What Happened in Vegas?

[Banzai]

On topic, what I don't understand about America, you fiercely want to keep your guns to be able to defend yourself against the government. At the same time, you're fiercely pro-cop and pro-military, and you're continuously in favour of them becoming stronger, bigger, and more heavily armed...

But, those are the very same people you're arming yourself against. This gigantic US military, it somehow isn't counted as big government, but they're the ones who'll enforce the rule of a future US tyrant. If a military coup occurs, who in the US is strong enough to oppose them?

As for police, they're being handed military grade weapons, armoured trucks, and from the pictures I've seen, they even dress like soldiers. They've been militarized for years now.

It's too large a contradiction to make any sense...

 

[Banzai]

I thought it was a 3 million vote difference in Hillary's favor???

I'm not understanding???

I have to leave for work now but I'm curious what this means??? Haven't heard the 20% thing.....

Thanks for sharing!

Turnout was only around 55% of voter population.

Trump received 46% of those votes = 27% of voter population = 63M people

63M people = 19.5% of general US population

 

[pucho812]

I thought it was a 3 million vote difference in Hillary's favor???

I'm not understanding???

I have to leave for work now but I'm curious what this means??? Haven't heard the 20% thing.....

Thanks for sharing!

I believe he is referring to the fact that out of 100% of eligible voters for the 2016 presidential election,  there was about 50% in total who actually cast a vote.  Out of those 50%, X amount went to trump and X amount went to clinton.

 

[living sounds]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/google-and-facebook-have-failed-us/541794/

 

[mattiasNYC]

Trump voters, not supporters. As soon as he opened his mouth post-election, the two stopped being the same thing.

Exactly!!!

On topic, what I don't understand about America, you fiercely want to keep your guns to be able to defend yourself against the government. But at the same time, you're fiercely pro-cop and pro-military, and you're continuously in favour of them becoming stronger, bigger, and more heavily armed...

But, those are the very same people you're arming yourself against. This gigantic US military, it somehow isn't counted as big government, but they're the ones who'll enforce the rule of a future US tyrant. If a military coup occurs, who in the US is strong enough to oppose them?

As for police, they're being handed military grade weapons, armoured trucks, and from the pictures I've seen, they even dress like soldiers. They've been militarized for years now.

It's too large a contradiction to make any sense...

And exactly this as well...


PS: and thanks......

 

[bluebird]

If a military coup occurs, who in the US is strong enough to oppose them?

Have you SEEN how many karate dojo's are in your neighborhood? THOSE guys...and rappers. I'm not worried.

 

[DaveP]

On topic, what I don't understand about America, you fiercely want to keep your guns to be able to defend yourself against the government. But at the same time, you're fiercely pro-cop and pro-military, and you're continuously in favour of them becoming stronger, bigger, and more heavily armed...

Plus 1    I don't understand it either.  When the wild west stopped being wild, they should have got all the guns back.

This is how a nutcase describes how Britain disarmed.
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle558-20100221-07.html
The US could have followed suit, but you have millions of guys like this.

DaveP

 

[bruno2000]

1.  If you didn't vote, you can't complain.
2.  In the end it was either Clinton or Trump.  Choose your poison.
Best,
Bruno2000

 

[PRR]

> And where the hell did he get those fully automatic weapons?

{sigh} I hate to wade into this mud-fest, but.....

The first "machine guns" used a rotary mechanism to unload, reload, and fire repeatedly. Gatling Gun is a classic. A faster "gatling" was developed around Viet-Nam.

Another type steals energy from the gunpowder to work a unload/reload mechanism. This is nearly all handy-size "machine guns". The semi/full distinction is only: does it pull the trigger after reloading? A very minor feature.

Anybody who has cleaned a Military weapon knows how to change the semi- mechanism for a full- mechanism. Full-auto mechs are generally banned. I have not peeked, but am sure, any good metal-worker can modify the mechanism; they are surely available on some black market. I believe some guy has posted a 3-D Printer part.

Or you could wire a solenoid to the trigger and pulse it.

But THIS guy did not even go that far.

He had a "Bump Stock". A replacement stock (fully legal) with a spring in it. There is a brace for your trigger finger. When you fire, the recoil throws the gun back on a spring, which pushes it forward again. Into your trigger finger. Keep your finger stiff, it re-fires.

This is a super crude way to go full-auto. With the slop in the stock you have even less hope of aiming. And working the full mass of the gun, instead of a small re-fire pin, means it fires slower than a proper full-auto weapon.

However if you are not fussy where you hit, and are not in a great hurry, it will get the "job" done.

The Bump Stock has slipped below the radar. It does not change the firing mechanism, and in a sense you still use your trigger-finger to fire. It is presently perfectly legal. Most gun-fans have little use for it. There is some sense it will be banned sooner or later.

