Las Vegas Massacre

Stunning. Shocking. Sadness.

Over fifty people killed, their lives ended. Many more likely to follow from the over 400 that were injured.

It's too early to tell much about this but I initially found myself relieved in a sense, is that the word, that it wasn't some muslim terrorist claiming to be with ISIS. Is that wrong? It certainly doesn't make me glad it happened this way. I worry about the police state expanding, the war OF terror expanding, our lives becoming more and more restricted, our liberty destroyed in the name of "safety".

Then again, what does this say? This may not have been an Islamic terrorist, but it was clearly a terrorist act. What does this portend? A 64 year old white man opened fire from a hotel overlooking a concert? What the hell. What do you do about that? Does this change anything? Doesn't it have to change something? It doesn't really matter why he did it, what his ideology might be, it grossly illustrates the fact that you could die when attending a concert. Anytime, anywhere. We already knew that in a way, this makes it more clear. Very clear.

Is this life in the 21st century? There are so many questions, not just about Stephen Paddock. The death toll isn't even set yet, but it's hard not to wonder what comes next.

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Big Al's picture

My condolences to all those affected by this senseless tragedy.

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That always works.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

TheOtherMaven's picture

No connections to any homegrown malevolent ideology sought, let alone found. Blum 3

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Big Al's picture

@TheOtherMaven credit and that he converted to Islam months ago. Saw it on RT.
Also saw his brother said he could imagine why he would have done this. Very peculiar so far.

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@Big Al ignoring it

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@Big Al

as always happens in the early stages of any major event. Eventually it will all shake down to one narrative (that may or may not be partly or mostly true).

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

@Big Al This article has his pic

and says he converted to Islam recently. And the girl friend has pics on her FB page taken in Dubia. So there 'could' be a ISIS connection. But who knows at this point.
http://heavy.com/news/2017/10/stephen-paddock-las-vegas-route-91-mandala...

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth nice neighbourhood. ISIS the most unlikely reason if you ask me.

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@LaFeminista one of the "5 things everyone should know" about the shooter, or whatever that medium.com headline said, he had a house in Sun City. I remember Sun City because Hollywood told me to. Edit:ItHollywood propaganda works for good too. Sorry if I seem callous, delayed shock setting in even though I resist.

Artists United Against Apartheid - Sun City (Official Video)

As-salamu alaykum
waʿalaykumu as-salām

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movie buff's picture

@Citizen Of Earth
They'd claim credit for kidnapping the Lindbergh baby if they thought it would get them attention. Total fucking attention whores.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

@movie buff and then it's used as justification for pumping out more money to the MIC, revoking more civil liberties and militarizing the police a little bit more. It's a very interesting cycle, as predictable as the sunrise.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Dr. John Carpenter

The last thing Trump would do is betray his remaining supporters, many of whom are armed.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

@Timmethy2.0

off-duty cops to carry guns into large venues like arenas. He talked about how Israel does this and the off-duty cops wear a special cap to identify them.

Yep, more guns. More defense. Just what we need. Prevention? fck that

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Lily O Lady's picture

@dkmich

No one could have fired back at the shooter high up in a hotel room. But stupid comments will abound and nothing will be done.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

it's used as justification for pumping out more money to the MIC, revoking more civil liberties and militarizing the police a little bit more. It's a very interesting cycle, as predictable as the sunrise.

This country is unrecognizable as the land of the free since 9/11 gave them the excuse to increase security measures.
These security measures both here in this country and abroad have not caught one planned attack since they went into effect, yet they say that the security measures must increase each time after an event happens.

France's government said that because of the recent attack they will continue to keep the country on high alert and extend their security measures for another 3 months at which time they will be re-evaluated.

The same things happen here as you stated. Americans are living in a police state and don't know it because some little ditty that they have been programed to stand and sing along with has told them that they are free. And that they are very brave even after they did nothing as their government continued to take away the constitutional rights.

No amount of security is going to catch a person who has decided to take out as many people as he can before he shuffles off. And to make sure that he is able to make this decision, our government protects the organization that fights for Americans to have this choice.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

IS claims fatal stabbings of 2 women at French train station

A man attacked and killed two women with a knife in Marseilles, France Sunday and then was shot and killed by French soldiers who had been nearby because of the increased security measures that were extended after the last attack.

