October 3, 2017


News and Views


I WONDER, IS THIS GOING TO BE DONALD TRUMP’S “LET THEM EAT CAKE” MOMENT?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/politics/trump-puerto-rico-katrina-deaths/index.html
Trump contrasts Puerto Rico death toll to 'a real catastrophe like Katrina'
By Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 1:45 PM ET, Tue October 3, 2017

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
"Every death is a horror," Trump said
Rosselló said he expected the death count to rise

(CNN)President Donald Trump told Puerto Rican officials Tuesday they should be "very proud" that hundreds of people haven't died after Hurricane Maria as they did in "a real catastrophe like Katrina."

"Every death is a horror," Trump said, "but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous -- hundreds and hundreds of people that died -- and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering ... no one has ever seen anything like this."

"What is your death count?" he asked as he turned to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. "17?"

"16," Rosselló answered.

"16 people certified," Trump said. "Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people and all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in Puerto Rico."

Trump tells Puerto Rico 'You've thrown our budget a little out of whack'


WATCH THE BREAKING NEWS VIDEO WITH THIS ARTICLE. PEOPLE THINK TRUMP’S A CHUMP AND THEY’RE LETTING IT BE KNOWN. SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS AND A DEMOCRAT WEIGHED IN BRIEFLY ALSO, AND A REPUBLICAN TRUMP APOLOGIST TAKES THE OTHER VIEW.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/politics/donald-trump-puerto-rico-visit/index.html
Trump focuses on optics in Puerto Rican visit
By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 12:51 PM ET, Tue October 3, 2017

(CNN)President Donald Trump squarely focused on one task as he landed in Puerto Rico: portraying his administration's response to the devastation on the still-recovering island as a tremendous success.

In so doing, he held an awkward roundtable with local officials where he offered praise for those had been most complimentary to his administration, even as many residents on the island continued to lack access to basic services and criticized the federal response.

The President also appeared to jokingly blame the island and its 3.5 million residents for throwing the federal budget "a little out of whack."

"I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack," Trump said with a grin. "Because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico and that's fine, we've saved a lot of lives."

But the bulk of Trump's remarks on Tuesday focused on praising his administration's response to the destructive hurricane, even as more than half of residents still lack access to potable water and as nearly all of the island remains without power.

Trump contrasts Puerto Rico death toll to 'a real catastrophe like Katrina'

He called out top officials in his administration for praise before the cameras. He told officials they should be "very proud" that only 16 people died in the hurricane -- comparing the death toll to the more than a thousand who died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

And even as he praised some of the island's local officials, he focused squarely on the positive comments those officials have made about him and his administration's response.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselo was called out for praise for "appreciating what we did." The island's representative in Congress, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon, was thanked for saying "such nice things" -- and asked to repeat her praise on Tuesday.

"Right from the beginning this governor did not play politics," Trump said. "He was saying it how it was and he was giving us the highest ratings."

One official Trump did not call out for praise was the mayor of Puerto Rico's capital San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, whom Trump criticized on Twitter over the weekend after she expressed frustration with the pace of the federal response.

As he thanked Gonzalez-Colon, Trump asked her to "say a little something about what you said about us today," before quickly catching himself and adding: "And it's not about me, it's about all of these incredible people from the military to FEMA to the first responders, I've never seen anyone work so hard."

After his roundtable meeting with federal and local officials, Trump headed to Guaynabo, Puerto Rico -- just outside the capital of San Juan -- to tour some of the hurricane's devastation and meet with victims of the storm.

Trump's trip to Puerto Rico came as frustration on the island mounted with the federal response to the storm as the island remained without power. Residents continue to struggle to get access to food and fuel nearly two weeks after the storm hit.


ANOTHER BOLD ACT SAVES “DOZENS” AT THE SHOOTING SITE – AN EX-MARINE SARGENT TAYLOR WINSTON COMMANDEERED A LARGE PICKUP TYPE TRUCK AND FILLED THE TRUCK UP TWO OR THREE TIMES WITH WOUNDED PEOPLE, AND TOOK VICTIMS TO THE HOSPITAL, CHOOSING THE MOST SERIOUSLY INJURED EACH TIME. THE MARINES SAY THEY “BUILD MEN,” AND IN THIS CASE THAT IS CERTAINLY TRUE. HE DESERVES A CONGRESSIONAL OR PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL FOR WHAT HE DID. I LOVE TO SEE ORDINARY PEOPLE STEP UP AND HIT A HOME RUN LIKE THIS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/las-vegas-shooting-veteran-takes-truck-transports-wounded-to-hospital/
CBS NEWS October 3, 2017, 7:35 AM
Veteran steals truck, transports dozens to hospital after Las Vegas shooting

Taylor Winston had remarkable poise less than 24 hours after Sunday night's deadly mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music concert. The Marine veteran ran from danger after a sniper opened fire on the crowd, but instead of leaving, he drove more than two dozen victims to the hospital.

Winston said he loaded some of the most critical victims into a stolen truck and sped to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center – all before ambulances had arrived on scene, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell.

"Me and a friend went and got a few drinks and found our other friends near the side stage and we just kind of posted up there to watch and enjoy the concert," Winston said.

Winston, and girlfriend Jenn Lewis, were dancing the two-step, stage right. Moments later, the gunfire began.

Photograph -- ctm-1003-winston.jpg, Taylor Winston CBS NEWS

"People started scattering and screaming and that's when we knew something real was happening," Winston said.