 

[tands]

1.  If you didn't vote, you can't complain.
2.  In the end it was either Clinton or Trump.  Choose your poison.
Best,
Bruno2000

Half the country picked none of the above. Many people picked Trump just to be a dick, because the media and the MIC so wanted Clinton. So that little game you describe is over. You can watch the same thing happen in 2020. People are done having their options given to them by elites.

 

[JohnRoberts]

But THIS guy did not even go that far.

He had a "Bump Stock". A replacement stock (fully legal) with a spring in it. There is a brace for your trigger finger. When you fire, the recoil throws the gun back on a spring, which pushes it forward again. Into your trigger finger. Keep your finger stiff, it re-fires.

This is a super crude way to go full-auto. With the slop in the stock you have even less hope of aiming. And working the full mass of the gun, instead of a small re-fire pin, means it fires slower than a proper full-auto weapon.

However if you are not fussy where you hit, and are not in a great hurry, it will get the "job" done.

The Bump Stock has slipped below the radar. It does not change the firing mechanism, and in a sense you still use your trigger-finger to fire. It is presently perfectly legal. Most gun-fans have little use for it. There is some sense it will be banned sooner or later.

The bump-stock "was" legal in Nevada, but probably not for long...

Still curious about the rest of the story on this guy.

JR

 

[fazer]

Guy was a psychopath. Multi millionaire. My suggestion is follow the money.  Was he a hitman for the mob. His dad was a psychopath and a bank robber. Follow the money.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Guy was a psychopath. Multi millionaire. My suggestion is follow the money.  Was he a hitman for the mob. His dad was a psychopath and a bank robber. Follow the money.

I am still curious about the rest of the story on this guy, more than a little conjecture from the news media too.

These events are a cultural ink blot test, but usually the ink blot isn't left out there for so long to ponder.

JR

PS: But I'm still waiting for the rest of the story about the australian tourist shot by police in minneapolis.  For some reason Police searched her residence. Being generous, you could say they were thorough.  :

 

[dmp]

Guy was a psychopath. Multi millionaire. My suggestion is follow the money.  Was he a hitman for the mob. His dad was a psychopath and a bank robber. Follow the money.

There's lots of theories being floated. His whole background  is pretty thin and the explanation for his wealth (real estate), could be a cover for something else that brought him money. Is it possible to make a living as a professional gambler? From my mathematical way of thinking, no - since the house wins over time. He played video poker not real poker, so the machine is programmed to extract your money. Any game at a casino will lose money if played long enough. So he had thousands to burn at casinos every month.

So yeah, follow the money, and hopefully their are surveillance videos that can provide more info.
It seems like he had way more guns (23) and ammo (much leftover) in the room than necessary, which is poor planning (raises the risk of being caught moving them into the room or having them found in the room). Suspicous

I hope the authorities make public all the info. When they do not release info, it just makes people suspicious and it turns into conspiracy theory fodder.

 

[JohnRoberts]

There's lots of theories being floated. His whole background  is pretty thin and the explanation for his wealth (real estate), could be a cover for something else that brought him money. Is it possible to make a living as a professional gambler?

Perhaps betting against other humans****, betting against the house is a guaranteed loser.....

From my mathematical way of thinking, no - since the house wins over time. He played video poker not real poker, so the machine is programmed to extract your money. Any game at a casino will lose money if played long enough. So he had thousands to burn at casinos every month.

reportedly his "girlfriend" worked as a hostess in one of the high dollar gambling rooms, quit some time ago.

So yeah, follow the money, and hopefully their are surveillance videos that can provide more info.
It seems like he had way more guns (23) and ammo (much leftover) in the room than necessary, which is poor planning (raises the risk of being caught moving them into the room or having them found in the room). Suspicous

Surely too many guns for only one shooter. Likewise why two different shooting positions?

I hope the authorities make public all the info. When they do not release info, it just makes people suspicious and it turns into conspiracy theory fodder.

They can't release info they do not have.  Authorities are questioning the girlfriend whe returned from the phillipines.  ISIS actually claimed credit twice which is not typical for them, but they may just be taking advantage of the general uncertainty surrounding this. 

JR

**** an old friend of mine back in the 70s reported gambling winnings as a source of income when taking out a student loan (from a bank). He wasn't lying, he was a successful poker player, and pool hustler. I used to hustle pool with him sometimes when we went to different bars outside the area that didn't know us (him).  He got the loan, graduated from MIT, built and sold a software business for millions of dollars. He has been retired since the 80s, pretty smart guy. 

