@1
Interesting that when you click the youtube link that PCR provides you get the message:
“This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.”

Posted by: spudski | Oct 8 2017 18:07 utc | 3

4chan has a thread(s) on this. Lot of tosh, naturally, but a lot that appeals to a sense of cause & effect.
https://voat.co/v/4chan/2172732

Posted by: ruralito | Oct 8 2017 18:15 utc | 5

MYSTERIES SURROUNDING LAS VEGAS KILLINGS
By Richard Galustian
There are more questions than answers at this point.
Many come from Hotel Guest Brian Hodge who was in the next room number 32134 to the alleged Vegas Shooter, Stephen Paddock, who was in room 32135.
The alleged shooter, Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Paddock hid himself in the casino hotel room with 10 guns, for several days, with housekeeping visiting every day, none of the weapons were known to have been high powered scoped automatic weapons, where he is said to have shot from the 32nd floor over 500 meters away,a long way, on a concert crowd who were at ground level, massacring 58 and wounding 527 others.
Technically there are many questions that beg answers regarding this alleged scenario. Too numerous to bother mentioning. Such readers research.
But in part the narrative of the case has been blown wide open after Brian Hodge, who was staying next door to Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, came forward, to an Australian newspaper, with some details he witnessed.
When frantic calls began to pour into the Las Vegas Police Emergency number 911 that night with news of an active shooting taking place at the concert near the hotel, several initial eye witnesses claimed when they called 911 that there were multiple shooters firing down upon the crowd.
All 911 calls are recorded.
There are literally thousands of CCTV camera’s in and around a casino. All have been confiscated
For some reason, the mainstream media keeps pushing the narrative that there was only one shooter involved, even though mounting evidence is starting to indicate otherwise.
The Australian man Brian Hodge was staying in the room next to Paddock.
After hearing gun fire while in an elevator going up to his room, he pushed the ground floor button and Hodge and others rushed to hide in the bushes and called 911 for help.
Hodge then told Australian Press something shocking; that he was certain that this massacre was not carried out by Stephen Paddock alone because he says there were multiple hotel staff dead in the hotel as well as multiple shooters. “I was just hiding waiting for police to come get us. He is the only one to say there was more than one gunman. We were hiding in the bushes outside waiting for the police over 5 minutes.” adding he thought from the sounds that there was one “machine gun” from his floor. He said the whole floor is vacant now as a crime scene but he emphatically said someone in uniform “killed the security guard on my floor.”
Hodge isn’t the only person who believes there was more than one shooter that carried out the massacre.
Many people judged the sounds, though in such an environment with echoes are difficulty to assess. Many former and current military, some British, personnel in the crowd believe that there was more than one shooter – the shooting went on for 10 minutes until the authorities claim to have broke into the 32nd floor where Paddock allegedly shot himself in the head. Then photographed the scene in the room including a dead Stephen Paddock and immediately made those pictures available to the public. A curious think for law enforcement to do.
Why would a retired accountant, a millionaire, with no criminal history, who according to his own family, didn’t even like guns, suddenly decide to commit the worst mass-casualty shooting in United States history?
Even respected Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy is scoffing at the narrative that this was carried out by a lone shooter.
Now to answe the question asked by MoA; a guess at a motive.
My hypothesis is this. An email supposedly exists, now no where to be found, that circulated in the first hour of the shootings by someone claiming to be a disgruntled local FBI agent is chilling, and supports the theory that there was in fact more than one shooter. In this alleged anonymously written email that was said to have been sent by an FBI agent, the text appears to reveal a conspiracy of Benghazi-level/’Fast and Furious’ proportions.
The hypothesis is that the shooter(s) were actually FBI agents who were involved in a gun running scheme also similar to the shenanigans in Benghazi to Syria.
But obviously things unfortunately didn’t go as planned.
Such stings are very often used to draw out buyers who are then arrested.
A screenshot of the email was seen by a source and a note of its contents made; it read: “The LVMPD knows the motive behind the attack, but the FBI will not allow us to release the motive because it implicates the FBI in illegal arms deals and negotiations with ISIS terrorists within U.S. borders.”
“Stephen Paddock was, must have been, an undercover FBI agent or more likely a civilian willing participant, more than just an informant, probably was the point man for many stings and he’d done it before. His participation was a perfect cover as a ‘high roller’, for multiple illegal arms deals in the Las Vegas area in a gun running entrapment scheme very similar to ‘Fast and Furious’.
The theory goes Paddock thought he was engaging in another routine arms entrapment, but ISIS operatives who were going to meet him learned, or were tipped off, about the entrapment scheme and Paddock’s true identity.
They instantly killed him in his room and carried out the massacre partly from
His room and a 4th floor room they must have had, and then fled the scene.”
The 4th floor (and exact room) is beyond doubt due to video footage.
The email concluded that some people within the LV police department are “disgusted” and are “pushing for this information to be released to the public.”
While this email cannot be confirmed as being written by an actual FBI agent at this time, this conclusion of what still is a theory makes sense.
It’s entirely possible that this was a gun-running scheme gone wrong because of the sheer quantity of guns found in Paddock’s room and home; nearly a hundred.
Remember that ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. After months of targeting Las Vegas, perhaps ISIS had the opportunity to finally carry out an attack. But they must have had some help.
Back in May, ISIS released a 44-minute-long video of the strip in Las Vegas, calling on their supporters to carry out attacks on this area.
A small but important point is all the windows of all Vegas hotels are extremely thick and cannot be opened, the thickness to withstand hurricanes. Yes they could be smashed by high calibre bullets I guess but I’m not a ballistics expert so don’t know what it would take to break this windows.
More facts and evidence will unfold no doubt in the coming weeks but that this was the act of a ‘lone gunman’, like Lee Harvey Oswald, is as ridiculous saying LHO only killed Kennedy.
Don’t hold your breath though. We still don’t know the truth of that lie and that happened in 1963!