Some witnesses reported hearing the assailant shout "Allahu akbar!" Arabic for "God is great," Collomb said.

The Paris prosecutor's office, which oversees all terror cases in France, said it had opened a counterterrorism investigation into the Marseilles attack.

At what point will people understand that they are not made any safer because of the measures? Instead of stopping any attacks, we have seen more of our tax dollars going to an over bloated security franchise where everyone and their dawg can say that they have just what the government needs to stop the next attack.
"Ooopppsss, missed this one. Send more money."

Read a few of the comments to see how some the 2nd amendment loving citizens of Utah think

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

When I saw it mentioned in the OP that he was 64, my first thought was that he was looking at starving in old age and wanted to take a chunk of the world he could reach - perhaps those who still afford to attend concerts - with him...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

WoodsDweller's picture

@Ellen North
I read today said that he was a millionaire, comfortably retired. Doubt this was about money.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Anja Geitz's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

If the CIA and the MIC don't hire these "terrorists" to keep our tax dollars flowing into their war machine. But that's way too cynical. Right?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
way to easy a thinking process.
It just adds to confuse already confused minds.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

But I assure you it is not easy.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
too difficult to handle, so yes, not easy at all.

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@Anja Geitz I try really hard not to fall into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, but it's kind of hard not to add 2 + 2 and get 4, especially when these things always result in more MIC/CIA, etc.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz

Domestically, they seem to just (under-cover) encourage them to become violent and provide them with weapons so that they can claim that they've caught some on American soil.

Edited for a repeated word and a missing letter. sigh...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Anja Geitz We hired Osama, Sadam, Gaddafi, the Shah of Iran, Al-Qaeda (and other moderate "rebels"). Hillary the Murderer with her buddy Hussain Barry Soetero funded ISIS. We have hatched this monster. Payback is coming. You are not cynical--you are a realist.

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Steven D's picture

@Citizen Of Earth On the video in that link to Heavy News you here rapid fire like a machine gun. Clearly these were not semi-automatic weapons this man used but fully automatic weapons.

And there is a bill in Congress right now to make silencers legal.

We are an insane nation of people governed by a greedy, rapacious elite. Nothing should shock anyone. Gun store owners are thrilled because every time there is an attack like this one their gun sales go through the roof. NRA Twitter page makes no mention of this shooting, because I'm sure they're thrilled. One more chance to tout even more open gun laws.

Saddened beyond belief that we live in such a country.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

WoodsDweller's picture

@Steven D @Steven D
are regulated everywhere in the country under at least the National Firearms Act and require a Class 3 license. If the shooter had a license, I'm sure someone would have mentioned it by now.
I listened to the video. Shots were definitely faster than you would expect from a semi-auto, but didn't seem fast enough to be full auto. There are some gizmos (at least one is still legal) to cycle a semi-auto faster. It might have been one of those. I don't remember the name now.
It might have been an illegally modified semi-auto, though I would expect it to fire faster.
The weapons are in police hands now, they'll probably tell us when they've tracked down any relevant leads.

EDIT:
Huffpost now reports that "Authorities seized at least one full-automatic rifle and as many as 19 other firearms from the room". It will be very interesting to see how he came by it. I'm guessing illegally modified.
From the same article:
"Paddock gambled more than $10,000 a day numerous times in recent weeks at Las Vegas casinos, according to NBC News, which cited a casino executive and a source who had seen reports to the government on cash transactions. Some of Paddock’s transactions topped $30,000, NBC said. It was unclear whether Paddock was a winner or loser"
Recent weeks. Plural. He know he was done so he was living it up. Win, lose, who cares? You can't take it with you.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Roy Blakeley's picture

@WoodsDweller my money would be on a modified AR15 or one of the other M16 clones. They are easy to come by and my understanding is that they are easy to modify.