Winston, Lewis and thousands of others needed to get to safety, but were boxed in by a fence.

"The shots got louder and louder, closer to us and saw people getting hit, it was like we could be hit at any second. Once we got to the fence, I helped throw a bunch of people over, and got myself over," Winston said. "It was a mini war zone but we couldn't fight back."

The 29-year-old veteran couldn't fight the threat, but he was able to drive.

"I saw a field with a bunch of white trucks. I tested my luck to see if any of them had keys in it, first one we tried opening had keys sitting right there. I started looking for people to take to the hospital," Winston said. "There was just too many and it was overwhelming how much blood was everywhere."

Photograph -- ctm-100317-winston.jpg, The truck Taylor Winston used to transport the wounded to hospitals. CBS NEWS

Victims squeezed into the backseat and spread across the bed of the truck.

"Once we dropped them off, we were like well, let's go back for round two and go get some more," he said. "I transported probably 20 to 30 people injured to the hospital."

Winston joined the Marines at age 17, eventually serving two tours in Iraq. In 2011, he was honorably discharged as a sergeant.

"I think a lot of my training in the military helped me in the situation. We needed to get them out of there regardless of our safety," he said.

Winston rejects the "hero" label. He said he saw many people – like him – doing good deeds.

"There was a lot of bravery and courageous people out there. I'm glad that I could call them my country folk," he said.

Winston says he is just 100 percent lucky that he was not injured or killed. He returned the keys to the owner of the truck Monday night. While he doesn't know which of his passengers survived, he feels confident that his decision made a difference.


SADLY, PADDOCK’S GIRLFRIEND HAS BEEN NAMED “A PERSON OF INTEREST.” I’M NOT SURPRISED IF HE NEEDED HELP TO HANDLE ALL THOSE GUNS, OR BE HIS “LOOKOUT,” ETC. BUT WOMEN ARE NOT USUALLY INVOLVED IN MASS SHOOTINGS.

SEE THE FOLLOWING BY CBS. AN FBI PROFILER QUOTED HERE PITHILY SAID: "THE GENETICS LOAD THE GUN, PERSONALITY AND PSYCHOLOGY AIM IT, AND EXPERIENCES PULL THE TRIGGER, TYPICALLY," CLEMENTE SAID.” IN MY OPINION THAT IS A VERY TRUTHFUL STATEMENT. I WISH EVERYONE WOULD CONSIDER MENTAL HEALTH TO BE A IMPORTANT AN ISSUE AS THIS.

LATER IN THE ARTICLE, DEMOCRATIC SEN. CHRIS MURPHY OF Connecticut IS QUOTED: He said "IT IS POSITIVELY INFURIATING THAT MY COLLEAGUES IN CONGRESS ARE SO AFRAID OF THE GUN INDUSTRY THAT THEY PRETEND THERE AREN'T PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSES TO THIS EPIDEMIC." WHEN TRUMP’S PRESS SECRETARY SAID, THAT IT IS A TIME FOR “UNITY” RATHER THAN “A POLITICAL DEBATE.” WELL, IN MY VIEW DISCUSSING AND DOING SOMETHING USEFUL ABOUT GUN CONTROL ISSUES IS NOT “POLITICS,” BUT “STATESMANSHIP.” IT’S BEEN SO LONG SINCE THAT WORD HAS BEEN IN COMMON USE THAT WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS ANYMORE. AS WE CONFLATE POLITENESS WITH “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS,” WE ARE BECOMING A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE MORE AND MORE OUT OF TOUCH WITH DECENCY.

I’M GOING TO QUOTE ONE MORE THING AS WELL FROM THIS ARTICLE. PEOPLE WHO HAVE "NO AFFILIATION, NO RELIGION, NO POLITICS” ARE LIKELY TO BE THOSE WHO HAVE NO EMOTIONAL STRUCTURE OR PERHAPS EVEN AN INTEREST IN THE WORLD OR OTHERS, AND THAT IS DECIDEDLY ABNORMAL.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/gunman-hotel-perch-kills-59-wounds-527-las-071608506.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ecd5e8af-dc90-3332-9efb-d522bf6b8dfa&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Investigators want to talk to Vegas gunman's girlfriend
KEN RITTER and MIKE BALSAMO
Associated Press•October 3, 2017

WATCH ABC LIVE NEWS BROADCAST

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Investigators trying to figure out why Stephen Paddock gunned down 59 people from his high-rise hotel suite are analyzing his computer and cellphone, looking at casino surveillance footage and seeking to interview his girlfriend.

Nearly two days after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, what set off the 64-year-old high-rolling gambler and retired accountant remained a big question mark Tuesday, though the Las Vegas sheriff said he is confident investigators will find a motive.

Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, is considered a "person of interest" and has been speaking with police from the Philippines, where she is traveling, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.

"We anticipate some information from her shortly," he said.

While the probe into Paddock's background included searches of two houses he owned in Nevada, some investigators turned their focus from the shooter's perch to the festival grounds outside the Mandalay Bay hotel casino where his victims fell.

A dozen investigators, most in FBI jackets and all wearing blue booties to avoid contaminating the scene, documented evidence at the site where gunfire rained down Sunday night and country music gave way to screams of pain and terror.

"Shoes, baby strollers, chairs, sunglasses, purses. The whole field was just littered with things," said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who told The Associated Press it was like a "war zone." ''There were bloodstains everywhere."

