700,000 Protest Spain's Referendum Crackdown in Barcelona – local police (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Up to 700,000 people have taken to the streets of Barcelona in the wake of Sunday’s controversial Catalonia independence referendum, municipal police announced. Huge crowds rallied Tuesday against the violent crackdown on voters by Spanish police.
Roads and traffic was blocked throughout the city on Tuesday, as protesters marched, chanting, “Independence!” and “The streets will always be ours!”
Some 700,000 people took to the streets, Barcelona municipal police announced on Twitter.
Thousands gathered outside the offices of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party (PP) in Barcelona and the Catalonia regional HQ of the national police as police stood guard. Protesters shouted slogans and waved the red-and-yellow Catalan flag, and groups of firemen played bagpipes outside the PP’s office as the crowd cheered them on.
RT’s Madina Kochenova and Anastasia Churkina dived into the rally at Barcelona’s central square, reporting live from the protest on Tuesday.
Youngsters and elderly people, families with small children were among a bustling crowd of jubilant demonstrators that filled the square in protest against the Spanish government’s crackdown.
“They are asking, they are shouting at national police forces to leave the region of Catalonia,” Kochenova reported from the protest in the afternoon.
As darkness fell, people showed no sign of calming down, Churkina reported.
“Looks like it’s going to continue through the evening through the guise of people not only protesting the policy brutality but also that Catalonia has seen during the referendum but also the general actions of Madrid,” the correspondent said.
A young female protester echoed the general mood as she told Churkina the actions of Madrid would not be tolerated by the locals anymore.
“We will not accept anything like this anymore. We’re heartbroken. We just wanted to use our right to vote. We think it’s not normal how the government behaved,” the protester said.
A protest strike was also called by major trade unions as government workers walked out and businesses and universities shut for the day. Metro stations were empty as services were drastically cut back, while the usually busy Boqueria market was deserted. Famous tourist attractions such as the Sagrada Familia church were also shut down.
Even FC Barcelona took part, canceling all its training sessions for the day. However, the main unions, the CCOO and UGT, avoided calling the walkout a general strike, instead called it a “temporary work stoppage” to get around laws that prohibit striking for political reasons.
The Spanish government has condemned the protests as an affront to the rule of law.
“I’ve seen how President Puigdemont has flooded the streets with his followers to stop people obeying the law and to make them disrespect justice,” said Rajoy’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria. “We are here to defend the rights and liberties of all Spaniards that have been trampled upon by the regional government.”
The Spanish government and the country’s Constitutional Court have declared the Catalonia referendum illegal, and dispatched thousands of officers from the National Police and the Civil Guard to prevent the vote taking place. In the ensuring operation, nearly 900 people were wounded as officers deployed batons and rubber bullets to break up crowds of voters.
Despite this, millions of Catalans still turned up to cast their ballots. Of those who managed to vote, the Catalan authorities claim, 90 percent voted for independence. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has said he will take steps to start separating from Spain, and has appealed for international mediation with the central government.
The former Ukip leader said it was extraordinary that Brussels is not prepared to condemn Madrid over police brutality which saw more than 800 civilians injured, some seriously.
ReplyDeleteMr Farage said that “never in my fiercest criticism” of the EU - which he has branded undemocratic - did he ever envisage authorities in a member state crushing the right to vote.
And he said ordinary European citizens would be “stunned” by the bloc’s refusal to act, especially given its proactive stance on defending human rights in other parts of the world.
Addressing the EU Parliament chamber in Strasbourg, the veteran eurosceptic also ripped into eurocrats and Theresa May over the state of the Brexit negotiations, saying the UK should be prepared to walk away.
But his most stinging criticism was reserved for the EU’s handling of the Catalonia violence, which is threatening to turn into a full-blown public image crisis for the bloc.
Brussels has already been slammed for its weak response to the police brutality, with a spokesman for the Commission refusing to specifically condemn the authorities’ actions.
During the referendum on Sunday, which has been declared illegal by the Spanish constitutional court, riot clad officers seized ballot boxes and fired rubber bullets into crowds of women, pensioners and children.
Catalan authorities later said that more than 800 innocent people had been injured in the clashes, some seriously, but Brussels instead decided to release a statement backing Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy.
This morning the Commission chief Mr Juncker addressed the EU Parliament in Strasbourg to provide MEPs with an update on the Brexit talks, but made no mention of the situation in Catalonia.
Afterwards, Mr Farage said: “I think European citizens will be stunned that Mr Juncker comes here for his one appearance and there is absolutely no mention made of the dramatic events that have taken place inside a European Union member state, that is allegedly a modern democracy.
“One of the reasons that I always wanted Brexit was because I thought the system of law making whereby the Commission has the sole right to initiate legislation was something that would in fact damage, and in the end destroy, any concept of national democracy.
“And yeah, I’ve called the European Union undemocratic, I’ve called it antidemocratic, but never, ever in my fiercest criticisms here did I think we would see the police of a member state of the union injuring 900 people in an attempt to stop them going out to vote."
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DeleteUK Express
DeleteThe president of Catalonia has said he will put the results of the independence referendum, deemed illegal by Madrid, into effect by next week, and urge Madrid not to intervene. It comes as Spain’s King Felipe VI has vowed to uphold constitutional order.