He was the better poker and pool player than me, but I held my own. In the army when i reported to my first permanent duty station (FT riley KS) it was near the end of the month and all the GIs were broke just days before payday, so they decided to hustle the new guy  : in the day room that had a pool table.  I won their last $0.50...  8)

 

[dmp]

Perhaps betting against other humans****, betting against the house is a guaranteed loser.....

If you play poker with other people it's a fair game - you might win you might lose.
When you play video poker against the house - they've programmed when you get good cards extract your money as best they can. What I've seen says the guy played video poker, not groups of people with fair odds.

They can't release info they do not have. 

My comment came based on what wasn't released in past shootings. The orlando and sandy hook shootings had records sealed to the point that conspiracy theories claim the incidents didn't even happen (were faked). 

 

[CJ]

This is not a political issue, it is not a gun issue, this is a mental health issue.

take away guns and the guy makes a bomb.

take away the ammonium nitrate and the guy grabs an ice pick.

i wish he were still alive today so we could ask him what happened in his life or in his brain that would make him commit such a despicable crime against  humanity,  then maybe we could learn something that might help prevent someone else from doing the same thing. can't fix everybody, last year it was that night club in Orlando Fl.  next year it will be someplace else, though i sincerely hope not. what do i do? i have to pray for the victims and the perp. why the perp? so he does not steal time from my life, he has stolen enough.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

This is not a political issue, it is not a gun issue, this is a mental health issue.

Exactly this.  Spoken as an anti gun Euro bleeding heart liberal.

The American experience is driven by pioneer spirit, kill or be killed, win at all costs, every man for himself, personal responsibility.  These tired tropes combined with celebrity culture and mental illness make for a powerful and unique cocktail.

America's very strengths are it's biggest vulnerabilities  I love a lot of what this country can be and will become a citizen soon to play my part.

 

[volker]

What really puzzles me with the argument of mental illness is that pro-gun people find it more comfortable to admit that they are supposedly living in a society that produces a multiple of violent nutjobs compared to any other country in the world rather than acknowledge that there is a gun problem. Considering that I don't see regular bombings in countries with stricter gun laws maybe there is something else at play? Also I'm having a hard time imagining somebody killing 60 people in a row with an ice pick.

So should I assume that people in the southern states are up to four times more likely to be mentally ill compared to California or New York?


https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts

 

[tands]

Hacked emails show that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton and a major fundraiser for her 2016 campaign, urged her campaign team to silence rival Bernie Sanders’s message against police shootings of African-Americans. He suggested countering it with “the Sandy Hook issue” — a reference to Sanders’s opposition to lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

The emails were released by the group DCLeaks, which in the past has shared hacked emails from U.S. political and military figures. The U.S. Intelligence Community announced Friday that it is “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails” that were made public “on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona.”

The Weinstein emails were among a large number of messages DCLeaks made public on Thursday, from the gmail account of Capricia Marshall, a close Clinton confidant who worked for her in the White House and the State Department, and worked on her 2008 campaign.

In an April 10  email sent to Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, just days before the New York primary, Weinstein invited Mook to meet up. He pointed to a Sanders ad featuring Erica Garner —  the daughter of Eric Garner, who was killed by New York City police officers —  as well as growing support for Sanders among Latino activist leaders. “I’m probably telling you what you know already, but that needs to be silenced, probably with the Sandy Hook issue,” he wrote:

Mook wrote back replying to Weinstein’s offer to meet up and discuss strategy: “Are you kidding?  Let’s do it!  I’m here all week.  This is all hands on deck–it’s must win! Would tomorrow or Tuesday work?”

The ad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP4Xasc1t7Q

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/07/harvey-weinstein-urged-clinton-campaign-to-silence-sanderss-black-lives-matter-message/

https://twitter.com/kthalps/status/916039849215438848

Two decades ago, the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein invited Ashley Judd to the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for what the young actress expected to be a business breakfast meeting. Instead, he had her sent up to his room, where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower, she recalled in an interview.

“How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?” Ms. Judd said she remembers thinking.

In 2014, Mr. Weinstein invited Emily Nestor, who had worked just one day as a temporary employee, to the same hotel and made another offer: If she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career, according to accounts she provided to colleagues who sent them to Weinstein Company executives. The following year, once again at the Peninsula, a female assistant said Mr. Weinstein badgered her into giving him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and very distraught,” wrote a colleague, Lauren O’Connor, in a searing memo asserting sexual harassment and other misconduct by their boss.

“There is a toxic environment for women at this company,” Ms. O’Connor said in the letter, addressed to several executives at the company run by Mr. Weinstein.

An investigation by The New York Times found previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades, documented through interviews with current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses he has run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company.
Continue reading the main story

During that time, after being confronted with allegations including sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact, Mr. Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women, according to two company officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html