Paddock killed himself before a SWAT team blew off the door of his room on the 32nd floor.

Investigators found video cameras set up inside his room and on a service cart outside it to spy anyone coming his way, Lombardo said.

A hotel security guard who approached the room during the rampage was shot through the door and wounded in the leg.

Paddock had 23 guns with him at the hotel, along with devices that can enable a rifle to fire continuously, like an automatic weapon, authorities said. Nineteen more guns were found at his Mesquite home and seven at his Reno house.

More than 500 people were injured in the rampage, some by gunfire, some during the chaotic escape. At least 45 patients at two hospitals remained in critical condition.

All but three of the dead had been identified by Tuesday afternoon, Lombardo said.

Retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente speculated that there was "some sort of major trigger in his life — a great loss, a breakup, or maybe he just found out he has a terminal disease."

Clemente said a "psychological autopsy" may be necessary to try to establish the motive for the attack. If the suicide didn't destroy Paddock's brain, experts may even find a neurological disorder or malformation, he said.

He said there could even be a genetic component to the slaughter: Paddock's father was a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list in the 1960s and was diagnosed a psychopath.

"The genetics load the gun, personality and psychology aim it, and experiences pull the trigger, typically," Clemente said.

Paddock had a business degree from Cal State Northridge. In the 1970s and '80s, he worked as a mail carrier and an IRS agent and held down an auditing job in the Defense Department, according to the government. He later worked for a defense contractor.

He had no known criminal record, and public records showed no signs of financial troubles, though he was said to be a big gambler.

"No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff," his brother, Eric Paddock, said outside his Florida home. He said he was at a loss to explain the massacre.

Nevada's Gaming Control Board said it will pass along records compiled on Paddock and Danley to investigators. Danley is expected to speak with detectives when she returns to the U.S. from out of the country.

The FBI discounted the possibility of international terrorism early on, even after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sally Ho and Brian Skoloff in Las Vegas; Brian Melley in Los Angeles; and Sadie Gurman and Tami Abdollah in Washington contributed to this report.

For complete coverage of the Las Vegas shooting, click here: —https://apnews.com/tag/LasVegasmassshooting.



TWENTY-THREE GUNS IN THE HOTEL ROOM AND 19 MORE AT HOME. THIS IS GUN MANIA, NOT A GUN HOBBY. THE MOTHER OF THE YOUNG MAN WHO KILLED SO MANY AT SANDY HOOK HAD A SIMILAR COLLECTION. SHE ALSO HAD ALLOWED HER SON TO STOP HIS PSYCHIATRIC MEDICINE. SHE KNEW ABOUT HIS ILLNESS AND DID NOTHING. WE ARE IN SO MANY WAYS AN IGNORANT SOCIETY. MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT CONSIDERED “REAL,” BUT RATHER UNDER THE INDIVIDUAL’S CONTROL IF HE WERE TO CHOOSE TO “HANDLE IT” HIMSELF. TO SUCH PEOPLE IT’S “SIN,” OR “WEAKNESS.” A HUNDRED YEARS AGO THAT WOULD HAVE MADE A LITTLE MORE SENSE, BUT THIS IS A MODERN AGE OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND WE ARE NOT A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, SO I DO BLAME PEOPLE FOR HANGING ON TO VIEWS LIKE THAT. IN MY VIEW THAT WHOLE THOUGHT COMPLEX IS STRUCTURED LIKE A BALL OF YARN AFTER THE CAT GETS HIS PAWS ON IT.

WOULDN’T IT BE INTERESTING IF A SIZABLE AND ORGANIZED GROUP OF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND LIBERAL THINK TANK THINKERS WOULD DIG INTO THE FINANCES OF EACH PERSON IN THE LEGISLATURES FROM NATIONAL TO STATE TO LOCAL LEVELS TO SEE HOW MUCH MONEY EACH OF THEM GETS FROM THE GUN LOBBIES. I’LL BET THE MORE AVARICIOUS AND RUTHLESS CONGRESS AND SENATE MEMBERS EVEN NEED WAYS TO “LAUNDER” THEIR MONEY, SO IT WOULD BE GOOD TO TRACE THAT ALSO. I ASSUME THERE ARE OTHER GUN ORGANIZATIONS BESIDES THE NRA, BUT I DON’T KNOW ANY OF THEIR NAMES.

THEN, OF COURSE, WE NEED TO PUBLISH THAT DATA IN A VERY BRAVE NEWS SOURCE WITH DEEP POCKETS LIKE THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE WASHINGTON POST. ADD IN NPR, MOTHER JONES, AND THE HUFFINGTON POST AS WELL. IF THE AMOUNT OF CORRUPT INTERACTION BETWEEN THE LEGISLATIVE BODIES WERE MADE KNOWN, THERE MIGHT POSSIBLY BE A NATIONAL UPRISING AMONG THE CITIZENS OF THE USA, OR AT LEAST A LARGE “STINK” OF THE SORT THAT WILL AFFECT THE ACTIONS OF CONGRESS.

I DON’T WANT TO SEE ALL GUNS BANNED, BUT RATHER AUTOMATIC WEAPONS AND THESE “BUMPING” DEVICES, PLUS THE EXTRA-LARGE MAGAZINES THAT HAVE BECOME POPULAR. THEN THOSE RELATIVELY SAFE HUNTING GUNS WITH NO MAGAZINE AT ALL AND PISTOLS, COULD BE REGULATED BY HOW MANY ONE INDIVIDUAL SHOULD BE ABLE TO OWN. TO ME A MAXIMUM OF FIVE OR SIX IS A “COLLECTION,” BUT 23 (I THINK THAT’S WHAT THE LATEST FIGURE NAMED WAS) AS WELL AS THE 19 MORE AT HIS HOME, IS “AN ARSENAL.”