ReplyDeleteIn an interview to the BBC on Tuesday, the breakaway region’s president, Carles Puigdemont, said he does not plan to delay the declaration of independence for much longer and is ready to “act at the end of this week or the beginning of next.”
Any attempt of the authorities in Madrid to override the Catalan regional government in a bid to hinder its actions in compliance with results of Sunday’s popular vote would be “an error which changes everything,” Puigdemont warned. He, however, did not elaborate on the Catalan regional government’s possible response to such a scenario.
At the moment, no negotiations have been held between the central and the regional governments, Puigdemont added.
Earlier, Puigdemont said he would agree to a dialogue mediated by the European Union if Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy greenlights the proposal.
“It is clear that things cannot go on like this: mediation cannot be renounced just as dialogue was before. We do not see a more effective way than sitting and talking,” he said.
Puigdemont’s announcement came shortly after a rare televised address by King Felipe VI, in which he lambasted Catalonian authorities for “repeatedly, consciously and deliberately” violating the constitution, laws providing for its status as an autonomous region, while “showing an inadmissible disloyalty to the powers of the state.”
Falling short of calling for dialogue between Madrid and Catalan officials, he went on to blame the regional authorities for being “totally outside the law and democracy” and putting Spain’s economy and its social well-being in precarious position “with their irresponsible behavior.”
Voicing support to the national government, Felipe said: “It is the responsibility of the legitimate powers of the state to ensure the constitutional order and the normal functioning of its institutions.”
While seemingly backing Madrid’s way of handling the crisis, Feilpe failed to mention the mass police crackdown on voters during the Sunday referendum that led to over 800 people being injured.
Every few years, the idea of an EU army finds its way back into the news, causing a kerfuffle. The concept is both fantasy and bogeyman: For every federalist in Brussels who thinks a common defense force is what Europe needs to boost its standing in the world, there are those in London and elsewhere who recoil at the notion of a potential NATO rival.
ReplyDeleteBut this year, far from the headlines, Germany and two of its European allies, the Czech Republic and Romania, quietly took a radical step down a path toward something that looks like an EU army while avoiding the messy politics associated with it: They announced the integration of their armed forces.
Romania’s entire military won’t join the Bundeswehr, nor will the Czech armed forces become a mere German subdivision. But in the next several months each country will integrate one brigade into the German armed forces: Romania’s 81st Mechanized Brigade will join the Bundeswehr’s Rapid Response Forces Division, while the Czech 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade, which has served in Afghanistan and Kosovo and is considered the Czech Army’s spearhead force, will become part of the Germans’ 10th Armored Division. In doing so, they’ll follow in the footsteps of two Dutch brigades, one of which has already joined the Bundeswehr’s Rapid Response Forces Division and another that has been integrated into the Bundeswehr’s 1st Armored Division. According to Carlo Masala, a professor of international politics at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich, “The German government is showing that it’s willing to proceed with European military integration” — even if others on the continent aren’t yet.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has repeatedly floated the idea of an EU army, only to be met with either ridicule or awkward silence. That remains the case even as the U.K., a perennial foe of the idea, is on its way out of the union. There’s little agreement among remaining member states over what exactly such a force would look like and which capabilities national armed forces would give up as a result. And so progress has been slow going. This March, the European Union created a joint military headquarters — but it’s only in charge of training missions in Somalia, Mali, and the Central African Republic and has a meager staff of 30. Other multinational concepts have been designed, such as the Nordic Battle Group, a small 2,400-troop rapid reaction force formed by the Baltic states and several Nordic countries and the Netherlands, and Britain’s Joint Expeditionary Force, a “mini-NATO” whose members include the Baltic states, Sweden, and Finland. But in the absence of suitable deployment opportunities, such operations-based teams may as well not exist.
But under the bland label of the Framework Nations Concept, Germany has been at work on something far more ambitious — the creation of what is essentially a Bundeswehr-led network of European miniarmies. “The initiative came out of the weakness of the Bundeswehr,” said Justyna Gotkowska, a Northern Europe security analyst at Poland’s Centre for Eastern Studies think tank. “The Germans realized that the Bundeswehr needed to fill gaps in its land forces … in order to gain political and military influence within NATO.” An assist from junior partners may be Germany’s best shot at bulking out its military quickly — and German-led miniarmies may be Europe’s most realistic option if it’s to get serious about joint security. “It’s an attempt to prevent joint European security from completely failing,” Masala said.
Germans have to be in control, building an EU army under its control
NOTE
ReplyDeleteAt this time there is nothing new about the Las Vegas killer except speculation and political posturing by Democrats and the left. Hillary Clinton, genius that she is, has been speculating about what could have happened if silencers had been put on marine guns. The conversations goes down from there. The killer's girl friend, $100,000 richer, is back in the US met by federal agents.
Dreadfully more, later.
Michelle Obama: ‘People Don’t Trust Politics’ Because GOP Is ‘All Men, All White’
ReplyDeleteMichelle cannot resist dipping into her inner-negro:
DeleteSpeaking about diversity, Obama said, “We should be working actively to mix it up, so we’re getting a real broad range of perspectives on every issue. Shoot, I would see that in Congress.”