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@Roy Blakeley a file and the know-how to do it. At least that's what I was told by a gun owner who actually owns an Uzi... He was just a smoke buddy I saw daily in the smoking area, a nice guy really and very knowledgeable. I did not bring myself to ask him why he has an Uzi, some things are just better left unsaid.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Steven D's picture

@WoodsDweller I was wrong.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

WoodsDweller's picture

@WoodsDweller

The rapid pace of the gunfire suggested that the shooter was using either a fully automatic weapon, tightly restricted under US law, or that he had attached a device to a semi-automatic gun to make it fire more continuously, said Massad Ayoob, a firearms expert, instructor and author.
“It’s faster than almost any human being is going to be able to pull a trigger on a semi-automatic,” Ayoob said.
Fully automatic weapons, which fire multiple rounds of ammunition from a single pull of the trigger, are strictly regulated, taxed and tracked under US law. This makes them expensive collectors’ items, and comparatively rarely used in crimes. Semi-automatic rifles, in contrast, which fire only one round of ammunition with each pull of the trigger, are widely available.
From listening to the footage of the attack, Ayoob said that the gunshots “did not sound as consistent” as he would typically expect from a fully automatic M-16 or AK-47. “The pace of fire is a little bit erratic. At one point it’s slower than it is at another point.”
Paddock could have used a Hellfire or a bump-fire device, which attach to normal semi-automatic rifles and allow them to fire more rapidly, Ayoob said. These devices are legal, but rarely used by serious shooters, he said.
...
On its website, Bump Fire Systems advertises the device as permitting “simulated full-auto firing” that is “absolutely legal”. It sells Bump Fire stocks for $99.99.
The Hellfire system uses a hand-operated crank to hit the trigger of the gun more rapidly than a person could fire it, Ayoob said, which could explain apparent changes in the pace of the fire.

Bump Fire was what I was trying to remember. I thought the BATF withdrew the permit for the Hellfire system, but maybe not.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Deja's picture

@WoodsDweller
I shouldn't be shocked. I was married to a man who brought home a baseball bat he apparently stuffed down his pant leg and limped out of the store with. And, I've seen footage of a murderer leaving a hotel with a woman's body stuffed into a suitcase.

Shouldn't be surprised, but am.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@TheOtherMaven

It's always a "lone wolf" when they're white
No connections to any homegrown malevolent ideology sought, let alone found.

This time, not a lot of "seeking" to be done. As the police approached, the gunman killed himself. And no one in his "regular" life seems to have had any idea that this was coming. A general reaction of "WTF?" prevails.

The obligatory and expected claim of "responsibility" from "Islamic State" can be, and is being, ignored.

The only place left to look is if the source of the fully automatic weaponry can be found and traced. And, frankly, those are slim pickings indeed. Traffickers in illegal guns are well practiced in hiding their identities from the authorities.

And again, the main link to anything "beyond" was destroyed with the perpetrator's death.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Anyone with a heart is affected by this.
We need a change.
We need to talk.
We need to act.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp Is knowing nothing will change. There will be a next one. It will be worse.

I feel for the families and loved ones and our country too.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

dance you monster's picture

As I say, it's early, and thoughts are not coalescing enough to make a measured argument on any facet of this, but a nation or culture that has in its lexicon the phrase "a blaze of glory," that thinks -- and expresses in its conversations and narratives -- that there can be anything glorious or good in a blaze of destruction is a nation or culture with a problem. That's all I want to say now except my thoughts are with those who were on the ground in Vegas.

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keep right on going.

There is a sickness in the US that refuses to face the reality. How the hell did someone get so many guns [10] and a pile of ammunition into a hotel room? Then sat there for three days.

My heartfelt condolences to all that have suffered from this dreadful act.

All I feel is rage and deep sadness.

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Lily O Lady's picture

@LaFeminista

the shooter a machine gun. The brother was nonplussed. He had no insight. He likened it to an asteroid falling to earth.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Big Al's picture

@Lily O Lady totally flabbergasted. But it didn't sound like they were all that close, lived far apart. Sometimes we just don't know what's happening inside our own relatives until it's too late.

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

There was something really hollow about listening to this Douchebag And Chief talk about this being a 'time for unity' -- After he has spent the last 6 months dividing the country. Fuck Trump.