Posted by: Richard | Oct 8 2017 18:20 utc | 7

A rational motive? The entire US is hitting peak-irrational. We’re trained in FPS games, we’re armed, we’re medicated into a stupor, and we’re ready! To fucking murder each other! Hey, what’s good for America’s enemies is good for Americans, right? As for motive we might rather ask, who has promoted this perfect storm?

Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 8 2017 18:21 utc | 9

As per the PCR article linked to @1, a google image search and a search on twitter turned up no images of injured or dead people. Thousands of people at a concert with their iphones and whatever and nothing on social media?
@7’s senario seems more likely – some sort of a deal gone wrong and a shootout between two groups, perhaps mostly with the casino, which is now being coverred up for whatever reason.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 8 2017 18:43 utc | 11

TYPOS AND MISTAKES CORRECTED SO THIS SUPERSEDES PREVIOUS PIECE WITH SAME TOTLE 15 minutes ago – SORRY!
MYSTERIES SURROUNDING LAS VEGAS KILLINGS
By Richard Galustian
There are more questions than answers at this point.
Many come from Hotel Guest Brian Hodge who was in the next room number 32134 to the alleged Vegas Shooter, Stephen Paddock, who was in room 32135.
The alleged shooter, Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Paddock hid himself in the casino hotel room with 10 guns, for several days, with housekeeping visiting every day, none of the weapons were known to have been high powered scoped automatic weapons, where he is said to have shot from the 32nd floor over 500 meters away, a long way, on a concert crowd who were at ground level, massacring 58 and wounding 527 others.
Technically there are many questions that beg answers regarding this alleged scenario. Too numerous to bother mentioning. Suggest readers research.
But in part the narrative of the case has been blown wide open after Brian Hodge, who was staying next door to Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, came forward, to an Australian newspaper, with some details he witnessed.
When frantic calls began to pour into the Las Vegas Police Emergency number 911 that night with news of an active shooting taking place at the concert near the hotel, several initial eye witnesses claimed when they called 911 that there were multiple shooters firing down upon the crowd.
All 911 calls are recorded.
There are literally thousands of CCTV camera’s in and around a casino. All have been confiscated
For some reason, the mainstream media keeps pushing the narrative that there was only one shooter involved, even though mounting evidence is starting to indicate otherwise.
The Australian man Brian Hodge was staying in the room next to Paddock.
After hearing gun fire while in an elevator going up to his room, he pushed the ground floor button and Hodge and others rushed to hide in the bushes and called 911 for help.
Hodge then told Australian Press something shocking; that he was certain that this massacre was not carried out by Stephen Paddock alone because he says there were multiple hotel staff dead in the hotel as well as multiple shooters. “I was just hiding waiting for police to come get us. He is not the only one to say there was more than one gunman. We were hiding in the bushes outside waiting for the police over 5 minutes.” adding he thought from the sounds that there was one “machine gun” from his floor. He said the whole floor is vacant now as a crime scene but he emphatically said someone in uniform “killed the security guard on my floor.”
Hodge isn’t the only person who believes there was more than one shooter that carried out the massacre.
Many people judged so though the sounds in such an environment with echoes are difficulty to assess. Many former and current military, some British, personnel in the crowd believe that there was more than one shooter – the shooting went on for 10 minutes until the authorities claim to have broke into the 32nd floor where Paddock allegedly shot himself in the head. Then photographed the scene in the room including a dead Stephen Paddock and immediately made those pictures available to the public. A curious thing for law enforcement to do.
Why would a retired accountant, a millionaire, with no criminal history, who according to his own family, didn’t even like guns, suddenly decide to commit the worst mass-casualty shooting in United States history?
Even respected Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy is scoffing at the narrative that this was carried out by a lone shooter.
Now to answe the question asked by MoA; a guess at a motive.
My hypothesis is this. It’s triggered by an alleged email, now no where to be found, that circulated amongst a small group of law enforcement on the ground in the first hour of the shootings by someone claiming to be a disgruntled local FBI agent is chilling, and supports the theory that there was more than one shooter. In this alleged anonymously written email that was said to have been sent by an FBI agent, the text appears to reveal a conspiracy of Benghazi-level/’Fast and Furious’ proportions.
The hypothesis is that those involved were actually FBI agents who were engaged in a gun running scheme also similar to the shenanigans in Benghazi and weapons exports from there to Syria.
But obviously things unfortunately didn’t go as planned.
Such stings are very often used to draw out buyers who are then arrested.
A screenshot of the email was seen by a source and a note of its contents made; it read: “The LVMPD knows the motive behind the attack, but the FBI will not allow us to release the motive because it implicates the FBI in illegal arms deals and negotiations with ISIS terrorists within U.S. borders.”
“Stephen Paddock was, must have been, an undercover FBI agent or more likely a civilian willing participant, more than just an informant, probably was the point man for many stings and he’d done it before. His participation was a perfect cover as a ‘high roller’, for multiple illegal arms deals in the Las Vegas area in a gun running entrapment scheme very similar to ‘Fast and Furious’.
My theory goes Paddock thought he was engaging in another routine arms entrapment, but ISIS operatives who were going to meet him learned, or were tipped off, about the entrapment scheme and Paddock’s true identity.
They instantly killed him in his room and carried out the massacre partly from
His room and a 4th floor room they must have had, and then fled the scene.”
The 4th floor (and exact room) is beyond doubt due to video footage. Who was booked in that 4th floor room with the broken window?
The email concluded that some people within the LV police department are “disgusted” and are “pushing for this information to be released to the public.”
While this email cannot be confirmed as being written by an actual FBI agent at this time, this conclusion of what still is a theory makes sense.
It’s entirely possible that this was a gun-running scheme gone wrong because of the sheer quantity of guns found in Paddock’s room and home; nearly a hundred.
Remember that ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. After months of targeting Las Vegas, perhaps ISIS had the opportunity to finally carry out an attack. But they must have had some help.
Back in May, ISIS released a 44-minute-long video of the strip in Las Vegas, calling on their supporters to carry out attacks on this area.
A small but important point is all the windows of all Vegas hotels are extremely thick and cannot be opened, the thickness to withstand hurricanes. Yes they could be smashed by high calibre bullets I guess but I’m not a ballistics expert so don’t know what it would take to break this windows.
More facts and evidence will unfold no doubt in the coming weeks but that this was the act of a ‘lone gunman’, like Lee Harvey Oswald, is as ridiculous saying LHO only killed Kennedy.
Don’t hold your breath though. We still don’t know the truth of that lie and that happened in 1963!
Posted by: Richard | Oct 8, 2017

