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.

The Beatles

The members of the band were Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The name of the band and the players in the band changed in the early days, but by 1962 the make up of the band members were the previous named players and remained so until they disbanded.

There is so much to be said and understood about the Beatles, the place to start is Wikipedia's page about the band.The output of material is overwhelming and people have spent their lives documenting the Beatles history and music.

I don't believe in, and it's hard to say one example of an art form is the best ever. On one level, it's a matter of personal taste. On multiple levels we can judge the facts and numbers. In the record business that usually means the number of records sold. The Beatles have smashed all of those records, except one. As I wrote under my Bing Crosby post, Bing holds the record for a single record sold at over 100 million copies for "White Christmas." And it's hard to rate, against others, those who create a new style within an art form.

The Beatles "rock and roll" may have started out as contemporary (for their time) music and they did cover songs in the early days, but the musical composition team of McCartney/Lennon created a whole new style of music. Great music! That makes them great and exempt from, and superior to comparisons of other bands of their time.    

The Beatles were excellent, progressive musicians individually and perfection as a band together. Although, you would never be able to tell that watching the video below, which is the earliest video recording of the Beatles in 1962 at the Cavern Club, and they had been playing together for a while by then.

The Beatles first came to America in 1964, but they were huge stars by then. A conscience decision by the band to wait until they were successful before they appeared in America. The fanaticism surrounding the band was started in England and Europe and American teenagers were just copying and extending what became known as Beatlemania.

The phenomenon of the Beatlemania effect was not new to American audiences, or world audiences. Women used to scream and faint at Frank Sinatra concerts and similar reactions happened with Bing Crosby, Rudy Valli, Caruso, and other musical acts throughout history. Having said that, there was never anything like Beatlemania. It literally made personal appearances all but impossible for the band. The audience could barely hear the music over the screaming and going to one of their movies in a theater was the same. I personally experienced both. I was not one of the screamers and I was amazed by the audience reaction. 

When listening to Beatles music, I prefer and advise, listening to studio cuts. There are plenty of live recorded cuts, but it's hard to hear all the quality music being played. The fads they started, the hair cuts, etc., etc.....are all things an adoring public has followed with other popular musical acts and personalities, but not to the same extreme.

                                                Ed Sullivan Show February 1964.

                                                  "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

                                  Three years later in 1967 this is, "Hello Goodby"

                 The last appearance as a band together. The rooftop of Apple studios.

                                                            January 30, 1969

       . 

In September 1969 John Lennon privately informed the other Beatles that he was leaving the group, there was no public acknowledgement of the break-up until Paul McCartney announced on 10 April 1970 he was leaving the Beatles.

There were sporadic collaborative recording efforts among the band members (Ringo Starr's 1973 album Ringo was the only time that the four – albeit on separate tracks – appeared on the same album post-break-up), although all four Beatles never simultaneously collaborated as a recording or performing group again; Starr's 1976 album Ringo's Rotogravure is the last post-break-up album on which all four Beatles contribute and are credited: besides Starr's drumming and songwriting contributions, Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison all composed one track apiece. After Lennon's death in 1980, McCartney and Starr appeared on Harrison's single "All Those Years Ago", and the trio reunited for the Anthology project in 1994, using two unfinished Lennon demos – "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" – for what would be new songs to be recorded and released as the Beatles.

There are all sorts of stories about why the Beatles broke up including (and most importantly) from the Beatles themselves. There is a fine line between love and hate, which we see in our own families. The Beatles were best buddies, they were a family, they loved each other. If negative things were said, that happens sometimes. The love is still there.

John Lennon was assassinated outside his home in New York on December 8, 1980 by a nut with a gun. Unfortunately, a rather common happening in America.

George Harrison died November 29, 2001, after a long battle with cancer.

I think it's sad that McCartney does not own his own music. I thought he might get a chance to buy it all when Michael Jackson died, but I haven't heard anything about the issue. 

The numbers tell us McCartney/Lennon were the greatest music composing collaboration ever. Their music tells us they were geniuses who sang about love in their own way. The music did not die for them when the Beatles broke up. They all were very popular and successful after the Beatles, creating great music. It all happened within ten years, which makes it even more amazing. If you wonder what it was all about, listen to the music. 

Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson; their cousin Mike Love; and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era.

The Beach Boys began as a garage band managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, with Brian's increasingly sophisticated songwriting and recording abilities dominating their creative direction. Emerging at the vanguard of the "California Sound", they performed original material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics and multi-layered sounds. In 1966, the Pet Sounds (link on side bar under full albums) album and "Good Vibrations" single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era.