Just to get ahead of the obvious, if everyone at the festival had an assault rifle, the shooter would have been dead sooner. There now we don't have to wait for the sociopaths at the NRA to say it. /snark

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

@LaFeminista

He comes off sounding almost sane when he sticks to the teleprompter.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Hillbilly Dem's picture

The failure of America to anything after the massacre of those 20 little children at Newtown finally disabused me of the thought that this country would end its practice of selling handheld killing machines to almost any of its 300+ million citizens who want one, or twenty.

As for this most recent horrific mass murder, it will probably lead to the further militarization of our state, local and county police; exacerbating the state of martial law that exists in America 2017. Other than that, I got nothing. I honestly think that the gun fetish psychopaths and the gun profiteers who groom them will never alter their stand by one lousy inch, even if the victims were NRA members attending the an NRA convention.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

@Hillbilly Dem
a police state. in most police states, they confiscate the guns early on. in the US, they make sure there are as many guns as possible in the hands of as many lunatics as possible, and rely on the resulting inevitable violence to justify ubiquitous surveillance and the militarization of the police.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

ZimInSeattle's picture

@Hillbilly Dem

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

karl pearson's picture

With Republicans in charge of all branches of government, I don't expect any change in our gun laws. This party is so beholden to the NRA and the arms industry that that I fear these 50+ people will have died for nothing. Back in the 90's, I can remember Democratic congressmen losing elections over gun control issues, so one can't expect them to be a force for change. IMO, Rifles are one of the 3 R's that represent the Republican party: the others are Race and Religion. When nothing changed after Sandy Hook, I gave up that reasonable guns laws would ever be passed. Interestingly, the U.S. House is set this week to vote on loosening gun restrictions of silencers.

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movie buff's picture

From Daily Wire:

"No," said Sheriff Lombardo, when asked if the massacre was a suspected "act of terrorism."
"Not at this point," he said. "We believe it was a local individual. He resides here locally."

The shooter was white, and the killing may not have been affiliated with any extremist ideology. Therefore these deaths, despite their shocking number, are of less value to the Empire. They won't be making movies about this years from now, the way they're still making movies about the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people. But those killers were swarthy and Muslim. That adds at least fifty Value Points to each death.

Sorry for the cynicism.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

@movie buff
A truer word was never spoken.

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native

I am trying not to be shocked in to submission. Don't look at Puerto Rico, look at Las Vegas. Evil! Yeah right. Because? Of the number of deaths? The way they died? What is the media up to? Dog tails come to mind.

Right away I am wondering if that shooter was on medication of any kind, like anti-depressants. But that's just me, after ten years consulting a profession that designs torture programs for the CIA. Also, the batman movie shooter guy was heavily medicated, that's what made me think of it. What is the media up to? Tragedy abounds.

The FCC isn't even reporting on disasters properly, they are in charge of communications and the whole infrastructure collapsed in PR, did you guys know that? I had to read it lurking the North American network operators group on USENET, like they are doing the defacto reporting for the government, trying to piece together random bits from WISPs (wireless ISPs) and others on the island. The Big vendors are silent, aid is stuck at the ports. It's a disgrace.

Okay, back to Las Vegas and the eventual fight about machine guns and stuff. I'm sorry.

good luck

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@eyo My first thought was did they see the guy shoot himself? Or did they just find a dead body in the room and say oh look, here's our shooter? Is the guy a patsy? I mean, I don't doubt he probably is the shooter and it will come out that he's a right wing extremist - which the same media that would be blaring against antifa will be relatively quiet about - who hated gays or somesuch, but it's gotten to the point where one has to doubt anything and everything the "official" report says and ask your own questions and believe nothing.

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@Battle of Blair Mountain thanks that is good advice right now. I already called out racist just because he lived in a place called Sun City in AZ. In my lint trap is the documentary call Border Wars I saw it "by mistake", omg it was Bannon's propaganda film aggrandizing the racists on the Arizona border, they absolutely despised immigrants. Some thought they should be killed for just crossing the border? Seemed like really really bitter mostly middle-aged white guys, that is how I remember it. They blamed immigrants for their job losses, not the bosses. Totally misdirected anger. Like me right now, sort of. Thanks for the nudge.