WE ALSO MUSTN’T LOSE SIGHT OF THE FACT THAT HIDDEN INSANITY NEEDS TO BE DISCOVERED AND TREATED UNDER A MANDATE WHEN IT IS FOUND. I WONDER IF THIS MAN PADDOCK LOOKED AT HIS GUN COLLECTION AND BEGAN TO THINK, “I WISH I HAD A USE FOR ALL THESE!”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shooting-in-las-vegas-news-victims-gunman-stephen-paddock-latest-update/
CBS/AP October 3, 2017, 2:11 AM
Las Vegas shooting: 59 dead, 500+ hurt in Mandalay Bay shooting

Photograph – Mandalay Bay from the air
Photograph – The shooter: Stephen Paddock
CBS video – How law enforcement located Las Vegas gunman
Play video – No known threats in Las Vegas area after massacre
CBSN Live news video
GRAPHICS -- DEADLIEST-MASS-SHOOTINGS-CHART.GIF -- CBS NEWS

LAS VEGAS -- A gunman perched high on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas Strip casino unleashed a shower of bullets down on an outdoor country music festival below, killing 59 people and leaving 527 injured as thousands of frantic concert-goers screamed and ran for their lives, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Monday. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

President Trump called the attack "an act of pure evil" and said the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are working with local authorities in the investigation. Mr. Trump spoke with Nevada's governor and the mayor and sheriff of Las Vegas, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. Mr. Trump held a moment of silence for the victims Monday afternoon and will travel Wednesday to Las Vegas.

Aaron Rouse, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said investigators found "no connection with an international terrorist group" during a press conference earlier Monday.

Play VIDEO -- Police: No known threats in Las Vegas area after massacre

Late Monday evening, officials held another press conference and announced that there are no known threats in the Las Vegas area, according to Las Vegas Asst. Sheriff Todd Fasulo.

Authorities said loved ones or friends can call 1-800-536-9488 to report anyone missing in the wake of the fatal shooting.

Country music star Jason Aldean was performing Sunday night at the end of the three-day Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunman opened fire across the street from inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino.

SWAT teams quickly descended on the concert and the casino, and officers used explosives to get into the hotel room where the suspect was inside, authorities said.

screen-shot-2017-10-02-at-8-18-58-pm.png
CBS NEWS/GOOGLE EARTH
The shooter: Stephen Paddock
How law enforcement located Las Vegas gunman
Play VIDEO
How law enforcement located Las Vegas gunman

The gunman was found dead at the scene and was identified by Lombardo as Stephen Paddock, 64, from Mesquite, Nevada. Investigators are still trying to discern Paddock's motive.

Authorities recovered a total of 42 guns belonging to the shooter -- at least 23 firearms were found in his Mandalay Bay hotel suite, Fasulo said Monday evening. Law enforcement found an additional 19 guns in his home, Fasulo said.

Owners of at least three gun stores in Nevada and Utah said they legally sold a total of six firearms to Paddock, including a reported handgun, two shotguns and three rifles, CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.

"He was visiting all the local firearm shops, is what he told everybody," said Chris Michel, owner of Dixie GunWorx in St. George, Utah.

Lombardo said authorities found explosives and several thousand rounds of ammo along with some electronic devices that police were still evaluating Monday night.

Earlier, officials said they discovered ammonia nitrate in his vehicle.

Play VIDEO -- Las Vegas gunman's past offers little explanation for motive

Lombardo said investigators believe some of Paddock's rifles were modified to fully automatic, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hadn't evaluated them yet.

Two officials familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that Paddock had two "bump-stocks" that could have converted semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones, the news service reported Tuesday.

A semi-automatic weapon requires one trigger pull for each round fired. With a fully automatic firearm, one trigger pull can unleash continuous rounds until the magazine is empty.

The device basically replaces the gun's shoulder rest with a "support step" that covers the trigger opening. By holding the pistol grip with one hand and pushing forward on the barrel with the other, the shooter's finger comes in contact with the trigger. The recoil causes the gun to buck back and forth, "bumping" the trigger.

Technically, that means the finger is pulling the trigger for each round fired, keeping the weapon a legal semi-automatic.

At casinos over the weekend, he used the ID of his girlfriend, 62-year-old Marilou Danley, who had worked at a Reno casino for three years, Pegues reports. Investigators don't believe she's involved but have questions for her when she returns from Tokyo.

Records show that Paddock had been married twice, in 1977 and in 1985, to different women in Southern California. It was unclear when either marriage ended.

Paddock brought the weapons into the hotel himself and used "a device similar to a hammer" to break the window, Lombardo said.

Officials said Paddock shot and killed himself before a SWAT team breached the door.

Play VIDEO -- What are the gun laws in Nevada?

The U.S. Homeland Security Department says there is no "specific credible threat" involving other public venues in the U.S. after the shooting.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed on Monday that Paddock was acting on behalf of the group, but offered no evidence. The terror group said in a statement released by its pseudo-news agency Amaq, citing anonymous sources, that Paddock converted to Islam several months ago and carried out the attack "in response to calls to target states of the coalition" battling ISIS.

