt fed AK variants into the no category too. They all have higher rates of fire. Here is a belt fed PKM.

The next thing I want to rule out is binary and slide fire. Now these vary heavily between users but that is also part of my argument against these tools.

Now that we have all those out of the way I think we can go into what it might be. Here is a full auto AK47 with a 100 round drum magazine.

This is by far the closest sounding to the one in the video. The heavier super sonic crack of the bullet says its about the right weight. The cadence and bolt weight sound about right. The round count is possible for the extended length burst. The one main problem with this is the reliability issues and the slow down in cadence in the main video. Drum mags do not slow a weapon, they will just jam it completely. A belt however, can slow down a machine gun without stopping it. Once the tension on the belt is relived the cadence will start back up to its original rate.

That is why if I had to take a wild swing at what weapon was used I would guess it was a M240 Bravo or similar weapon system. They are ready to except tri-pods, which the police stated they found in his multiple weapons he had. They are out there on the black market from military parts that disappear or ''break''. The ammo it shoots is the 7.62—51 NATO and it uses metal linked belts. The cyclic rate of fire is around 650-700 rounds per minute (although it can be adjusted higher it typically wont for controllability and ammo conservation). To finish up, here is the comparison.

So this is my best guess as to what was used. Ultimately, don't believe the sensationalism that is already coming out about the need for gun control. None of the proposed firearm legislation could have prevented this. Stephen Paddock had no criminal history according to main stream outlets, and a relative, Eric Paddock (Brother), said ''He was not an avid gun guy at all''. This all points out to help from larger organizations such as ISIS or other conspiracy theories (conspiracy simply means more than one person plan together. Root word conspire; P.S. they're making the frogs gay.)

Ultimately the gun used doesn't matter. Last count I heard was 58 dead, and 406 hospitalized. Let's all take some time today to appreciate our families and tell them we love them. Let's pray for those who have lost family members today.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 20:47

The suspected gunman behind the Las Vegas massacre made several large gambling transactions in recent weeks, according to multiple senior law enforcement officials and a casino executive.

On several occasions, Stephen Paddock gambled more than $10,000 per day '-- and in some cases more than than $20,000 and $30,000 a day '-- at Las Vegas casinos, according to an NBC News source who read the suspect's Multiple Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) and a casino gaming executive.

According to a U.S. statute, a CTR is a Treasury- and IRS-mandated report that casinos have to file when "each transaction in currency involving cash-in and cash-out of more than $10,000 in a gaming day."

It was not immediately clear if those transactions were losses or wins.

Paddock's brothers were stunned to learn Monday that their sibling was the suspected gunman in the largest mass shooting in modern American history.

Eric Paddock of Orlando, Florida, said he had "no idea" why his 64-year-old brother committed the shooting.

''Mars just fell into the earth,'' he told NBC News. ''We're completely dumbfounded.''

Eric Paddock said his brother was retired and was "just a guy" who stayed at hotels, gambled and went to shows.

Related: Trump Tweets Condolences on Las Vegas Massacre

Stephen Paddock's brother Bruce Paddock, who lives in California, said his family grew up in Sun Valley, California. Their father, Benjamin Paddock, was on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list in the 1970s for robbing banks and was described as psychopathic in an arrest warrant.

According to the warrant, the suspect's father carried a firearm and was considered "armed and dangerous." It listed his nicknames as "Big Daddy," "Chromedome" and "Old Baldy."

In 1960, The Arizona Republic described Benjamin Paddock as a three-time bank robber who was accused of stealing approximately $25,000. He was arrested in Las Vegas and "indicted on three counts of robbing Phoenix branches of the Valley National Bank," an archived article said.

The elder Paddock was sentenced to prison in Texas for the robberies.

But six months after his sentencing, he escaped and robbed a bank in San Francisco before being recaptured in Oregon, The Eugene Register-Guard reported in 1978. He had lived in Oregon for several years, evading capture by changing his name and appearance until his arrest, according to the paper.

Bruce, who said he hadn't talked to Stephen in approximately 10 years, said his brother made money through apartment buildings, which he owned and managed with his mother, who lives in Florida.

"I don't know how he could stoop to this low point, hurting someone else," Bruce said.

He added that his brother, who lived in Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was a laid-back, "never-in-a-hurry" type of guy. Bruce said his brother was a law-abiding citizen who never did anything violent prior to the shooting.

Martin J. Kravitz was the lead attorney for Cosmopolitan Hotels when Paddock sued the facility over a slip-and-fall in 2012.

"He was really kind of bizarre, he dressed slovenly to the deposition," Kravitz said. "He is the kind of personality that's slovenly and careless."

Kravitz said that Paddock didn't seem angry and was not the kind of person who would have stood out.

At least 58 people were killed when Paddock opened fire into a crowd of approximately 22,000 at an outdoor country music festival from the 32nd floor of Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Sunday night, police said.

Police said more than 500 people had been taken to hospitals.

The shooting is not believed to be connected to international terrorism, NBC News has learned.

The suspect was a licensed pilot, who owned two planes. He also had a hunting license from Alaska.

It is believed he lived in a retirement community in Mesquite.

Public records show Stephen Paddock lived a relatively transient life, having 27 different residences in California, Texas and Nevada.

From 1985 to 1988, he worked for a predecessor company of Lockheed Martin as an "internal auditor," public records show.

"We're cooperating with authorities to answer questions they may have about Mr. Paddock and his time with the company," Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 17:59

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 17:58

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 17:53

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 04:37

TGP: The liberal media is pounding President Trump over the suffering in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

The San Juan Mayor slammed President Trump for ignoring the suffering people of Puerto Rico.

YouTube

She said this while standing in front of pallets of US aid from the mainland.

Now we know why the people have no aid. The Teamsters Union drivers did not show up to work. Only 20% of drivers arrived at the ports to distribute the relief supplies.

Did mayor of San Juan mention union workers at port are on STRIKE & demanding money first before distributing supplies off boat? #amjoy

'-- Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) September 30, 2017

Conservative Treehouse reported:

Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle (''Torch''), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, has the following comment:

'...They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they're needed.

''It's a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government''.. (link)

More'... here.

The union is reportedly not allowing drivers to remove goods from the Port of San Juan.

US MILITARY ON PUERTO RICO: ''THE PROBLEM IS NOT FEDERAL, IT'S LOCAL DISTRIBUTION'' https://t.co/SvSyYRcelx via @HuffPostBlog

'-- TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) September 30, 2017

The relief bottleneck was out of the Port of San Juan.

Big number of semis now pulling out of Port of San Juan '-- this was the relief bottleneck for Puerto Rico. https://t.co/xIj5J2T5vJ

'-- Cate Long (@cate_long) September 30, 2017

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