She explained, “At the State of the Union address … when you are in the room what you can see is this real dichotomy. It’s a feeling of color almost. On one side of the room is literally gray and white. Literally, that is the color palette on one side of the room. On the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens. Physically, there’s a difference in color, in the tone, because on one side all men, all white, on the other side some woman, some people of color.”
Lovely Michelle, the non racist, sees everyone in shades of color and of course the left and Democrats eat it up like a stack of Aunt Jemima pancakes. No racial distractions in that room. One and all, color blind. They hardly notice any color except of course, pasty white and somber gray.
DeleteImagine this headline:
DeleteI don't trust the Black Caucus because physically there's a difference in color because on one side they are mostly fat, mostly men, some fat and some skinny women, dark brown , with shades of blackish brown, tones of yellow brown, high yellow and mulattos.
It is a feeling of color almost
...but I didn't hardly notice nor did
DeleteI pay the slightest amount of attention because i was blinded by the pasty white and dullish gray.
I look at Congress and I see the color of con artist.
ReplyDeleteQuirk has a girlfriend in Barcelona who sends him seafoods and wine, and soft chocolates. Quirk has gotten together a brigade of fighting men and women to go fight for Catalonia if need be. They are dressed in fluffy billowing pure white trousers and black silk shirts with an orange triangular cap on top that sports Chinese pheasant tail feathers. They are armed with the Llama .38 Super handguns and Colt .45 handguns and carry AR-15s for longer range fighting.
ReplyDeleteThey also have handgrenades. They have shiny swords hanging from their waists for when they do a horse mounted charge. They have no ranks except one, El Commandante Caballero Magnifico, whom they are willing to follow into the jaws of hell itself, and this currently is Quirk, due to his daring do in all the earlier wars of the last century, especially his fighting against both the Russians and the Germans at the Battle of Kursk in '43, a legend that lives on to this day.
So Madrid better not get to smart assery or they may find their Plaza de Major and the Citadel suddenly occupied by these folks, the war over before it barely got going good. with the current government in preventative detention.
We would consider these troops a sort of mix of our Seals, Delta Forces, 24th STS, and our Black Forces.
They have never lost an engagement much less a war.
It they are forced, finally, to rule all Spain they will do so with Justice, Mercy, Severity as needed all with an aim of turning it back over to civilian authorities once new boundaries between the parties have been set and the necessary social and governmental agreements have been reached.
The whole of Iberia will be much better for their presence, productivity will surge and the birth rate rise again. The Moors will be invited to go back to Morocco, and will do so too. And a new golden age of the bullfight will begin again.
From the Washington Free Beacon:
ReplyDeleteThe hidden donors to a prominent anti-Trump "resistance" organization are revealed in unredacted tax forms obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Center for Community Change, a Washington, D.C.-based 501 (c)(3) progressive community organizing group that does not reveal its donors, has been involved in direct action against President Donald Trump and Republicans before and after the November elections. The organization's members sit on the boards of other prominent liberal activist groups.
The Free Beacon has obtained the group's unredacted 2015 tax forms that shed light on its funders, who provide millions of dollars in assistance. The group appears to rely heavily on a few major liberal foundations, organizations, and unions.
The Center for Community Change's largest contribution was $3,000,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which was initially created by Will Kellogg, the food manufacturer and founder of Kellogg Company. The Ford Foundation, which was first created by the founders of the Ford Motor Company, added a $2,350,000 donation. The Open Society Foundation, a foundation run by liberal billionaire mega-donor George Soros, gave $1,750,000 to the Center for Community Change.
Other donors to the organization include the California Endowment, which gave $524,500; the Marquerite Casey Foundation, which gave $515,000; Fidelity Charitable Gift, which donated $505,100; and the National Immigration Law Center, which gave $316,000.
One wouldn't expect the NRA to be on the anti-Trump campaign band wagon, yet
DeleteFormer White House chief strategist and current Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon warns that President Trump’s base of supporters would view it as catastrophic if he changed his position on the Second Amendment and embraced gun control.
Mr Bannon must know just how shaky the NYC elitist in the White House is on gun control.
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ReplyDeleteQuirk has gotten together a brigade of fighting men and women to go fight for Catalonia if need be.
False. Fake news.
With so many oppressed people around the world, The Quirk doesn't deploy the Indomitable Legion to aid a rich population being pushed to declare independence by hard left parties willing to ignore Catalonia's own laws in pushing an illegal referendum.
That being said there was no justification for the violent and ham-handed way Madrid handled the voting a week ago.
Probably, the best result that can occur is a negotiated settlement granting Catalonia more autonomy and a promise of a more equitable regional revenue sharing plan.
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ReplyDeleteRegarding the shootings in Vegas...
It is de rigueur for the left to call for new gun laws after every mass shooting event. It is what they do. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Those on the right condemn this 'politicization' of a tragedy. They are right to do so. However, 'politicization' is in the eye of the beholder and the hypocrites.
While the left calls for more gun control legislation, the right says 'Wait. Now is not the time. It's too soon. Let's wait and debate this issue when things calm down.' Pure bullshit.