U.S. officials dispute ISIS' claim, telling CBS News there are no signs that Paddock had ties to radical Islamic groups or showed signs of being radicalized.

Lombardo said Paddock was not known to law enforcement in Las Vegas.

His brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters Monday that the gunman was a multimillionaire who made much of his money investing in real estate.

He said his brother was an accountant for many years and he wasn't aware of him having financial difficulties.

The shooting

Play VIDEO -- Calls capture first responders struggling to make sense of shooting chaos

Aldean, the performer, was in the middle of a song when the shots came rapidly: Pop-pop-pop-pop. Video of the shooting then showed Aldean stopping and the crowd getting quiet as if they were unsure of what had just happened. The gunman paused and then fired another volley of muzzle flashes from the gold glass casino as more victims fell to the ground while others fled in panic. Some said they hid behind concession stands and other crawled under parked cars.

Gail Davis, who was at the Las Vegas outdoor country music concert Sunday night, witnessed the terrifying scene.

"We went there to see Jason Aldean," she said. "We were standing, like, maybe halfway up. He came on and about 20 to 10, he sang about five songs and all of a sudden we heard about three or four little pop, pop, pops, and everybody looked around and said, 'Oh, it's just firecrackers.' And then we heard pop, pop, pop, and it just kept going and going, and my husband said, 'That's not firecrackers. That sounds like a semi-automatic rifle.' And then everybody started screaming and started to run.

Play VIDEO -- Witness describes horror of Las Vegas mass shooting

"I looked over to my right where this girl had been standing right beside me, and she had fallen -- first, she stood there and she grabbed her stomach and she looked at her hands and her hands were all bloody, and she was wearing, like, a little crop top and, you know, blue jean shorts and cowboy boots, and she looked at her hands and her hands were bloody, and she just kind of screamed and she just fell back."

Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said the music stopped temporarily when the first shots began and the tune even started up again before the second round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.

"It was the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my entire life," Yazzie said. "You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash-flash-flash-flash."

Thousands in the crowd fled as the bullets ran rampant. Monique Dumas from British Columbia, Canada, said she was at the concert, six rows from the stage when she thought she heard a bottle breaking, and then a burst of popping sounds that may have been fireworks. She said as she made her way out it was "organized chaos" as everyone fled. "It took four to five minutes and all that time there was gunfire."

"It's a devastating time," Lombardo said.

Play VIDEO -- ER doctor talks Las Vegas mass shooting, urges blood donations

Police shut down the usually busy Las Vegas Boulevard and authorities across the state and federal ranks converged onto the scene as dozens of ambulances ferried those struck by gunfire. Nearby Interstate 15 and flights at McCarran International Airport were briefly closed. Hospital emergency rooms were jammed with victims delivered by ambulance. Others loaded the wounded into their cars and drove them to hospitals.

Jose Baggett, 31, of Las Vegas, said he and a friend were in the lobby of the Luxor hotel-casino -- directly north of the festival -- when people began to run, almost like in a stampede. He said people were crying and as he and his friend started walking away minutes later, they encountered police checkpoints where officers were carrying shotguns and assault rifles.

"There were armored personnel vehicles, SWAT vehicles, ambulances, and at least a half-mile of police cars," Baggett said.

Las Vegas music festival shooting

Among those killed were two off-duty police officers who were attending the concert. Two on-duty officers were wounded, including one who underwent surgery and was upgraded to stable condition early Monday, police said.

Hours after the shooting, Aldean posted on Instagram that he and his crew were safe and said the shooting was "beyond horrific."

"It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night," Aldean said.

Politicians react

The shooting prompted reactions from politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington and around the country.

Mr. Trump said the nation must stay unified. He said that although "feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that binds us today and always will."

"In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has," Mr. Trump said Monday morning at the White House. "Our unity cannot be shattered by evil" and "our bonds cannot be broken by violence."

Trump speaks of sadness, faith in aftermath of Las Vegas massacre
Play VIDEO
Trump speaks of sadness, faith in aftermath of Las Vegas massacre

Mr. Trump also issued a proclamation ordering flags be flown at half-staff until sunset Oct. 6.

The proclamation covers flags at the White House and all public buildings, military posts, naval stations and naval vessels throughout the U.S. and all territories. It also extends to embassies, military facilities and other sites overseas.

At the daily White House briefing on Monday afternoon, Sanders, the press secretary, said now is not the time to talk about gun control.

"There's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country," Sanders said. She said Mr. Trump is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says he agrees with Mr. Trump that the shooting was "an act of pure evil."

Play VIDEO -- How did Las Vegas shooter get his guns?

Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, returned to the Capitol last week after he was shot and critically wounded in June as he and fellow Republicans practiced for a congressional baseball game. Scalise said he prays for the victims of the shooting and that the whole nation grieves with their loved ones.

Scalise encouraged people across America to stand together in solidarity to support the Las Vegas community, "especially by giving blood and encouraging others to do the same. In the face of unspeakable evil, our whole nation must respond with countless acts of kindness, warmth and generosity."

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said it's time for Congress to do something about mass shootings. Murphy, a leading gun-control proponent, said mass shootings had become an "epidemic" in America.

He said "it is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic."

Other Democrats condemned the shooting but did not specifically urge gun-control legislation. Action in the Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely.

