All of America's mass killers in 2017 had one thing in common, report finds - By Tribune News Service

The past year was rife with mass shootings and attacks _ each incident perpetrated by men with a lot more in common than just their gender.

The Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, in a study released Thursday, examined all 28 mass attacks between January and December 2017. At least three people were injured in each incident.
Every act of violence was carried out by a man who "experienced at least one significant stressor within the last five years," according to the report.
Such stressors include family and romantic relationship problems, personal issues, difficult school and work environment, and previous contact with law enforcement that did not result in an arrest or charges.
About half of the attackers, around 54 percent, had a history of drug or substances abuse, and 20 of them -- about 71 percent -- had histories of criminal charges beyond minor traffic violations.
Nearly two-thirds of suspects experienced some sort of mental symptoms ahead of their attacks, though only 25 percent had been hospitalized or prescribed medication.
"The most common symptoms observed were related to psychosis" -- including paranoia, hallucinations and delusions -- "and suicidal thoughts," according to the report.
Stephen Paddock, a reclusive gambler, staked out several outdoor concerts before raining bullets down on a Las Vegas country music festival from his 32nd floor hotel room in October. While his motive remains unclear, his family has a history of mental health issues and he lost a significant amount of wealth in the years leading up to his brutal attack.
Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 people and wounded more than 20 during his November attack at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Previously a member of the U.S. Air Force, Kelley in 2012 was court-martialed for an assault on his wife and stepson. The same year, he escaped from a mental health clinic in New Mexico.
Both of these incidents should have prevented him from purchasing a firearm, but due to a reporting error he was able to obtain the weapon he used in the shooting.
Kelley killed himself moments after he opened fire into the Texas church. It's one of the many instances of mass violence President Donald Trump has blamed on mental health. Trump has also taken aim at the Islamic State terror group, or ISIS, following events of mass violence.
"We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!" he tweeted after Sayfullo Sapov mowed down pedestrians on a Manhattan bike path.
Of the 28 men who committed acts of mass violence in 2017, seven "subscribed to a particular belief system," according to the report. Only two of them were "self-radicalized followers of ISIS."
Most of the incidents in 2017 were carried out using a firearm -- 82 percent of attackers used a gun, 11 percent used a vehicle and about 7 percent used knives, according to the report.
Of the 23 who used firearms, at least 10 possessed those weapons illegally. Two of them were minors and the others were either felons or had some other factor that should have prohibited them from owning a gun.
In the wake of the Parkland school shooting in February and October's Las Vegas massacre -- the deadliest mass public shooting in modern U.S. history -- political leaders have called for a focus on mental health reform to curb similar attacks in the future.
Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack, on the other hand, have called for extensive background checks and gun reform following the Valentine's day shooting.
While only 14 percent of the violent attacks have unfolded at schools, politicians have also recently suggested arming teachers so to protect young students. This stems from the fact that most attacks occur over the span of just minutes.
Half of the incidents unfolded in less than five minutes. Most them, 32 percent ended with law enforcement taking the attacker into custody while 25 percent are apprehended at a different location. Another 29 percent committed suicide as part of the incident and the remaining 14 percent were killed by law enforcement.

Favorite Quote Of The Week

“Democrats are to political courage what Velveeta is to cheese.”

Bill Maher

The Democrats Giving Republicans What They Want

Amidst all the passionate, vile, screaming denunciations of Trump and Republican actions the Democrats are giving the Republicans what they want and not even putting up a good fight. The newest bank bill passed with Democratic votes, but is not based on Democratic principles.

From Democrats voting for Bush's invasion of Iraq to Ms. Warren voting yes on Dr. Carson being the head of HUD these Democrats have not got the convictions of their oratory and they wonder why they find themselves in minority power in government.
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WASHINGTON ― The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill so friendly to banks that even a Republican worried it goes too far.

By a vote of 67-to-31, the Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which is aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on struggling community banks ― even though most such banks are thriving. Supporters also argued that the bill would make it easier for Americans to buy a home by increasing their access to capital.

The measure would also exempt 25 of America’s biggest banks from regulations created in response to the financial crisis that contributed to the Great Recession a decade ago. The Congressional Budget Office warned that the risk of another financial crisis “would be slightly greater under the legislation.”

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In the same tweet he used to unceremoniously fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump announced the twin nominations of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Tillerson’s replacement and CIA veteran Gina Haspel as the new head of the nation’s premier intelligence agency. Haspel, the CIA’s current deputy director, now stands to become the agency’s first female director, despite the fact that she previously supervised a CIA black site where detainees were tortured and was later implicated in the destruction of video evidence of those interrogations.

The news of her nomination was met with mild skepticism by some Democratic senators, but assuming she doesn’t get bottled up behind an impasse over Pompeo, nothing suggests her eventual confirmation is in serious doubt.

While Haspel might be preferable to some hackish alternatives ― either Pompeo’s continued tenure or the nomination of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) ― her confirmation would also represent the culmination of the Democrats’ failure to categorically oppose torture.

Back in 2002, Haspel oversaw the black site in Thailand, where Abu Zubaydah, the man incorrectly thought to have masterminded Sept. 11 attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was allegedly behind the USS Cole attack, were tortured. It was long unclear whether Haspel oversaw just the waterboarding of Nashiri or also the 83 waterboards that Abu Zubaydah endured, long beyond the time he had agreed to talk, though new reports from ProPublica and The New York Times say the latter man was tortured before her time at the helm.