Hillary Clinton was knocked for bringing up the 'silencer bill' currently going through Congress. But what is the silencer bill? Supposedly, it was made part of a larger bill in order to 'protect sportsmen's hearing'. Anyone who believes that shouldn't be allowed to go out without a handler. It's being pushed by the NRA to push up sales for the gun lobby. Nothing else.
As mentioned, the silencer clause is part of a larger bill that would narrow the definition of 'armor piercing ammunition' and would encroach on states rights by instituting federal law regarding concealed carry across state lines. Police groups oppose this bill especially the armor piercing ammunition part. As for reciprocity, 37 states already have full or partial reciprocity with more joining the group every year or so.
As for the claim that only the left 'politicizes' these mass shooting events, that too is bullshit. Had Paddock been a Muslim, we can be assured that Trump and his minions would be flooding the airways with tweets starting out 'I told you so.' Trump already does it with every terrorist attack around the world caused by a member of the 1.6 billion Muslim population.
The hypocrisy is palpable.
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Statistician: After Researching Gun Violence, I No Longer Believe In Gun Control
DeleteALLAHPUNDITPosted at 10:41 pm on October 3, 2017
Her name is Leah Libresco, formerly of Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight site, where she crunched the numbers in a study of all 33,000 gun homicides in the United States annually. She went in thinking that the usual liberal menu of anti-gun policies would reduce that number dramatically. She came out concluding that “the only selling point [of those policies] is that gun owners hate them.” That’s an interesting way to phrase leftist conventional wisdom in an era when the right’s tribalism draws so much scrutiny. Often in the age of Trump it really does feel as though conservatism is defined as “whatever makes liberals cry.” Libresco’s takeaway on the efficacy of mainstream gun-control policies is that they’re appealing to the people who support them mainly to the extent they make gun aficionados cry.
Many of Libresco’s arguments will be familiar to right-wingers, but it’s one thing to endorse them as a matter of ideology and another to endorse them as a matter of hard data.
I researched the strictly tightened gun laws in Britain and Australia and concluded that they didn’t prove much about what America’s policy should be. Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun related-crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans. Mass shootings were too rare in Australia for their absence after the buyback program to be clear evidence of progress. And in both Australia and Britain, the gun restrictions had an ambiguous effect on other gun-related crimes or deaths.
When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an “assault weapon.” It’s an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has two or more features, such as a bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos…
As my co-workers and I kept looking at the data, it seemed less and less clear that one broad gun-control restriction could make a big difference. Two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States every year are suicides. Almost no proposed restriction would make it meaningfully harder for people with guns on hand to use them. I couldn’t even answer my most desperate question: If I had a friend who had guns in his home and a history of suicide attempts, was there anything I could do that would help?
The last point is especially important. As horrendous as mass shootings are, by far the most terrible threat posed by guns is that they’re suicide machines. Someone who’s inclined to kill himself without a firearm handy may well try and fail, taking too small a dose of pills or not slicing their wrists deeply enough. A gunshot rarely fails. As for “assault weapons,” a term long derided by gun-rights advocates for exactly the reasons Libresco describes, the idea seems particularly absurd after the Vegas massacre given all the attention paid to “bump stocks.” It’s ludicrous that a bayonet mount and pistol grip might render a weapon illegal under the now defunct AWB while a bump stock, which boosts a semiautomatic’s firing capacity to near-automatic speed, is perfectly legal. Even the left’s fascination with the AR-15 is mainly a cosmetic critique: It looks like an M16 and is favored by mass killers probably for that reason, because it lets them play pretend soldier during their rampage, but in the end it’s a plain ol’ semiautomatic rifle in its unmodified form. Says Libresco of Democratic anti-gun hobbyhorses, they “often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.”
Her advice? Instead of focusing on feelgood policies that won’t do much of anything to reduce gun violence or on massively heavy-handed policies like confiscation, which have zero chance of passing, instead consider policies that will address the social pathologies that drive the three most common forms of gun homicides — suicide, gang violence, and domestic violence. Coincidentally, FiveThirtyEight itself has a piece today revisiting the study Libresco worked on and underscoring the key point that mass shootings, while spectacular and horrific, aren’t the risk to worry about with guns. The three classes named by Libresco are:
DeleteYou could, theoretically, cut down on all these deaths with a blanket removal of guns from the U.S. entirely — something that is as politically unlikely as it is legally untenable. Barring that, though, policies aimed at reducing gun deaths will likely need to be targeted at the specific people who commit or are victimized by those incidents. And mass shootings just aren’t a good proxy for the diversity of gun violence. Policies that reduce the number of homicides among young black men — such as programs that build trust between community members, police and at-risk youth and offer people a way out of crime — probably won’t have the same effect on suicides among elderly white men. Background checks and laws aimed at preventing a young white man with a history of domestic violence from obtaining a gun and using it in a mass shooting might not prevent a similar shooting by an older white male with no criminal record.
Here’s a well-known victim of a mass shooting himself being asked if he’s reconsidered his pro-gun views in hindsight. Lefties have spent the last few days pointing out how ridiculous it would have been for concertgoers to try to fire back from the ground at Stephen Paddock on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay. True, but most mass attacks happen in closer quarters, which makes them more amenable to self-defense.