House Speaker Paul Ryan ordered flags over the Capitol lowered to half-staff and said "the whole country stands united in our shock, in our condolences and in our prayers."



https://www.yahoo.com/news/first-photographs-inside-las-vegas-130838209.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=b651dd5b-b580-37ac-a559-8c110b17ac33&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Rob Crilly
The Telegraph•October 3, 2017
First photographs from inside Las Vegas gunman's hotel room show assault rifles used in attack

Photograph -- One of the weapons apparently used by Stephen Paddock inside his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel - @Boston25/Twitter

The first photographs from inside the hotel room used by Stephen Paddock during his killing spree show the fire power he used to kill 59 people in Las Vegas.

One image appears to show an assault rifle fitted with a legal modified stock, which uses the weapon's recoil to allow the shooter to fire rounds at a speed approaching that of a fully automatic gun.

Police confirmed that Paddock had fitted two "bump stocks", which can be obtained for as little as $99 (£75).

A second picture obtained by Boston25 News shows an assault rifle, abandoned on the carpet, fitted with a bipod and scope.

Photograph -- A photo from inside the hotel room where Paddock launched his attack, showing one of the weapons apparently used - Credit: Boston25 News

Dozens of spent cartridges show the intensity of the attack. And a hammer, possibly used to smash the suite's corner windows, can be seen clearly.

In all police say Paddock had 23 guns inside room 32135 of the Mandalay Bay hotel, and another 19 at his home.

Inside a Mandalay Bay hotel suite

Housekeepers say they noticed nothing that would have alerted them to his plans, but Joseph Lombardo, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said he had used more than 10 bags to carry his weapons up to the 32nd floor.

From his vantage point, Paddock had an uninterrupted view of the Route 91 Harvest Festival where some 22,000 people gathered below.

Security guards were met by bullets as they approached the door to the suite.

Paddock was dead by the time police officers used explosives to gain entry.



WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD? SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NEW GOVERNMENT, AND IT ISN’T ONE THAT BODES WELL FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OR FOR THE CITIZENS THERE. HE IS DETAINING ALL WHOM HE FEARS MAY BE DANGEROUS TO THE GOVERNMENT, WHICH INCLUDES, AS USUAL, THE INTELLECTUALS. THE REASON GIVEN BY A WITNESS FOR IMPRISONMENT UNDER THIS NEW SAUDI ADMINISTRATION OF CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN IS THAT “THEY HAD NOT VOCALLY JOINED THE CONDEMNATION OF QATAR.” I ABSTAIN JUST ISN’T ACCEPTABLE THERE. “IF YOU AIN’T FOR US, YOU’RE AGIN’ US!”

THIS IS THE KIND OF THING THAT I FEAR MOST ABOUT GROUP-THINK CULTURES. PEOPLE DON’T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING WRONG TO BE PUT INTO PRISON OR WORSE. IT’S THE “THOUGHT POLICE” AT WORK. IT’S ALSO WHAT PEOPLE SOMETIMES DO IN VERY SMALL RURAL COMMUNITIES WHERE ALMOST EVERYONE THERE ARE TOO MUCH ALIKE PHILOSOPHICALLY, AND THE ATMOSPHERE IS EXTREMELY RIGID. NEW IDEAS DIE IN SUCH AN ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE WHO DARE TO SHOW ANY DISAGREEMENT MAY BE IMPRISONED OR WORSE. I ALSO THINK THAT PHILOSOPHY IS HIGHLY LIKELY TO SPREAD TO OTHER NATIONS, CAUSING THEM TO BECOME OUR ENEMIES RATHER THAN ALLIES. THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED IN NAZI GERMANY AS IT TOOK OVER HALF OF EUROPE, AND THRUST US INTO THE WORLDWIDE DESTRUCTION OF WORLD WAR II.

ON GROUP-THINK AS A NATIONAL PATTERN IN THIS COUNTRY, THAT VARIES FROM PLACE TO PLACE AND IN DIFFERING CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT MOST OF IT IS IN REGARD TO GROUP ETHNICITY AND UNITY ISSUES. WHO WE ARE AS A PEOPLE IS THE ROOT OF OUR PROBLEMS LATELY. TOO MANY RELIGIONS WORLDWIDE FOLLOW THE SAME RESTRICTIVE PATTERN, INCLUDING SOME IN THE USA AT THIS TIME.

IT’S ALL ABOUT FUNDAMENTALIST THINKING, WHICH IS BECOMING MORE AGGRESSIVE AND MORE DEEPLY INVOLVED IN GOVERNMENT IN THE USA, AND CHRISTIAN GROUPS WHO CALL THEMSELVES “DOMINIONISTS” ACTUALLY ADVOCATE THE CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT BY THEIR PARTICULAR CHRISTIAN FAITH. FREEDOM OF RELIGION IS GOOD, BUT ANY MANDATORY PARTICIPATION IS AT THE OPPOSITE POSITION ON THAT SPECTRUM OF IDEAS. THAT SORT OF THING ISN’T RELIGION, WHICH IS INDIVIDUAL, INTERNAL AND IMPROVING. GANGING UP TOGETHER TO LYNCH A POOR BLACK MAN, FOR INSTANCE, IS NOT “IMPROVING;” AND IF A GOD IS BEING WORSHIPPED, IT IS SATAN.