Posted by: Richard | Oct 8 2017 18:58 utc | 13

I’m just thinking of that old Boomtown Rats song: “And you can see no reasons, ’cause there are no reasons, what reason do you need to be shown?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yteMugRAc0
Personally I think that insisting on a rational motive for all human behaviour is the swiftest and surest path to irrationality. That’s basically what conspiracy theories are. That’s what most ideologies are. An attempt to erect a structure around chaos to make it reducible to order. The problem is, the assumptions you have to make in order to make the world into a coherent pattern become progressively more bonkers.

Posted by: Grimgrin | Oct 8 2017 19:02 utc | 15

@Richard thanks for the detailed post.It’s very conclusive.I hadn’t read your post when I posted my first comment.

Posted by: Theo | Oct 8 2017 19:03 utc | 17

Video shows shots fired from 4th floor, not 32nd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMDNtboxEBo

Posted by: JSonofa | Oct 8 2017 19:48 utc | 19

No more discussion worth the time. The “crisis actor” ads for the vegas fake have been resurrected and can be found on the web. No other speculation matters one whit. The whole thing was a large fake. One 20 minute video proves that the “shots” were on a looped tape, they keep coming on, over and over, mostly long after the place was emptied out of people.
It’s a fake. The whole purpose, like the rest of these false flags in the U.S. is to declare martial law and confiscate the American citizens’ guns, one of the very last bulwarks against world conquest, total world enslavement of mankind. Time the America haters realized that.

Posted by: Tony B. | Oct 8 2017 19:50 utc | 21

Psychosis.
If that is ruled out, then we search for conspiracy.
Also, is the psychotic behavior organic or was it induced.
Then we search for conspiracy.
That’s the rational approach for “motive”.
The Unibomber, Zodiak Killer, Son of Sam, et al. Psychos. What was motive? No one asks once the psycho is known. They are known by deeds, not Why.

Posted by: Red Ryder | Oct 8 2017 19:52 utc | 23

Easy to determine if paddock fired those weapons as much residual gunpowder would be all over his hands and clothing. The entrapment scenario begs the question: Why transfer the weapons et al at a casino hotel? Also, where are the blown-out 4th floor windows? Paddock had the corner suite and an adjoining room, which explains the distance between broken windows, likely burst out with an explosive.
But still no motive. The act was premeditated as proven by his behavior toward his lover–well insulated via distance and monetarily well endowed–and I bet she has an extensive, pricy jewelry collection. Plus he had more gear in his car–I’ve heard mention of a getaway plan, but haven’t seen it in print. Perhaps his attitude toward Vegas changed and he decided to taint it forever from a moral standpoint–something that couldn’t ever just be kept within Vegas–but without any manifesto, how is anyone supposed to get that message. Do twisted people do exceptionally evil, preplanned things just to do them? The answer appears to be yes based on previous examples.
As I wrote earlier, it’s very hard to discern small but important facts not being at the crime scene. At full-auto, an AR-15/M-16 can fire over 2,000 rounds per minute; 10, 100 round magazines could easily be fired and reloaded during the 10-minute firing spree. He had means, opportunity, ability, but we cannot discern motive.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 8 2017 20:01 utc | 25

Well, b it’s good to see that you’ve moved away from your “just another shooting” opinion (not that guns are not a problem, but …)

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 8 2017 20:10 utc | 27

There have been a number of erroneous theories – some fueled by comments from the police – that have been debunked or never made sense.
1. Second shooter / multiple shooters

>> Changing sound of gunfire
The sound changed because the shooter fired at least two types of weapons with different sizes of ammunition and out of two windows.
>> Flashing light from the fourth floor window
The window was not broken (so no bullets from there). The flashing light was also said to have been seen when Paddock was not firing (so it wasn’t a reflection).
>> Gunmen in the concert venue
There may have been some police or citizens that had a gun and pulled them out when it became there that the concert was under attack. There are few claims of shooting from these gun holders but police have not said that there was anyone firing into the crowd other than Paddock/Patsy.