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I found it interesting to learn that Gun laws have been consistently relaxed across America since Sandy Hook and that every time a large mass shooting, like the Las Vegas one, occurs, gun sales and gun stocks see a brisk uptick in activity and price.
DeleteAgree, on about 80% of what you state, anyway, Q. Hillary doesn't have a clue about silencers. I haven't read the bill, but I can tell you law abiding citizens can apply and get a silencer now. One jumps thru a lot of hoops, one cannot buy one legally without credentials similar to a Federal Firearms License holder, and usually a local sheriff signs off on it before one is granted. one is then put on a list and watched like any other FFA license holder. Last time I checked it was about 250.00 a year to keep one. Obviously your records must be squeaky clean in order to keep it.
DeleteSilencers are popular for hunters, ranchers, and farmers in the states with feral hog populations, as they are not quite as loud as a non-silenced rifle and prevent the pigs from spooking while trying to shoot them in a group. This is all part of the hog eradication effort going on in many of the areas over populated. Agreed that the hearing part is BS. Any responsible shooter wears ear protection.
As far as silencers go, I have shot hand guns and rifles with them, and there is nothing "silent" about them. They are quite loud, but not as loud as a gun without.
Sane conversations need to be about the "bump stock" that apparently this idiot used on at least one of his ARs. A bump stock is a stock that slides to and fro and if held in the correct position against one's shoulder or hip, uses the recoil of the rifle to fire more rapidly than a Semi-Automatic rifle if one's finger is correctly held on the trigger. It takes lot's of practice to perfect the use of a bump stock. I think they should be registered, similar to the above scenario, but not outlawed. Today you can buy them on Amazon and I am sure as we speak there is a run on them.
By the way, AR does not stand for Assault Rifle or Automatic Rifle, it stands for Armalite Rifle, one of the first if not the first manufacturer of the AR-15. The anti gun crowd started calling them assault rifles for obvious scare tactic reasons.
Ash, please give me an example of a gun law that has been relaxed. Thank you in advance.
DeleteI think he was taking too much Valium.
Delete"In the 12 months after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., almost every state enacted at least one new gun law, according to a database compiled by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Nearly two-thirds of the new laws ease restrictions and expand the rights of gun owners. Most of those bills were approved in states controlled by Republicans. Those who support stricter regulations won some victories — mostly in states where the legislature and governorship are controlled by Democrats — to increase restrictions on gun use and ownership. Select categories from the table below to see all gun bills that passed at least one chamber of a state legislature."
Deletehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/10/us/state-gun-laws-enacted-in-the-year-since-newtown.html
DeleteLas Vegas Strip shooter prescribed anti-anxiety drug in June
Stephen Paddock, who killed at least 58 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas on Sunday with high-powered rifles, was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug in June that can lead to aggressive behavior, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned. Records from the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program obtained Tuesday show Paddock was prescribed 50 10-milligram diazepam tablets by Henderson physician Dr. Steven Winkler on June 21. Diazepam is a sedative-hypnotic drug in the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which studies have shown can trigger aggressive behavior “If somebody has an underlying aggression problem and you sedate them with that drug, they can become aggressive,” said Dr. Mel Pohl, chief medical officer of the Las Vegas Recovery Center.
Stephen Paddock, who killed at least 58 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas on Sunday with high-powered rifles, was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug in June that can lead to aggressive behavior. Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock in an undated photo. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest festival, killing 58 and wounding hundreds. (Eric Paddock via AP)Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock in an undated photo. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest festival, killing 58 and wounding hundreds. (Eric Paddock via AP)Stephen Paddock (courtesy photo)Stephen Paddock (courtesy)
By Paul Harasim ©2017, Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 3, 2017 - 9:00 pm
Updated October 4, 2017 - 10:00 am
Stephen Paddock, who killed at least 58 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas on Sunday with high-powered rifles, was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug in June that can lead to aggressive behavior, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned.
Records from the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program obtained Tuesday show Paddock was prescribed 50 10-milligram diazepam tablets by Henderson physician Dr. Steven Winkler on June 21.
A woman who answered the phone at Winkler’s office would not make him available to answer questions and would neither confirm nor deny that Paddock was ever a patient.
Paddock purchased the drug — its brand name is Valium — without insurance at a Walgreens store in Reno on the same day it was prescribed. He was supposed to take one pill a day.
Diazepam is a sedative-hypnotic drug in the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which studies have shown can trigger aggressive behavior. Chronic use or abuse of sedatives such as diazepam can also trigger psychotic experiences, according to drugabuse.com.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/las-vegas-strip-shooter-prescribed-anti-anxiety-drug-in-june/
Just about every State allows conceal carry do they not? It wasn't always that way...
DeleteIt appears Mr. Paddock got all those guns and accessories legally. Maybe he was trying to make a point?
DeleteGiven the number of wounded versus killed I'm guessing he wasn't using hollow point bullets. I wonder why... are they legal?
What point was he trying to make ?
DeleteThat he was a psychotic ?
Hollow points are legal everywhere as far as I know.