Hundreds in LV need healing, thousands... tremendous need everywhere in the world right now, as wealth accumulation on top accelerates.

good luck

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@eyo @eyo in the room the shooting came from. Police admit they believe he killed himself before they arrived on the scene. So they don't actually know if he killed himself or the actual shooter killed him to frame him for the shootings. To nail down whether Paddock was the shooter we need a coroners report as to his time of death and the hotel video footage of his floor. The Ministry of Propaganda mass media has been reporting the entire building was bristling with video surveillance.

Until then, we have no way of knowing if the shooter is still out there.

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@Battle of Blair Mountain The man was found dead. I haven't even seen his report of likely cause of death. Overdose? Bullet? Hanging? What I have read is that he was found dead.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

detroitmechworks's picture

Being in crowds, and that I still tend to scan rooftops when walking.

All I keep thinking is that if this guy had had access to military explosives, or the know how...

Many, many times worse.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks When I read the news this morning my immediate thought was "what if he'd had a batch of RPGs?"

I have little doubt that there's plenty of RPG/grenade launcher types of weaponry available on the "black market" here. They are probably not as easy to come by as in one of the conflict zones but where there's a will, there's a way.

There will be the usual hand wringing and finger pointing and then it will all quiet down until the next time.

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EdMass's picture

@detroitmechworks

people are out to get you, paranoia only makes good sense.

Be safe.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Deja's picture

@detroitmechworks
I come close to panic in crowds - have been known to literally bolt, pushing and shoving people out of my way as I get to an exit, and I've never seen combat, so I would call you smart. You at least have a justifiable reason. I'm just a nervous Nellie.

I'm so sorry you deal with that, among other things due to your service.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@Deja But you know, that's base level paranoia. Whenever I know my PTSD is kicking in I find myself scanning rooftops, listening for gunshots, etc... I remember saying in one of my TOP comments that I had went through hell, and didn't want to see it back home...

Well, it's home. Overseas was just a dress rehearsal. One thing mass shootings and bombings are good for is keeping crowds from forming. No crowds, no protests, no problem.

Now THAT'S my paranoia talking.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

mimi's picture

@detroitmechworks
helps to ease your feelings of paranoia.

Air kiss

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Alligator Ed's picture

@detroitmechworks

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@detroitmechworks

Well, it's home. Overseas was just a dress rehearsal. One thing mass shootings and bombings are good for is keeping crowds from forming. No crowds, no protests, no problem.

Now THAT'S my paranoia talking.

It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you (and your ilk).

And the events of the past 48 hours certainly evidence the truth of what you're saying.

If you doubt me based on Las Vegas alone, I suggest you look at Catalonia again. Those poor bastards were beaten and shot by the police just because they were trying to vote!

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Creosote.'s picture

@detroitmechworks

Many lessons here tonight from you, mimi, and everyone else.
And then, in a perhaps completely unrelated way, we lose Tom Petty too.

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ggersh's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I]

my thoughts go out to all those affected by this insanity

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

mimi's picture

@ggersh
and that dream ... I can't find it.

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ggersh's picture

@mimi

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

ZimInSeattle's picture

anthem. How dare they disrespect Amurika. Thanks Pumpkin Fuhrer for further dividing our country.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

snoopydawg's picture

@ZimInSeattle

he shoots at people who have no connection to the people he is upset with. How does that work?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg This happens all the time. Especially when the powers of rational thought have been eroded, destroyed, or never formed at all. In Freudian terms, this is pure "id", unfiltered by superego.

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EdMass's picture

I'm seeing a lot of new commenters. This is good.

Tell your friends.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

a friend whose friends were there at that concert. They're all OK. My friend now wonders how in hell she's going to talk about this with her 10 year old daughter.... The friends who were there are all proud gun owners, Repugs. My friend wonders if they'll start re-thinking their position on those guns, doubt it.

And I had the exact same thought regarding the shooter's ethnicity. My mind now goes right to things like false flags and excuses for martial law.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Deja's picture

@lizzyh7
Is always Manchurian Candidate. I know, it makes me a CT, anti-government loon. I don't care. It's what I wonder about, every time. And that's a lot now.