WHAT IS HAPPENING UNDER THE NEW SAUDI CROWN PRINCE IS SIMPLE SUBJUGATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE STATE. IT HAS ALWAYS DISTURBED ME THAT SO MANY ALLIES OF THE USA OUTSIDE OF EUROPE HAVE, FOR DECADES, BEEN NOTICEABLY LESS THAN DEMOCRATIC, AND EVEN TOTALITARIAN. THAT INCLUDES MANY IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN AS WELL AS THE MIDDLE EAST.

I HOPE THIS POLICY OF “DETAINING CRITICS” WON’T START HERE UNDER TRUMP -- AND IT PROBABLY WON’T. FROM WHAT I KNOW OF OUR CITIZENRY, BOTH THE LEGISLATURE AND THE PEOPLE AT LARGE SIMPLY WON’T STAND FOR IT. FOR THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS DISCUSSION, HOWEVER, SEE ALSO THE TRUTHOUT ARTICLE BELOW.

DETAINING PEOPLE “PREVENTATIVELY” HAS BEEN ALLOWED BY THE SUPREME COURT, AND STILL OCCURS. DURING WWII THE JAPANESE WERE HELD HERE IN WHAT AMOUNTED TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS, BASED PURELY ON THEIR ETHNICITY; THOUGH THEY WERE NOT TREATED, FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, IN THE SAME DISGUSTING WAYS THAT THE JEWS WERE UNDER THE NAZIS.

READ HTTP://ENCYCLOPEDIA.DENSHO.ORG/ASSEMBLY_CENTERS/ FOR MORE ABOUT THAT. SEE ALSO EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S ORDER WHICH WAS SIGNED ON FEBRUARY 19, 1942.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-clerics.html?emc=edit_nn_20171001&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=79565769&te=1
Saudi Arabia Detains Critics as New Crown Prince Consolidates Power
By BEN HUBBARD SEPT. 14, 2017

Photograph -- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last year. Some Saudis see him as a power-hungry upstart who is overturning decades of tradition. Credit Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Saudi Arabia has begun a wide-ranging crackdown against perceived opponents of the policies of the kingdom’s new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Over the last week, 16 people were held, their friends, relatives and associates said in interviews. They include prominent Islamic clerics, academics, a poet, an economist, a journalist, the head of a youth organization, at least two women and one prince, a son of a former king.

Some of them were taken from their homes in unannounced raids by security forces, and their computers, cellphones and personal papers were seized, the friends and relatives said. Those arrested have been held incommunicado, and it is not clear if they have been formally charged with crimes. Saudi Arabia has not publicly released any evidence it might have against them.

Saudi activists have circulated lists of 30 or more people they say have been detained, but the scale and goals of the crackdown remain unclear, even to those who fear they could be targeted.

“It is absurd,” said Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has advised the Saudi government and is now staying in the United States because he fears arrest if he returns home. He dismissed the idea promoted by government supporters on social media that the detained individuals were plotting against the country.

“There were no conspiracies,” he said. “There was nothing that called for such arrests. They are not the members of a political organization, and they represent different points of view.”

Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comments.

The crackdown comes at a critical time for the kingdom, one of the few remaining absolute monarchies. The drop in oil prices has undermined its economy and the new crown prince has proposed sweeping measures to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on oil.

While many of the proposed changes are popular with Saudis and hailed as necessary for the kingdom’s future, some see the 32-year-old prince as a power-hungry upstart who is endangering the kingdom by overturning decades of tradition. Even if the reforms work, they could hit many Saudis in the wallet, lowering their standard of living.

Crown Prince Mohammed, a son of King Salman, pushed aside his rival, Mohammed bin Nayef, earlier this year to become his father’s heir to the throne and has worked to consolidate power. Many Saudis and foreign officials have speculated that King Salman could abdicate in favor of his son; some speculate that the arrests aimed to smooth that transition by tamping down criticism of his policies.

Others have cheered the arrests, accusing the detainees of working to destabilize the kingdom and suggesting the names of others they believe are beholden to foreign powers.

The young prince has spearheaded the kingdom’s military intervention in Yemen, which has largely failed to accomplish its goals, as well as its boycott of neighboring Qatar, which Saudi Arabia and three of its Arab allies accuse of sponsoring terrorism and meddling in the affairs of neighboring states. Qatar has denied the allegations, and no other countries have joined the boycott.

Saudi Arabia, where political parties are banned and the news media tightly controlled, has long had tight restrictions on expression, but the government has signaled even less tolerance now for dissenting views.

On Monday, as the arrests were picking up, the State Security Directorate announced that it had arrested and was investigating a number of Saudis and foreigners who were working “for the benefit of foreign parties against the security of the kingdom.”

A day later, a Twitter account run by the Interior Ministry, which oversees the security forces, called on Saudi citizens to report anyone who “published terrorist or extremist ideas” via the governmental cellphone application “We Are All Security” that was designed to facilitate crime reporting.

None of those arrested had publicly called for the overthrow of the government or for acts of extremism. But since the government has branded Qatar a supporter of terrorism, any show of support for Saudi Arabia’s small neighbor is suspect.

Mr. Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, said the only characteristic the detained shared was that they had not vocally joined the condemnation of Qatar.

Photo -- Salman al-Awda, a Saudi cleric with a large social media following, was among those being held.

“They are the silent or the people who refused to jump in the wagon with the government in its campaign against Qatar,” he said. “They saw that this was not the thing to do, but they did not go against the government.”

Among the most prominent was Salman al-Awda, a popular Saudi cleric with a large social media following and a history of not sticking with the government line.