2. Paddock had help
Is mostly based on his having 10 or more heavy bags that were brought up to the room. He likely had a bellhop bring the bags up and he didn’t have to bring them all up at once.
3 Paddock expected to survive/escape
Is apparently mostly based on his having a significant amount of ammunition and explosives in his car.
Survive/escape is also consistent with the Patsy theory. The Patsy never thinks that HE is a target.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 8 2017 21:06 utc | 29

How on earth is it irrational to keep the masses locked into a state of mindless fear?
Not only is it rational, rule by fear, it is also the well worn m/o and hallmark of the zionist shadow elite, which can not be reigned if our best even ‘journalists, ‘ can not ascribe to them their psychopathic motives.
Picture fuzzy slippers stomping on your face, interspersed with real and invented instances of mass murder… forever.
Truthfully, some folks think it’s a pretty good deal.

Posted by: C I eh? | Oct 8 2017 21:20 utc | 31

Congressman Trey Gowdy is probably the most intelligent and honest men in Congress. I guess you must know all the other idiots.

Posted by: Richard | Oct 8 2017 21:20 utc | 33

Suicidal-homicidal is a pretty common psychosis.
Guy was depressed, wanted to kill himself – kills his whole family too. This is a woefully common occurrence, no big conspiracy theory required to explain it. This Paddock character – looks like his family was the Las Vegas scene, that’s all he had going on in his life. Having no criminal record, he was able to acquire a large arsenal of weapons and ammo, end of story.
Nobody claims the Saudis bombing a marketplace in Yemen and killing a hundred people and wounding 500 is some conspiracy theory; when some ISIS suicide bomber attacks a funeral in Baghdad and kills several hundred, we never hear about conspiracy theories – but oh, “how could it happen here?”
People living in a bubble, that’s all it is. One mortar round into a Las Vegas concert crowd would have killed just as many people. One 500 pound bomb dropped by a fighter jet, same deal. One suicide bomber with a truck packed full of explosives. This guy just happened to have a bunch of assault rifles modified for high rates of fire.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Oct 8 2017 21:23 utc | 35

The whole “jihadi- like beard” thing is rather crass no? I mean it’s absurd. He has the typical Latino facial hair style. Not some bushy jihadi beard. I’m getting a little angry even typing this out. Either you have never been to the US, or you have too much time on your hands, or both but all of that shit you posted was racist at best. Is Rita Katz paying you? 😉

Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 8 2017 21:32 utc | 37

“they are gonna take away our guns now!” meanwhile, back on planet earth, nothing ever happens on gun control & gun sales go thru the roof w/each of these incidents.
arming the populace is part of the agenda. the US floods the world w/guns. b/c the NRA crowd is all talk about armed resistance to the gov’t, and Uncle Sam knows it, the intent of gun saturation in the US is that people will turn against each other. just like in Baghdad, Juarez, etc. the belief that guns are the bulwark of liberty is about the stupidest thing anyone has ever said.
can’t comment in the shooter, but it’s curious that when popular resistance to the police state gets active like in St. Louis, some incident occurs to get trembling people tearfully to crawl back up & snuggle in Big Bro’s loving breast.

Posted by: dumbname | Oct 8 2017 21:59 utc | 39

There were several eye witness reports of multiple shooters including someone in security garb. Including in Australian mainstream media of testimony by Aussies who were there, one – a Mr Hodges – had the room next to Stephen Paddock.
This video reportedly repeatedly censored on YouTube, clearly (albeit briefly because the photographer turned away to seek protection) shows a man in security jacket firing automatic gunfire point blank into the crowd that scatters away from him. It’s on this website: http://www.stillnessinthestorm.com/2017/10/vegas-shooting-censored-footage-of-security-guard-shooter-automatic-gunfire-heard-at-ground-level-videos.html?m=1
Warning it’s disturbing.

Posted by: Anoncommentator | Oct 8 2017 22:09 utc | 41

Maybe somebody else was the shooter and kidnapped paddock, then killed him and tried to trick the police into thinking he was the killer.

Posted by: Edward | Oct 8 2017 22:25 utc | 43

http://thenewyorknewsday.com/2017/10/06/las-vegas-shooting-victim-i-was-shot-by-a-gunman-in-the-crowd-read-more-at/#
More eye witness reports leaking into main stream media.