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Ravensword's picture

@Deja I guess that’s worth something.

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@Deja

Those who are afraid to question or wonder must be satisfied with the explanations delivered by our goverment and their friends at the MSM outlets. They wouldn't ever lie to us now, would they?

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

gulfgal98's picture

@ovals49 everything. That has become my mantra when it comes to the government, at least the federal government.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

snoopydawg's picture

@lizzyh7

I wondered if he wore it to make some type of redneck statement or why he was even wearing it.
I bet that shirt goes into his garbage the first chance he gets.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@snoopydawg

I saw a man in a camo shirt during the shooting I wondered if he wore it to make some type of redneck statement or why he was even wearing it.

Redneck statement seems to fit the bill......

I bet that shirt goes into his garbage the first chance he gets.

Au contraire. I daresay he wore it to work today.

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

snoopydawg's picture

@thanatokephaloides

but I can guarantee you that he didn't wear the shorts he was wearing last night unless he had time to wash them.

I saw him in one of the videos that captured the sound of the gun. I can not begin to imagine what that was like last night. The group he was in were crouching down and then they started running and boom, a person was hit, went down and stayed down.

I hate that we have questions about what actually happened and why, but they have pushed us to this.
The attacks in Manchester were done by a terrorist group that the government knew was living in the area because they had let them go back and forth to Libya. This was why they were able to make arrests so quickly. What else did they let them do?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

gulfgal98's picture

@snoopydawg here in the South, especially during hunting season. I am not a hunter, but seeing camo does not necessarily mean a lot of anything one way or another to me. Maybe it is because I am used to seeing it.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

earthling1's picture

On all comment threads, on all sites.
He was Antifa. He was a Trumpster . He was a libtard. He was a Bernie Bro. It was a false flag and he was dead before the shooting.
We need to stop pointing fingers.
The hate in this country is going to infect us all.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Steven D's picture

@earthling1 or what he believed, the problem is he had access to a veritable military arsenal.

It's the same problem with every individual who does this - we have laws in place and media coverage guaranteed that make these events inevitable.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

@Steven D @Steven D
That sticks everybody in a group that must be diametrically opposed to another politically useful group. Inciting each group to hate the other is just too useful of a distraction for plutocrats not to take advantage of it.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Lily O Lady's picture

@Timmethy2.0

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

mimi's picture

@Steven D @Steven D (added more emphasis)
and he complained a lot about how Vancouver has been sold out to the corporate powers and that nobody really can own his own house anymore and nobody is free in his private spheres anymore. So I tried to find out in how far Vancouver is different from Seattle and all he came up with was the fact that they had no guns. Legally owned guns by the population. That makes a difference. There were times where British police had nothing but batons. I guess these were the "good 'ol times".

I also can't forget thinking back, that the youth in the US (ie born around 1990 in the mid thirties and younger) have no clue what Socialism or Communism was or is all about. The Europeans (especially Germans and those of the Eastern European countries) must be born before 1960 to have any feeling for Socialist and Communist regimes. None of them (us Europeans) really understand the US cold war era of the fifties from their own or extended family experience. None of us really can feel what the civil rights movement was all about.

I read here and feel often lost, because I don't live in the movie world and am not lost in the digital virtual world as much as I can witness with almost everyone around me. Half of your sarcasm or little remarks which refer to your cultural media environment you are grown up with and remember often fondly, I can't follow (I regret that often). But then I don't have the energy anymore to try to catch up on the cultural side. I can't get myself to see sci-fi movies or read novels of that kind. Though I wished I were younger and had better nerves to try to catch up. But depression kicks in and I ask myself "what for?" should I do it.

I remember having had an American and a German intern in our German TV studio in Washington DC and both had absolutely no clue what the regime in the former GDR or Communist regime under Stalin was all about.

Therefore I think book knowledge discussions about it won't make a difference on the every day little people.