You need to get a concealed carry permit, Ash, for next time you come to the USA.
It's Dodge City down this way.
Get some body armor, too.
You definitely don't want to be the only hombre wandering about without a gun, Ash.
DeleteYou'd just be a sitting Canadian Goose.
DeleteYou could hire Q's Personal Protective Services, LLC, working out of Detroit, Michigan, but they have a kind of a 'hit and miss' record.
DeleteQ himself doesn't do any of the protection work, he just hires the guys that hire the high school dropouts who actually do what protecting is done, which isn't much. You might get rolled by the dropout kids, so make certain you got lots of money to pay them with, and keep it is a bank until the day is over. They have daily, weekly and monthly rates.
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DeleteI make sure all of my guys are young, conservative, white, and Republican.
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DeleteOh yeah, and Christian.
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My Research Told Me Gun Control Is Not the Answer Leah Libresco, Washington Post
ReplyDeleteI'm not paying to read something from the Compost, but you can if you wish.
I recall many many years ago after the Kennedy assassination I went into a store to buy a box of 20 gauge shotgun shells.
ReplyDeleteIt was the beginning of dove season. I had to show all sorts of ID.
That old rule lapsed decades ago. It was passed after President Kennedy got shot.
I just scanned thru the NYT list, Ash. I wouldnt call those an easing of laws, which makes it sound like they are making it easier to buy a gun. The ones I looked at didn't address the buying of a gun, but were geared towards law abiding citizens who legally bought them. Some I don't agree with, such as open carry, which I think is idiotic. Most states have reciprocated each others concealment carry permits for years. There is nothing on that list, in my mind, that has made the world more dangerous. IMO.
ReplyDeleteAssuming your question is a serious one, I believe Paddock was shooting from 400 yards away and was just spraying bullets. Hollow points won't make you any more dead or alive than any other kind of bullet. Shot placement is paramount.
I thought hollow points expanded upon impact increasing their ability to do damage to tissue.
DeleteThat is what they are advertised to do, alrighty.
DeleteThat why you need body armor when coming to the States.
Murica
DeleteAnother photo shows a rifle with an extended magazine capable of holding up to 100 rounds. High-capacity magazines like the one in Paddock’s weapon can be purchased online at websites like Stackin’ Bodies for $169.
Nevada, where Paddock reportedly purchased most of his weapons, has no laws limiting magazine ammunition capacity.
https://www.stackingbodies.com/collections/all
https://www.thedailybeast.com/las-vegas-killer-stephen-paddock-had-better-rifles-than-the-us-military
They do expand but not like the anti gun lobby would want you to think. A .308 round, which seems to be the largest round Paddock used, is 30/100 of an inch wide. A .308 hollow point will mushroom to about maybe 40/100 70 60/100 of an inch(I am guessing as I don't have a spent one in front of me to measure). I'm not sure what you are visualizing, but a round to the arm is a round to the arm. A hollow point to the arm might make a nastier wound, but treated properly and quickly is not lethal, although it would hurt like hell and could kill you if the bleeding is not stopped. Sorry for the graphics, y'all.
ReplyDelete40/100 to 60/100 of an inch.
Delete"Jacketed Hollow Point
DeleteJHP ammo follows a similar construction to FMJ. The difference is, a JHP has a hole in the tip of the bullet, giving it a hollow center. When a JHP makes contact with the target, the bullet expands like an umbrella which creates a cavity in the soft-tissue. JHPs don’t usually go through their target, but they do cause more damage. On impact, the energy transfers from the bullet to whatever stopped it, slowing it down drastically and leading to devastating damage. Since these bullets cause more damage, you might be able to use fewer bullets to stop your target. However, JHP bullets will not be able to penetrate harder targets, such as body armor, steel, and concrete. JHP bullets are best used for police duties, hunting, and self-defense."
https://www.ammunitiondepot.com/thebunker/2_full-metal-vs-jacketed-hollow.html
Sigh...
DeleteObviously written by someone trying to sell ammo.
Deletehere, a picture is worth a thousand words
Deletehttps://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hollow%20point%20damage&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=hollow%20point%20damage&sc=4-19&sk=&cvid=7D003F1462D64D49A051380C35A378AE
Ash, my boy. You stick to your google, bing, nyt, Puffho, and your glorious globe and mail, and I’ll stick to what I know and what I have seen first hand.
DeleteIf you have an argument then make it. If you have evidence to support your opinion then present it. Simply because MOME wrote it doesn't make it true. Put up or shut up.
DeleteI fully expect you to scurry away in silence only to return at some future date whining a Canadian gave you a shitty tip.
DeleteTIPS
DeleteTo Ensure Proper Service.
Hmmmm, maybe that is why you don't net much for your service?
I’ve already made my point, Ash, my boy. Please see above. The simple fact you didn’t see it or understand it is very telling. Have a simple night!
DeleteYou really don’t have a clue, do you? But do keep it up, your posts are most entertaining.
Simply because MOME wrote it doesn't make it true.
DeleteI beg to differ. Now, go google something and get back to us, would you, my boy?
By the way, TIPS is with an I, not an E, my boy.
DeleteOuch. Touche.