Posted by: ThatDamnGood | Oct 8 2017 22:28 utc | 45

@ 35 How do you know he was depressed?
Whot told you that?
Posted by: Lochearn | Oct 8, 2017 6:04:45 PM | 40
Go to any search engine, like Duck Duck Go, (kind of tired of Google manipulation myself) and enter this:
man kills family and himself
You get thousands of examples. That’s just what it looks like to me. Not really uncommon. No need for conspiracy to explain all those murderers, is there? There’s just a certain fraction of psychotic types. The ones who end up in political office, and go on to start wars, those are the ones you have to worry about. 400,000 people killed in Syria – this guy didn’t even come close.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Oct 8 2017 22:34 utc | 47

Your first mistake jackrabbit, is believing the “hero” media hype. Yes, he has CLASSIC Latino facial hair. I mean. Anyway I don’t think he’s relevant at all, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He got away lucky but it’s a case of “spray and pray” on the part of the shooter, who was apparently shooting blindly, not shenanigans that saved him.
As for the rest of it, I haven’t made up my mind. There are sooooo many possibilities that might implicate others’ involvement but ISIS, or, “Latino ISIS” just isn’t on my radar at all, sorry. It’s silly.

Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 8 2017 22:45 utc | 49

nonsense factory @47:

man kills family and himself

But there’s a reason why they get depressed. Loss of job. Financial stress. And often a history of abusive behavior. They have found nothing like that with Paddock.
And his planning makes the “just snapped” explanation moot.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 8 2017 22:50 utc | 51

At ZH someone noted that the independently-operated, partially-Saudi owned Four Seasons Hotel is located on floors 35-39 (5 floors) of the Mandalay.
Security Guard Jesus Campos was dispatched to check on a door alarm on the 32nd floor.
It was reported that Paddock had done something to the door to block accessing the 32nd floor from the stairwell. Explanation: stairwell door was close to the door of his room and he didn’t want to be surprised (thus his video setup). But can we rule out Campos’ setting that door block after the real shooters use the stairwell to go up to the Four Seasons?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 8 2017 23:14 utc | 53

@51 Jackrabbit
“But there’s a reason why they get depressed. Loss of job. Financial stress. And often a history of abusive behavior. They have found nothing like that with Paddock.”
Well, some of those factors did show up, some reports of abusive behavior towards his girlfriend. But, you know, none of this explains much. Why kill your whole family, even if you’re depressed? Where’s the motive for that? Every social norm says a good man lays down his life to protect his family. Some people, they just go off the rails. We can’t figure out what’s going on inside their heads, from some media consumer viewpoint. We do know he’d been visiting a psychiatrist, had been given Valium, that’s linked to suicidal behaviors.
When something like this happens, people want to tie it to some rational cause – some people want to use it role back gun ownership, some people want to use it for some other political purpose – it just doesn’t work. He’d targeted another music festival the week before, headliners from the ‘liberal’ sphere, not ‘conservative’ country music – but shit, a music festival is just a music festival. ISIS likes to target music festivals, or any crowd – because there are lots of people there.
Sometimes there’s no rational explanation for irrational behavior. Guy wanted to kill a lot of people, make a big scene – I’ve seen suicidal types with similar behaviors. We get something like 100 suicides a day in this country. This just looks like one who went one step beyond.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Oct 8 2017 23:23 utc | 55

http://www.stillnessinthestorm.com/2017/10/vegas-shooting-censored-footage-of-security-guard-shooter-automatic-gunfire-heard-at-ground-level-videos.html?m=1
This video clearly albeit briefly shows a man in security jacket at ground level firing point blank into the crowd.

Posted by: Anoncommentator | Oct 8 2017 23:36 utc | 57

I vote for high body count suicide by an arrogant control freak who wanted to show everyone “it should be done” … brother said that if Paddock decided it was time to leave, he would simply leave … and I think that’s what he did.
Brother(s) and mother were involved in his business holdings and they appear to be solid. He usually broke even at video poker (which requires a lot of skill), sometimes made a lot, usually broke even. No mention of his video poker skills falling off. He played for something 12 hours the day before the shootings.
Suspect complications wrt Lolapalooza may have been what made him decide to send girlfriend to visit her family … he may not have been ready, she may have been too curious, etc. He didn’t ever get to the hotel so we can’t know if he would have found the trajectories satisfactory.
Acquaintances reported he was often disheveled and smelling of alcohol in the last few months (since August, iirce) and a car sales man, said Paddock confided his life a miserable mess, “relationship problems” also in late August. Girlfriend reportedly said he often writhed in bed, screaming, oh no, god, know” so — who the fuck knows — she by some later reports said she thought he was cracking up. He’s at a good age for an “it’s all downhill from here” crack-up … Two marriages, no children, spent much of the last couple decades communing with video poker machines… achieving a respectable skill level but … they’re designed to minimize loss by players winnings.
He craved the respect that comes with money, but also was arrogant and demanding … wore sweats and flip-flops out of the house and made staff tremble … (he’d re-order meals and drinks if his first order did not appear quickly enough).
Impressive as his “lifetime achievements” may have been compared to most … they were fairly paltry and apparently were giving him little to no joy beyond providing financial security for his brother(s) and mom…
He did it because he could … and he did.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Oct 9 2017 0:05 utc | 59

