There are so many weird things about the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre that they can make your head spin. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination - I'm the opposite, if there is such a critter! - but I have more than a passing knowledge of what's generally called "tradecraft", based on military training and experience, working with "interesting people" from the foreign equivalent of three-letter agencies, and some exposure to law enforcement. All that background is causing my eyebrows to rise into my hairline when I read what's coming out about the Las Vegas tragedy.
Aesop, over at Raconteur Report, has done an excellent job of putting together the questions that worry him. (They worry me, too, as they do many colleagues and friends who are as well or better trained and experienced, including some very highly qualified people with very "interesting" backgrounds.) In chronological order, see these posts. It's worth reading all of them, but if you're pushed for time, the third, fifth and sixth are particularly interesting.
I'm not suggesting that a US government agency or agencies was/were behind the Las Vegas incident. However, I am suggesting that there are so many unexplained actions, events, "coincidences" and the like, that I don't see how this could possibly be a typical "lone wolf" terrorist action. There was too much planning, organization, etc. They must have taken months. This was no sudden, impulsive act. Either this guy was a sort of "super-lone-wolf" with (for a civilian) a truly amazing knowledge of tradecraft (not just the theory, but actually putting it into practice, and doing it so well - at the level of a highly experienced agent, in some cases - that he could be used as a case study at Quantico or Langley) . . . or he had help from a person or persons with that level of knowledge. If neither is true, then how the hell did he get all his ducks so neatly and professionally in a row?
There's also the fact that the shooter's equipment, tactics, etc. seem to dot all the i's and cross all the t's of hot-button gun control talking points. I could understand it if there was a measure of correlation, but there are so many "coincidences" that it's almost suspicious. I could be wrong, of course . . . but one does wonder. Could this man have been set up as an agent provocateur, to kick-start a previously failing agenda? I hear from some of my former colleagues in law enforcement that the same question is being asked in certain official circles. We shall see, I suppose.
(By the way, Donald Sensing does his usual superb job of analyzing the Las Vegas tragedy in the light of the gun control debate, and bringing reason and logic to bear on it. Go read the whole thing. It's worth your time.)
I have many questions. There are - at least at present - very few answers. I suspect the coming weeks and months will be more than interesting, as the investigation progresses.
Peter
Suspicious as all get-out and even granting all the claims as true, makes me think I really need to re-read Estabrooks at the very least.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Sensing is just another "I support gun rights but..." guy. Read the part where he says machine guns should be based on rate of fire and then think about Jerry what's-his-name who can empty a six-shot revolver in under 2 seconds. Now all revolvers become MG's? I don't think so. Screw Donny and his horse...
ReplyDeleteOh well, I suppose it is true that sometimes life imitates art. But why it had to be "Unintended consequences" this time? I, for one, would strongly prefer "Wind in the willows".
ReplyDeleteseems to me a retired guy might have nothing better to do than plan this thing out. It's not like he did anything that difficult.
ReplyDeletePer the daily mail:
ReplyDeleteStephen Paddock was prescribed anti-anxiety medication in June, records show
He was taking tablets of diazepam - or Valium - which can trigger aggression
Hypothese:
ReplyDeleteOCD guy with anxiety issues and criminal Father, smart enough to have enough money to buy 2 planes, anti Trump per Pamela Geller video of him at demonstration, decided to push gun control by causing a huge massacre.
Amazing how a lot of these type events, non Islamic, involve anti anxiety medicine... 3 off top of my head.
Ditto on what Ray said. Virtually all of the mass shooters involve psych meds and an absent father.
ReplyDeleteBut: has anyone else noticed that the Vegas shooting is following exactly the plot of Matt Bracken's novel, Enemies Foreign And Domestic?
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/matthew-bracken/enemies-foreign-and-domestic.htm
What little we know about him does not fit the usual profile. At all.
ReplyDeleteThere is something very strange here. In many respects, the guy is an enigma. Some odd stuff is going to come out of this, if the government adequately investigates this and accurately communicates with the public on a non partisan level. I fear they will spin the conclusions to match a agenda.
The large number of weapons found would back up the idea this was done as a gun control excuse- there is simply no need to have a dozen firearms in his room, especially as every one increases the odds of being discovered by accident.
The fact the shooter supposedly killed himself is aberrant behavior on the part of a gun control true believer- I have never heard one of them that was willing to die for their belief.
Honestly, he sound a lot like Charles Whitman. Extremely intelligent, with a violent, abusive father. Liked to gamble. Undoubtedly a psychopath, probably enjoyed killing people.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman
I'm not seeing much need for a conspiracy theory here. We don't understand his motives because we aren't evil psychopaths like him.