What’s not in dispute is Haspel’s role in the cover-up: Once Abu Zubaydah and Nashiri were shipped to their next stop in a series of black sites, Haspel started her multiyear campaign to destroy the videos that showed their torture, which indisputably contradicted written authorizations and records. Defying the warnings of multiple Democrats, the director of national intelligence and several judges, Haspel in November 2005, as chief of staff for the director of clandestine services, sent a cable ordering officers to stick the tapes into an industrial-strength shredder.

At key moments, Democrats missed their chance to move the country beyond torture.

 

America continues to suffer the consequences of those twin acts, the torture and the cover-up. The torture program, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s massive torture report, provided little useful intelligence, and in notable cases sent officers chasing false leads for months. Numerous detainees (including both Abu Zubaydah and Nashiri) were tortured beyond their ability to provide reliable intelligence. The country’s embrace of torture inflamed the same Muslims we needed as allies to fight terrorism. 

And because of both the torture and the cover-up, the U.S. has failed to achieve justice for either the USS Cole or for Sept. 11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah remains warehoused in Guantanamo Bay, and Nashiri’s own trial has ground to a halt after his defense team discovered their privileged conversations were being spied on.

But Haspel, who advanced from line manager overseeing the imposition of torture to chief of staff for the cover-up, continues to thrive, now poised to run the agency whose reputation she attempted to preserve by destroying evidence.

To be clear: Republicans bear the bulk of the blame for promoting torturers while those who objected were ousted. Former President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney instituted the program, and outspoken torture fan Trump is the guy sponsoring Haspel’s promotion to lead the agency (after she was denied a promotion during the Obama administration).

But at key moments, Democrats missed their chance to move the country beyond torture.

After all, Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama was the first to elevate someone with involvement in the torture program. Even after political pressure about torture prevented Obama from naming veteran CIA officer John Brennan director in 2009, the career CIA official rehabilitated his reputation (in part by overseeing the drone killing program from the White House), and ultimately got the CIA director post in 2013.

President Barack Obama nominates John Brennan to direct the CIA on January 7, 2013.

That same year, Dianne Feinstein ― then chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee ― nixed Brennan’s attempts to make Haspel director of the agency’s clandestine services. But Brennan got his revenge when he, with Obama’s backing, thwarted Feinstein’s efforts for a fulsome declassification of the torture report she fought to complete. Brennan didn’t even face consequences for having staffers from the Senate Intelligence Committee spied on. 

Feinstein’s failure to declassify key details of the torture report ― notably, including the real names or even pseudonyms for the officers involved ― is one thing that prevented an airing of precisely what Haspel did when she was confirmed as deputy director last year. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote a memo for colleagues describing Haspel’s role in the torture program, but the document remains classified, even as Haspel’s champions boast of her successes.

And now not even Feinstein herself is categorically opposed to Haspel’s nomination. “It’s no secret I’ve had concerns in the past with her connection to the CIA torture program and have spent time with her discussing this,” Feinstein said in a Tuesday statement. But she seems inclined to drop her past concerns about a torturer’s continued promotions in favor of competence leading the agency. “To the best of my knowledge she has been a good deputy director and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with her again.”

It may well be, as her supporters argue, that Haspel is the best, most competent, least politicized nominee we’re likely to get from Trump.

But that’s true as much because of what happened under Obama as under Trump. John Brennan’s success, even as critics were sidelined or imprisoned, paved the way for Gina Haspel.

This column has been updated to acknowledge new reporting about Haspel’s involvement with Abu Zubaydah’s torture.

Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog and is the author of “Anatomy of Deceit.” Follow her on Twitter at @emptywheel.

Time For Some Words

How many different vulgar words can the liberals think up to call president Trump?  Is it the oppositions job to prove how nasty they can be inventing new vulgarities for petty, personal, childish attacks?  It seems Democratic hate is at its height and action to actually stop a dangerous demagogue from damaging the country is losing the contest of moral leadership.

Who has been assigned the task of writing the articles of impeachment for president Trump? Where are the petitions with 10's of millions of signatures calling for Trump to resign? Why is there only one man (Mueller) investigating the 100's of accused crimes this president is involved in? When do we stop calling Trump Hitler and start legally proving he is just a simple crook? Where are the 24/7 protests surrounding the White House so vocal that Trump cannot sleep? When do we stop the name calling and start the court proceedings?

There is plenty a minority power can do to check presidential power, but all we seem to be doing is venting hate. The same lack of Democratic leadership that lost the election is allowing this president to bully the world much less the American people. Are we to be satisfied to calling him names instead of stopping his dictatorial behavior?  Inaction is making us the laughing stock of the world and costing us our place of leader of the free world.

One wonders if the weak Democrats can win majority from such a corrupt opposition, or how the Democrats could lose to such a crook in the first place. Leadership is not about giving the people what they claim to want, but leading the people to where they should/must go. Are our people so corrupt that Trump is what they really need and want?

So listen to your favorite talking head spin their tale of presidential nincompoop stupidity and laugh yourself to sleep being satisfied with name calling in the extreme. Does that end give us our selfish satisfaction? Can we wait til the next presidential election to rid our country of this president? The Democrats are letting us down, yet again, and this time we will lose more than an election, or executive power. We will lose our status as the leader of the free world, or worse.