@sejomoje
Firstly, I think you’re confused about what I am saying. I’m not saying that it was ISIS. I’m NOT pushing the Rita Katz SITE nonsense.
I’m warning that connecting this attack to ISIS might well be what was planned – so as to get USA more involved in the Middle East.
I think most at MoA recognize the connections between USA ‘Deep State’-Israel-Saudi and extremists.
Secondly, pushing using the ISIS-Mexican Cartel angle would be completely acceptable to Katz-SITE. They could piggy-back on warnings that have already been made (see: Town Hall August 2014: ISIS, Mexican Drug Cartels Teaming Up?
Thirdly, this makes no sense: “The Saudis own suites and floors in basically every major hotel on the planet, fwiw”. They might rent suites and floors but they don’t OWN them. OWNing provides a greater degree of control.
<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
I think that what makes the most sense is that Paddock lost most of his money gambling and decided to out with a bang – hoping to hurt the Casinos that bled him dry by reducing patronage. Casinos might try to hush up Paddock’s gambling losses to prevent losing patrons and getting more regulatory oversight.
But police have said that Paddock had no such money problems. He actually MADE a lot of money gambling, they say. With no other motive, we are left with patsy. Whose patsy and why?
We may not know the answer to that question until we see how things play out. Cui bono: The group that successfully uses this attack to their advantage is probably the prime suspect.
Or they will find that Paddock had a brain tumor.
<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
Some other questions:
Q: Why did Paddock use video to see the hallway? Why didn’t he just barricade the door? He could’ve bought devices to do so.
Q: Why did Paddock – the supposed madman – make ballistic calculations? Knowledgeable people say that those calculations made no sense. Bumpstocks made your aim at those distances unreliable. The fall-off (due to gravity) at that distance is easy to estimate (and he probably knew what it was from practice).

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 9 2017 1:04 utc | 61

Actually Jackrabbit, The Four Seasons floors aren’t owned per se, by the “Saudis”, it’s the Four Seasons itself which has partial Saudi ownership(the prince w the mole who is more western than Saudi – and his holding Co. is in Canada. Here’s a list of other holdings he’s in charge of. It’s typical billionaire shit. Bill Gates also holds a similar majority stake in the Four Seasons. So, if we follow the theory, Bill Gates may have orchestrated it all, himself! The “article” or anon post or whatever it was misrepresents it all in a very clickbait sort of way. Like literally someone googled the Four Seasons and the went from there with their “theory”. So anyway, the Saudis and other Gulf State elites DO have ownership and partial ownership of hotels all over the planet – and although there is nothing indicates it’s the case at the Mandalay Bay, they often rent out entire floors and expect certain suites to be available for them and their entourages.
The problem with this theory is that there are no “clues” that would point to terror, if it were a Mossad op they’d surely at least drop a passport or two, to get the point across. So it remains an absurd theory.
As for the rest, I think our hunch about him being unstable and having a beef with the casinos, or even a serious or acute personal issue is the most likely thing. Having winnings in whatever amount they’re claiming means nothing. He sounds like the type of person not to be “cheated”, in any way. They may have banned him, given him a warning, or kept some of his winnings. It could all be over a few thousand dollars. In his rage, he plans this out, in the context of being depressed about … who knows – his reclusive, childless life? Maybe he has an illness that will only get worse – it’s been said that he had severe autoimmune issues, so he could even be dealing with the onset of something like Multiple Sclerosis, which is a horrible way to go near the end, absolutely awful. His girlfriend may not even know, if the diagnosis were relatively recent.

Posted by: sejomoje | Oct 9 2017 1:28 utc | 63

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 8, 2017 9:04:49 PM | 60
I’m pretty much with nonsense factory’s opinion that we’ll never know. Using anecdotal evidence a fair bit because in the end altho the sample is tiny, at least the reality as best as it can be observed is untampered. Back in they day we had a pretty good mate who out of the blue tried to top himself – he was living alone in the bush and altho usually not more than a pot and beer user he swallowed a coupla handfuls of assorted pills. Under normal circumstances he would have died un-noticed until someone put themselves to the hassle of travelling way past the black stump to see him.
By chance someone did decide to do that unannounced on the very morning he swallowed the jacks. Rang an ambulance took him to hospital had his stomach pumped out by which time a mob of his friends (he had many good friends (male & female) – not acquaintences but a lot of people who considered him a brother.
Some of the blokes decided to take him out fishing for a few weeks – the skipper of the trawler was one who considered himself a brother as did most of the crew.
Anyway after a few days , my mate started engaging with others who felt his initial uncommunicativeness was related to the fact he had failed and had taken “the sheila’s way out” ie pills. Anyway like I said after a few days he seemed to be back to his old self cracking jokes and bein as cynical as ever about the world. They had a good run and headed back to port after a bit over 3 weeks. Everyone hopped off the boat said “see ya up Stella’s (Stella Maris a bar run by the church for seamen & fishermen) in a coupla hours blah blah” My mate walked off the wharf, up the road to the nearest gun shop bought himself a 12 gauge found a tree to sit under and blew his head off.
No one has a clue why he decided he needed to end it all. During the voyage a coupla of attempts were made to get him talking about that, but he just wouldn’t engage – not angrily or negatively just be changing the subject etc.
He had for whatever reason decided he wanted to die and the reason was his no one else’s.
I’m sure that among the thousands of other middle aged males who top themselves each year, there are many others who die refusing to disclose their motive

Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 9 2017 1:49 utc | 65

This will remain a mystery. All the conspiracy buffs will have another event with many theories, and of course plenty of “evidence” to argue about.