There is a lot of truth in Chris Hedges latest analysis (emphasis all mine and paragraphing the original text as well for better readability):

The end of empire.
He says among others:

Empires need more than force to dominate other nations. They need a mystique. This mystique—a mask for imperial plunder, repression and exploitation—seduces some native elites, who become willing to do the bidding of the imperial power or at least remain passive. And it provides a patina of civility and even nobility to justify to those at home the costs in blood and money needed to maintain empire.

The parliamentary system of government that Britain replicated in appearance in the colonies, and the introduction of British sports such as polo, cricket and horse racing, along with elaborately uniformed viceroys and the pageantry of royalty, were buttressed by what the colonialists said was the invincibility of their navy and army. England was able to hold its empire together from 1815 to 1914 before being forced into a steady retreat.

America’s high-blown rhetoric about democracy, liberty and equality, along with basketball, baseball and Hollywood, as well as our own deification of the military, entranced and cowed much of the globe in the wake of World War II. Behind the scenes, of course, the CIA used its bag of dirty tricks to orchestrate coups, fix elections and carry out assassinations, black propaganda campaigns, bribery, blackmail, intimidation and torture. But none of this works anymore.

Ok, let's hope it doesn't work anymore. Though I doubt it. And if it shouldn't work anymore, what will it be that will work?

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earthling1's picture

@mimi
regarding early American life in the 50s and 60s. For me, watching reruns of the 40s growing up in L.A. was mostly glorifying our armed forces in WW11 through numerous war movies. Then add constant TV cops n' robbers, cowboys n' indians, and more war shows. It's a wonder I'm not a flaming nut job like, well, Stephen Paddock.
Us baby boomers are very different than the generations before and after.
We were forced to see a world in black and white, guys in white hats and those in black hats, all while hunkered under our school desks with our hands over our heads. And the pledge of allegiance. Always the pledge of allegiance. I can still remember prayer in school. How sad is that.
A subtle but thorough indoctrination that I still feel today.
The thought that our children are still subjected to this in the 21st century gives me the shivers.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Ravensword's picture

@Steven D It glorifies the perpetrator and the painstakingly detailed explanations from various experts give operational details for any aspiring mass murderers out there.

The news won’t broadcast an emotionally disturbed individual committing suicide on live TV because that has been know to cause a string of suicides. Why the hell should they plaster some mass-murdering asshole’s mug all over the news for all to see? The next fucker who wants to go out in a blaze of glory will likely be watching.

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is likely to provoke many arguments, but it won't affect the US weapons industry at all. The business of expanding and policing a global empire is simultaneously very patriotic and very lucrative... even if it does tend to drive some people violently insane.

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native

gulfgal98's picture

The shooter just does not appear to fit the profile of someone who would do something like this. Based upon what has been reported by the media, the guy was retired from a good job, lived in a nice neighborhood, kept the few guns that he was known to have locked in a gun safe, hunted occasionally, had a pilot's license and owned two planes, and liked going to concerts, particularly country music concerts. The only thing on his record was a driving violation. This just does not add up logically.

This country is reeling from senseless violence and open hostility toward one another. It is very disheartening to realize just how far we have fallen in less than 20 years. My heart goes out to the families of the victims, both those killed and the 100's that were injured.

Meanwhile, I simply cannot fathom what makes someone commit a crime like this. It is truly a sad day in our nation.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Steven D's picture

@gulfgal98 a lot of people. Our country has made the decision to make it possible for anyone to acquire an arsenal of weaponry that allows individuals to do this. We as a nation have gone out of our way to permit almost anyone from acquiring weapons legally or otherwise.

And our politicians have allowed themselves to be cowed by an organization that is now effectively a lobbyist for weapons manufacturers. It's absurd that we permit a minority on this country to allow these mass killings (and all the other gun killings not labeled mass shooting events) to continue. Second amendment be damned. It was never intended to allow everyone to own a gun without any regulation by the government.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Citizen Of Earth's picture

@Steven D
You think you meant to say "Bribed". Fixed it for ya.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

@gulfgal98
amounts with a casino. They could not tell if it was winnings or losings.
If it was a huge gambling loss, that could be a trigger.

But considering he appeared to be planning this attack for at least a few days (he checked into the hotel last thurs I believe), I'll be amazed if no note is found somewhere.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

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