Massacres where the Gunman took anti Depressants:
ReplyDelete- Columbine
- Virginia Tech
- Newtown, Conn.
- Naval shipyard
It seems there are a lot more. Loughner (Gabby Giffords Shooting) I am not sure about, but he was schizophrenic.
I'm not saying Hillary Clinton was behind it, but...
ReplyDelete1) Valium is a benzodiazepine, in use for decades, and nothing like Prozac or the usual psych medications.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't, for instance, make you plan an elaborate suicide ritual, requiring days of on-site preps, and months of planning and acquisitions.
2) He had two planes at his disposal. He could have crashed into a 747 trying to land. Or nailed a crowded stadium during a football or baseball game.
He could have plowed into the same concert crowd on a "missed approach" at McCarran, and killed hundreds to thousands, mowing them down like ninepins. He was an instrument-rated pilot, with a well-lit outdoor target bigger than a football field, with 22,000 unsuspecting victims. He would have achieved vastly more deaths and injuries than the shooting did.
3) He brought 23 guns to the suite. At least 21 of which were evidently nothing but props.
4) He owned the approach corridor to his rooms. His main suite double doors faced down a 40-yd long arrow straight corridor all the way to the central elevator stack.
His side room pointed right at the stairwell access 10' across the hall.
He had enough furniture in the rooms he rented to make bulletproof barriers in front of both doors yards thick from behind which to shoot.
When his concert victims scattered, he could have spent an hour chewing up SWAT cops like a terrier in a rat pit, until he either ran out of ammunition, or died of boredom at the game.
He did none of this, yet we're supposed to believe he decided this month to gun down nearly 600 people in a homicidal/suicidal orgy of legendary proportions because...no reason, really.
Simply nothing in the narratives they keep trying to weave adds up in this case.
I fear we may never know all the details. Certainly not his motives... And that is agrivating as Hell.
ReplyDeleteWhat will NEVER be admitted by .gov or he media whores is Paddock was a left wing anti Trumper. There is video from an anti Trump rally in Reno last year (Paddock owned a house in Reno and his girlfriend worked at a casino in Reno) showing two people who look JUST LIKE them at this rally with another protester addressing him with the words " Hi Steve". There is little doubt this was politically motivated. But it doesn't serve the agenda of the media, the left or the deep state traitors so it WILL BE COVERED UP.
ReplyDeleteOh, I dunno.....
ReplyDeletePeter, how about calling on our deeper background and theorizing possession by Satan?
Michael Savage(with a couple doctorates behind his name) had an interesting monolog on his show today where he spoke about just what valium was originally proscribed for and the side effects it has.
ReplyDeleteI love how all these "suppressed information" nuggets are becoming available, especially when the seem to support the existing views of their readers. Has anyone blamed the Clinton Foundation yet? Or George Soros? What about the Illuminati? The Trilateral Commission?
ReplyDeleteIt's a very human instinct to try to make sense of the unthinkable, but sometimes we have to wait, and sometimes we never get answers. Better to be left in confusion than to be assured with false answers.
I have a different kind of question, Peter. I've seen no evidence of a "black op" by the government. All indications are that Paddock was acting alone, having prepared for his heinous act months in advance.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that this latest revelation of the depths that human depravity can reach has me seriously depressed. It is very painful to contemplate that this mass murderer and myself are members of the same species. Can you suggest anything to help me feel better?
From what I've read there's little that hasn't been in one thriller - TV or book - or another before. Shooting from a tower block was done at the end of season one of The West Wing, for instance.
ReplyDelete@froginblender: Sadly, no, I can't.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, some news articles this morning are both interesting and relevant. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/04/vegas-shooter-planned-to-survive-and-escape-after-deadly-attack-police-say.html
ReplyDeletehttp://dailycaller.com/2017/10/04/fbi-agent-we-have-multiple-leads-in-u-s-and-all-across-the-world-video/
Quoting from the second link, 'FBI special agent Aaron Rouse said at a press conference Wednesday that the FBI has leads in the investigation of the Las Vegas shooting “all across the United States and all across the world.”' That's . . . interesting.
Amazing info from John Ringo on drug interactions:
ReplyDeletehttps://m.facebook.com/notes/john-ringo/a-theory-on-las-vegas/10155111388257055/
Another article in drug interaction from daily mail:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4947276/Stephen-Paddock-prescribed-Valium-Vegas-massacre.html