Posted by: ab initio | Oct 9 2017 2:34 utc | 67

@sejomoje
Yes. I saw that ownership.
Should we just throw up our hands and stop looking at inconsistencies or possible agendas?
>> There are people that want to take guns away. Obama’s Fast & Furious should not be forgotten.
>> There are people that want to get USA to recommit to the Middle East. Trump is about to decertify the Iran deal.
Which of the above groups has such a burning desire to alter policy that they might engage in mass murder?
Media is focusing on the gun debate. And on the face of it, Paddock looks like a “gun nut”. Is this what Paddock intended? There’s nothing that has been revealed in his background to suggest that to be true. As far as we know, he didn’t despise guns or Republicans.
Did he secretly despise guns and/or Republicans? Just so he could end his life in a way that surreptitiously adds support to taking guns away? It makes no sense.
Was he suicidal like Debsisdead alludes to? Maybe, but why murder and injure dozens of innocents?
@Debsisdead
Your comparing those who take their own life to the largest mass murder in US history makes no sense.
@paul
If you think about it, multiple shooters makes little sense. Especially if you want to set up a patsy.
The only reason to have multiple shooters is to increase the number of casualties. I submit that the shooter/shooters on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay were capable of creating a large enough number of casualties to make this a major event.
Multiple shooters in different locations only risks exposing the plot.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 9 2017 2:53 utc | 69

It’s interesting that his brother didn’t know he was a licensed hunter. It’s unusual that we don’t know whether he was taking target practice leading up to the event like the San Bernardino shooters. There appeared to be other preparations. On the other hand, he was shooting into massive densely packed crowds.
He used hotel staff shift changes over 3 days to bring in roughly 10 rifles.
He seemed to have loaded up with a lot of things, including explosives, that he may or may not have intended to use. This is similar to the James Wesley Howell who was arrested on the way to a gay pride parade with car loaded with ammo, weapons, and explosives. He may or may not have had a plan, but he had the personality to go off with these toys.

Posted by: Les | Oct 9 2017 3:09 utc | 71

Anonymous @58:

There is also a YouTube video where Paddock’s brother comes dangerously close to calling his brother an ARMS DEALER but then cuts himself off in mid-sentence.

No, he was saying that his brother was independent-minded and highly capable and then added: “Steve was an ar…” but then stopped himself and explained that what he was about to say would disparage one of the armed forces.
What he was likely going to say was that Steve as “an army of one.” This is a colloquial expression that would be a common way to categorize a highly capable and determined individual in USA.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 9 2017 3:47 utc | 73

Gee, maybe he thought the concert goers were The Infected and needed to be eradicated? That’s as good a hypothesis as any other I’ve seen, apparently.
But what did the room service people see?

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 9 2017 4:19 utc | 75

The whole story being built around Stephen Paddock is hardly credible. Details are being tacked on in a series of after-thoughts.
Could very well be that Paddock was a victim of identity theft, the intent on the part of those who stole his identity that he be a patsy to lead the police on a wild goose chase so that the real killer or killers could escape. His death, the desperate attempt to smear him as the killer and the choice of victims (country music fans) could in combination constitute a message in itself – we need to work out what to read in it.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 9 2017 5:29 utc | 77

It is a sad subject. But the Putin angle is rather hilarious. Expect the Congress to form a committe to look into it. Maxine Waters is probably salivating for such.

Posted by: Steve | Oct 9 2017 5:56 utc | 79

If I put my old debate judge hat on, the failed/counter firearm sale turned into a geo-political statement angle fits more of the optics so far.
As I write this I think about reading recently, as we are about to be able to find out the “real” story behind the JFK killing, that the whole Lee Harvey Oswald file of those records is missing.
I sure hope the fat lady sings on the elimination of private finance soon so we can eliminate the incentives for such perfidy.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 9 2017 6:38 utc | 81

Jack rabbit.
A good observation about the gun over the leg if the guy had shot himself standing up. I had noticed that myself when seeing the photo a few days ago. Was waiting to see if anyone else had.
Also the note seems placed under the ash tray to hold it, so it wouldn’t blow away. Seems more consistent with a suicide note that was intended to be read than some calculations that had been completed and were no longer needed.
Only clear facts that can be discerned by us are the two broken windows in the two hotel rooms. This indicates the possibility of two shooters. Can’t see why one shooter would need two windows in two adjascent rooms.
The apparent fact that Paddock sued a hotel/casino for slipping on a wet floor a few years ago, and lost, may suggest he was easy to take offense, so possibly something had happened recently that is being covered up that may have made him determined to embarrass the Mandalay or LV in this way.
Perhaps we can find other independent facts that are not u-tube witnesses or even official sources. A list of those might be useful

Posted by: Blue | Oct 9 2017 7:48 utc | 83

Re: Posted by: Richard | Oct 8, 2017 5:20:57 PM | 33

Congressman Trey Gowdy is probably the most intelligent and honest men in Congress. I guess you must know all the other idiots.