DeleteI am prepared to be convinced but your only offering is MONE said so. Please enliggten us as to spread rates of various types of ammo. I'm sure it is dependent upon material hit but that appears to be beyond the comprehension of the MOME absolute.
Feel free to fixate on any and all typos you can find. Vindication is so sweet.
MOME
DeleteAuto correct on the phone doesn't like his name. I'm sorry it has caused you grief in comprehending the conversation Doug.
DeleteAuto correct on the phone doesn't like his name. I'm sorry it has caused you grief in comprehending the conversation Doug.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteWhat I know and have seen first hand...
One of the biggest impediments to sensible gun control in the US is the NRA. Just as the AARP is an insurance company masquerading as a lobbying group for older people, the NRA is a lobbying group for the gun industry masquerading as a lobbying group for gun owners. They argue that they are a big supporter of background checks yet actions speak louder than words. For instance...
The NRA supports allowing people on the 'terrorist watch list' to get firearms. Why? Some would argue, like the NRA, that the terrorist list is a mess and that some people on it shouldn't be. True enough, but it's a sign of the times. If we don't allow people on the list to fly why would we allow them to buy a gun? My take. The NRA takes an absolutist approach to gun control. They work under the assumption that any restrictive legislation, regardless of how sensible it is, is simply the first step on the slippery slope to gun control, something that would hurt their main constituency.
They also support allowing convicted felons to own guns. Why? The same reason. It hurts their main constituency and, in this case, one of its principle members.
How the NRA Works to Rearm Criminals
Basically, the NRA is the biggest impediment to sensible gun laws in the US. And like the AARP, AIPAC, and other large lobbying organizations it is hard to find anyone in D.C. willing to stand up to them.
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Paddy had enough explosives to blow up a good portion of Mandalay Bay. Did he have an accomplice ? There is something more to this song. What was in that letter ? Have we only scratched the surface of this lottery ticket ? What's really going on here ?
ReplyDeleteA dirty white boy
DeleteA financial success story
Kind of anti-social
Thought he was on an Impossible Mission.
Especially, as the Sheriff said, he had an escape plan
So the FBI interviewed the girl friend
ReplyDeleteThe Special Agent said she was cooperating
She was not held in custody
As to the financial situation of the shooter ...
ReplyDeleteGambling debts were not the motivation for mass murder.
There was plenty of cash on hand, real estate and a weapons collection worth well north of $50,000
ReplyDeleteEmbattled GOP Rep. Tim Murphy to retire
The Pennsylvania lawmaker, who opposes abortion rights, was reported to have suggested his mistress terminate a pregnancy.
The escape plan is not readily apparent, unless a bullet to the head is an escape plan.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lott and Bob Massi together on Hannity !
Deletewhoooeeeee
Lack of success is not necessarily due to a lack of preparation.
DeleteOr the Sheriff could be lying, as part of the grand conspiracy you are attempting to propagate.
The Las Vegas shooting has reignited a debate in the US about whether more gun control legislation might have prevented what happened.
ReplyDeleteMr Trump, a Republican who firmly aligned himself with gun rights advocates during last year's presidential campaign, was asked yesterday whether it was time to debate gun control measures. He responded, "Perhaps that will come. But that's not for now".
He has called the massacre "an act of pure evil".
Not propagatin' anything here.
ReplyDeleteJust askin' some basic questions, as Quirk larned me ta do.
I remember it well -
Delete"Bob, always remember this, and remember it well, always ask the basic questions."
The gunman responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history "meticulously" planned the event and spent decades acquiring weapons while living a secret life, Las Vegas police say.
ReplyDelete...
"Paddock rented a room at the Ogden hotel in downtown Las Vegas,' Sheriff Lombardo said.
"Though his reasons are unknown, it was during the same time as Life is Beautiful [music festival]."
ReplyDeletethe FBI was going through Paddock's communications, financial records, associates and video surveillance -- anything to try to piece together the puzzle of his motive.
"We will look at every one of those lanes, pull every possible thread," he said.
Authorities are hoping to find answers from their interview with Danley on Wednesday.
DeleteHe stood about 6-foot-4 but came across as "low key and relaxed, a good guy," one of the real estate agents recalled, speaking on condition of anonymity. Balding and paunchy, Paddock was the opposite of flashy. On his application, he said his income came from "gambling." He said he gambled about $1 million a year.
And he paid cash for the house, the agents said -- $369,022
Maybe the guy simply didn't like country/western ?
ReplyDeleteLonged for the good old days of Liberace.
DeleteOne shrink on Fox says he wouldn't be surprised if law enforcement or a newspaper gets a 'manifesto' from the perp in the mail in a day or two.
DeleteRumors are surfacing that he did not act alone.
DeleteThe mystery deepens.
ReplyDeleteFormer White House strategist and current Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon has teamed up with conservative donors Robert and Rebekah Mercer to promote insurgent candidates to challenge the GOP establishment and create an organizational apparatus to advance the populist and economic nationalist policies championed by those candidates.
DeleteTo the extent that there is any ideological overlap among candidates the new coalition will support, it will probably be that they favor limiting immigration, making trade policies more advantageous to American manufacturers and disentangling the United States from sweeping international agreements — and destroying the establishment
In more meaningful news -
ReplyDeleteCATALONIA WILL SPLIT FROM SPAIN -- ON MONDAY...