                                                             Fun, Fun, Fun

                                                             I Get Around

                                                           Good Vibrations

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He recorded his first album in 1969, called "12 String Blues."

Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone described by himself as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".

This song is from his album "Mudlark" released in 1971. It's called "Eight Miles High" and is one of the songs he sings on. I don't agree with his description of his voice, but his voice is unique. Leo got started in Minneapolis playing the Scholar coffeehouse. I grew up in Minneapolis and have been a fan since his early days when I got a chance to get to know him. He is an excellent guitarist and composer.

 

New Tax Law

The Republicans have finally passed their only significant legislation, their tax bill is now law. Tax law that gives 83% of its benefit to the top 1% of income earners. We can debate the particulars on political grounds, but the Republicans are in majority and that is the power of a political majority. It cannot be debated that this tax law will increase the debt by at least 1-1/2 Trillion dollars and probably more, which is concrete proof that Republicans have lied about being deficit hawks. A lie they have been saying for decades as their previous budgets and laws have racked up trillions of dollars of debt for the United States.

Then there is the lie that trickle down benefits will come from these tax cuts to businesses. Like these tax cuts will create new jobs by allowing corporations to keep more profits, thus able to hire more workers. Of course we know from the experience of the last 50 years that that is simply a lie. Not to mention that any debt (like 1-1/2 trillion) is obscene when we already have a 20 trillion dollar debt. It is the height of irresponsibility for any Congress to vote for such a bill.

Then there is the issue of the actual deaths that will be caused directly by this new law and that includes thousands of children. That's nothing new, the United States Congress have been passing laws that directly caused the death of its citizens for a couple of hundred years and lets not forget the genocide of Native Americans and the barbaric and fatal enslavement practices backed by United State law until the Emancipation Proclamation. We have proven that our character as a people is that of violence and death; and that we actually vote for laws that cause violence and death.

Trump is not the most racist, hate filled, bigoted, man who could care less about American lives ever elected president of the United States, but we had hoped his kind were in our past and he certainly is unhealthy and dangerous to be our president in 2017. The saddest part is that enough Americans agreed with this slob (Trump) that he was voted president of the United States and only by 1-1/2 % did a State almost vote for a pedophile for national Senator.

The people get the leadership they vote for (deserve). Our biggest problem is ourselves. Hopefully our Justice system will save us from ourselves, but Trump is trying to obstruct that process also.

Churchill once said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." 

Like a drunk having to end up in the gutter before he pulls himself out of the gutter, but by then he has ruined his life.      

The Liberals Keep The Hate Going

The liberals, who claim they are the party of morals and character, keep proving they are as hate filled as the Republicans they claim are Nazi like.

Obama has now jumped on the hate band wagon and inferred the Nazi scare lie about president Trump. Trump is many vile things including an accused sexual molester, but he hasn't got the brains to be another Hitler. That kind of evil needs some level of intelligence, which Trump has none of. 

RN of the blog Rational Nation (anything but rational) new post claims Trump keeps a copy of Hitler's book (Mein Kamph) next to his bed. RN cites his supposed reliable source, but as it turns out that claim is a simple lie. More liberal hate, which only exacerbates the hate in the country and proves nothing but liberals can lie as well as Republicans.

The liberals spent eight years calling Bush Hitler and wonder why they couldn't enlarge their voting base. They offered up Hillary from the Clinton machine who was supposed to be a shoe in and lost to an unknown Senator from Illinois.

It was the Clinton machine that first cast the accusation that Obama was not American born and Trump turned that lie into a multi year hate campaign that finally helped him win the presidency, again beating the supposed shoe in Hillary. Hillary has to be one of the biggest losers in American political history and another loss for a corrupt political machine.

The Democrats are still in minority in Congress with no sign of that changing in the next mid-term election. The Democrats are in such bad shape they can't even convince the country they are better leaders than the morally bankrupt, lying Republicans.

We can be grateful that the Republicans can't seem to put their majority to good use and pass all sorts of hurtful legislation. The tax bill, which is not law yet, would be the first real piece of legislation the Republicans might pass, that certainly will hurt the United States.   

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young

Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. They were known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, who was an occasional fourth member. Great music! The full album (Deja vu) these songs are from is on my side posts.

                                                                Woodstock

                                                                   Carry On