Trey Gowdy? You mean the guy who ran all the Benghazi hearings that resulted in exactly NOTHING. ZIP. ZERO. NADA.
And where was the expose in the Benghazi hearings (run by the same hero of yours Trey Gowdy) about the gun running from Benghazi to Turkey into Syria to the ISIS/Al-Qaeda CIA/Mossad/MI5 supported rebels?
Where was Gowdy’s expose of this gun running ratline? Ala ‘Fast & Furious’ – gun-running by FBI/CIA into Mexico.
Similar play via Benghazi into the hands of Syrian Islamic crazies.
Tell me again how Gowdy exposed this crime and resulted in Clinton & McCain et al being locked up for supporting and funding terrorism via the Benghazi ratline.
Tell me again about that.

Posted by: Julian | Oct 9 2017 9:07 utc | 85

Julian says:
Trey Gowdy? You mean the guy who ran all the Benghazi hearings that resulted in exactly NOTHING. ZIP. ZERO. NADA
yeah, that one. every once in a while they gotta roll out an ‘honest’ politician to remind all the rubes that the system is functional, that they really mean business, that come hell or high water this time they’re really gonna take a bite out of crime…
but this scanty gaggle of ‘honest’ politicians rings so hollow, like i’ve said before, chiming like tokens in someone’s pocket.

Posted by: john | Oct 9 2017 9:38 utc | 87

A 4-500 meters range and a hundred meters up firing on full auto into a dense crowd that covers a large area, every bullet will cause one or two casualties. The supposed shooter suposedley had a large collection of assult rifles over a number of years. A gun nut. He would know how to drop a magazine of bullets in a fifty or hundred meter circle. A piece of piss for anyone who has fired a few shot out of a gun. There are videos of the crowd when the firing is heard. There should be blood and guts everywhere. There is none on social media.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 9 2017 9:47 utc | 89

@35: You took the right name, because what you’re posting is completely contrary to established medical fact.
>>>Suicidal-homicidal is a pretty common psychosis.
No. Suicidal-homicidal is actually quite rare, in-the-wild. Most depressed, suicidal people have no interest in murdering others. Violent intentions and bouts of wild physical aggression are, however, a *known* and *proven* side-effect of anti-depressant and “anti-anxiety” medications. Valium is known to cause some perfectly peaceful, passive people to suddenly start attacking the people around them both verbally and physically. Prozac, too, was observed to incite otherwise peaceful but also suicidal people into violent acts against others.
Again, let me reiterate: the typical suicidal person is almost never inclined to harm others. That is a myth. Yes, there are murder-suicides, but generally those play out with the murder being perpetrated first in an act of rage, and then the suicide following once the realization sets in about what was just done, and/or what the consequences are likely going to be.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Oct 9 2017 10:59 utc | 91

Pacifica Advocate | Oct 9, 2017 7:12:55 AM | 92
Interesting; what little I do know, would tend to confirm what you’ve said.

Posted by: V. Arnold | Oct 9 2017 11:26 utc | 93

Shooting from 390 yards away. Four footbal fields. Not sure that qualifies as “fish in a barrel.”

Posted by: JC | Oct 9 2017 14:07 utc | 95

For what it’s worth MegaAnon 4chan comments on Las Vegas: Text version

Posted by: PeacefulProsperity | Oct 9 2017 14:40 utc | 97

B. according to the mass murderer’s brother in law, the killer had developed a system based upon regression analysis of vegas slot machines, that improved his odds to a few points ahead of the house.

@Debsisdead | Oct 8, 2017 6:47:56 PM | 50
Your post is so wrong on many levels.
Regression is about MEAN functions (think of them as arithmetic averages – the classical mean). They will not tell you how to improve “gaming odds” in the short term and would be very difficult to implement over the long run. In addition, there is simply no way of gather data on covariates that would effect the mean function – casinos would (and do) easily detect that.
Expected values are used to understand long run behaviors. For EVERY gambling game, they are negative! Casinos have every business and mathematical reason to keep games fair (a super-martingale), with a slightly negative bias (negative expected value or mean). That’s how they build billion dollar casinos in the desert.
Let’s take a closer look your “regression analysis” rubbish. Consider logistic regression, with the outcome as a binary random variable Y, Y is equal to 1 with probability p. Recall that the odds are defined as a ratio of p/(1-p). That is, a ratio of the probability for an event “success” to the compliment of the probability of an event “success”. Here, “success” would be winning at a game. Logistic regression is the relation of log-odds as a function of m predictors or factors:
log[p/(1-p)]=beta_0 +…+ beta_m*x_m
Note that true p is NEVER known. All we can do is estimate p, and this can be done using historical data. Again, casinos will notice you logging data, kick you out and ban you (may even beat some sense into you.) If you get p wrong, that could amplify your LOSSES.
Any kind of realistic application would require a constrained optimization of the logistic regression function to have a near zero mean function (log odds in this case). This in turn would down weight the predictors or factors towards zero (L_1 or L_2 regularization for the geeks out there. Hi fellow geeks!) If you didn’t do this (assuming you even have data), it would be easy to detect the winnings via surveillance and statistical analysis (watching the “hot” hand). And again, they might beat some sense into you or break your hot hand.)
So, in short, this “regression approach” to beating the casino is a bunch of baloney.
Slots have some of the *worst* odds of winning in ‘Vegas.
Money laundering is the *only* explanation that makes sense to this mathematical statistician.

Posted by: Variance Doc | Oct 9 2017 17:25 utc | 99