King's Authority at Stake....DRUDGE
Catalonia Moves To Declare Independence From Spain On Monday
DeleteCatalonia will move on Monday to declare independence from Spain, a regional government source said, as the European Union nation nears a rupture that threatens the foundations of its young democracy and has unnerved financial markets.
Pro-independence parties which control the regional parliament have asked for a debate and vote on Monday on declaring independence, the source said. A declaration should follow this vote, although it is unclear when.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont earlier told the BBC that his government would ask the region’s parliament to declare independence after tallying votes from last weekend’s referendum, which Madrid says was illegal.
“This will probably finish once we get all the votes in from abroad at the end of the week and therefore we shall probably act over the weekend or early next week,” he said in remarks published on Wednesday.
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/10/catalonia-moves-declare-independence-spain-monday/
Stephen Bannon’s Breitbart News opposed President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Luther Strange in last month’s Senate primary in Alabama. The website has criticized Trump’s encouragement of congressional action that would allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States legally, and it tore into his August decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.
ReplyDelete...
Here, the dealmaking instinct of the businessman-president shows through. Trump might feel a sense of loyalty to the NRA for its steady support, but the allure of striking a bargain on a historically intractable issue could be hard to resist.
Steve Bannon looks like he starts drinking heavily from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed. He needs to see a skin doctor.
Delete:) He sure does !
DeleteGot that disheveled drunken look.
A shave and a haircut would be a place to start.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTrump Expected to Declare Iran in Breach of Nuclear Deal
ReplyDeleteInability to monitor Iranian work on nuclear explosives could be end of accord
BY: Adam Kredo
October 4, 2017 11:45 am
The Trump administration is expected to announce next week that it will not formally certify Iran as in compliance with the landmark nuclear agreement, a move that could kill the agreement and set the stage for Congress to reimpose harsh economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, according to multiple U.S. officials and sources familiar with the situation.
While some senior Trump administration officials—including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis—are pushing for President Donald Trump to preserve the deal, it has become increasingly clear the president is frustrated with Iran's continued tests of ballistic missile technology and rogue operations targeting U.S. forces in the region, according to these sources.
Designating Iran as in non-compliance with the deal would loosen restrictions on how the United States can target Tehran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which has been the main entity behind Iran's military operations in Syria and elsewhere in the region. It also would allow the administration to save face in the short-term by not technically walking away from the agreement.
The final nail in the coffin, these sources said, was the recent admission by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, that it cannot fully assess whether Iran is working on sensitive nuclear explosive technology due to restrictions on inspections and specific sites in the Islamic Republic.....
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-expected-declare-iran-breach-nuclear-deal/
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DeleteI would comment about Trump and his bullshit but at this point it would be extremely redundant.
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DeleteBesides, I suspect this is simply another example of Trump's trademark move. Threaten, threaten, threaten and then do nothing.
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DeleteIt could depend on what the polls say that day. I may just send him my Magic 8-Ball and the country will likely be better off.
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GREAT IDEA !!!
DeleteTHAT'S IT !!!!!!!
You can save the Country !
What a fantastic idea, and have The Magic 8-Ball do all the talking too.
It'll be like we're all on super safe auto pilot.
We can all turn to gambling and chasing women full time....
That's simply a fantastic idea !
DeleteDoes a political candidate have to be a human being ?
DeleteMaybe you could run The Magic 8-Ball for President next time around ?
It's got my vote !
It's 35 years old isn't it ?
DeleteI'm certain it is, seems like you've been bragging about it for 100 years at least.
Delete.
DeleteExactly.
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WHY ARE WE THERE?
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — Three United States Army Special Forces were killed and two were wounded on Wednesday in an ambush in Niger while on a training mission with troops from that nation in northwestern Africa, American military officials said.
“We can confirm reports that a joint U.S. and Nigerien patrol came under hostile fire in southwest Niger,” Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the United States Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, said in an email.
WHY ARE WE THERE?
DeleteBattling the ever expanding radicalized Islamic horde.
The Commies are no longer a threat...
DeleteNow it"s radicalized Muslims...
But not the radicalizers.
DeleteIn 2009, Wikileaks published diplomatic cables from the US State Department which spelt out the same concerns.
“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” the documents said. “While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority …
“More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources.”
Deleteout of the 61 groups that are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department, the overwhelming majority are Wahhabi-inspired and Saudi-funded groups, with a focus on the West and Iran as their primary enemy. Only two are Shi’a—Hezbollah and Kataib Hezbollah, and only four have ever claimed to receive support from Iran. Nearly all of the Sunni militant groups listed receive significant support from either the Saudi government or Saudi citizens.
The National Rifle Association, in its first statement on the Las Vegas shooting and in a rare break from its traditional opposition to gun-related regulations, called Thursday for a federal review of so-called bump stocks and suggested new rules might be needed for the device apparently used by the shooter in Sunday’s massacre.
ReplyDelete“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the NRA said in a written statement.
I assume this would be an ATA review.
Delete.
DeleteAmerican Trapshooting Association?
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