After a telephone call between Prince Mohammed and the emir of Qatar, Shiekh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Mr. Awda wrote on Twitter that he hoped they would reconcile.

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

“May God harmonize their hearts for the good of their people,” he wrote.

He was arrested from his home over the weekend and has not been heard from since, according three Saudis who know him. Like other associates of the detained, they spoke on condition of anonymity for fear that they, too, could be arrested.

That is what happened to Mr. Awda’s brother, Khalid, who was arrested after tweeting about his brother’s arrest.

“The size of the demagogy we enjoy has been revealed,” he wrote.

Also caught up in the sweep was Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd, a son of King Fahd and a nephew of King Salman, according to an associate of the royal family and another person briefed on the matter.

Prince Abdulaziz, who had upset the government with his Twitter feed, was confined to a palace in the Saudi city of Mecca earlier this month after meeting King Salman at the end of the hajj pilgrimage. It remains unclear whether he is still there or is now being held elsewhere.

Even longtime dissidents have been surprised by the arrest campaign.

“What is happening, I haven’t seen it in my life,” said Abdulaziz al-Hussan, a Saudi lawyer who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States after falling afoul of the government for his political activism.

The government had long managed nonviolent dissidents quietly, by summoning them to security offices for scolding and making them sign vows to stay in line before releasing them, he said. But this time, he said, the government had sent security forces to their homes to arrest them in front of their wives and children, as they would do with suspected terrorists.

Mr. Hussan said he believed the crackdown was an effort by the crown prince to shore up his power, and called the action an overreaction because little organized political opposition remained in the kingdom.

“No one is going to take away your rule or keep you from becoming king,” he said, rhetorically addressing Crown Prince Mohammed. “It’s really a joke.”

Also arrested was Essam al-Zamil, a writer and economist who had taken to Twitter to express doubts about the plan to privatize a portion of Saudi Aramco, the state oil monopoly. Mr. Zamil later deleted the posts.

He was joined by Ziyad bin Naheet, a poet who had used social media to praise the country and its policies. His friends assumed he had been arrested for criticizing the harsh rhetoric against Qatar.

“The role that the media are playing today is a very, very, very negative and bad role, and I think there is no logical person who is pleased with what is happening,” Mr. bin Naheet said in a video.

The largest number of those arrested were clerics, some of them Islamist activists who had links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Saudi Arabia considers a terrorist organization.

But not all. Hassan al-Maliki had written that Wahhabism, the ultraconservative strain of Islam promoted by the Saudi state, fueled extremism by demonizing non-Muslims. He, too, was arrested, his son Alabbas wrote on Twitter.

“We confirm that my father, Sheikh Hassan al-Maliki, is not a political opponent and does not belong to any political party,” he wrote.

Follow Ben Hubbard on Twitter @NYTBen.



SOME OF THE INSTANCES OF IMPRISONING AMERICANS FOR PURELY POLITICAL REASONS THAT ARE GIVEN IN THIS TRUTHOUT ARTICLE DO STRIKE ME AS BEING LEGITIMATE CASES OF DANGERS TO THE COUNTRY, BUT OTHERS ARE MUCH MORE DISTURBING. NO PERSON SHOULD BE IMPRISONED WITHOUT PROOF OF A GENUINE THREAT, AND A HEARING TO PROVE THAT. SOME CASES OF INCARCERATION MERELY REGARDING AN INABILITY TO PAY A FINE HAVE BEEN IN THE NEWS RECENTLY. THOSE ARE PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AS WELL – NO DEBTORS’ PRISON IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALLOWED. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT LOCAL JUDGES AND POLICE DEPARTMENTS WON’T MAKE SUCH ARRESTS AND SENTENCES, THOUGH. THIS IS A PROFOUNDLY DEPRESSING SUBJECT TO ME. IT’S SHEER HYPOCRISY ON THE PART OF THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY NOT TO MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE HORRIBLE, UNDEMOCRATIC PRACTICE. IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS A SITUATION OF SOMEONE WHO HASN’T ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY THE FINE AND MOUNT A DEFENSE, WHO ISN’T WHITE, OR WHO DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH.

THIS ARTICLE IS LONG, BUT VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIONAL. GIVE IT A TRY, ANYWAY.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32043-beyond-innocence-america-s-political-prisoners-and-the-fight-against-mass-incarceration
Beyond Innocence: US Political Prisoners and the Fight Against Mass Incarceration
Friday, July 24, 2015
By Dan Berger, Truthout | Report

(Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout)

Help Truthout keep publishing stories like this: They can't be found in corporate media! Make a tax-deductible donation today.

President Obama's recent statements about mass incarceration, together with his decision to commute the sentences of 46 people serving lengthy and life sentences in federal prison on drug charges, treat "nonviolent drug offenders" as the symbolic figureheads of America's prison problem. This framing seems to imply that everyone else actually deserves to be in prison.

But the world's biggest prison system is not filled with nonviolent drug offenders alone. Before and alongside the war on drugs, mass incarceration was built through the wholesale repression of radical movements - especially in communities of color.

Take, for example, the cases of two other people who have long sought commutations from Obama and other presidents before him: Leonard Peltier and Oscar Lopez Rivera. Both men are longtime activists who have each served more than 30 years in prison and garnered international support for their release from figures such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and organizations such as Amnesty International.

"We have to demand freedom for those who struggle for freedom."

Peltier is an Anishinabe-Lakota former member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) serving two life sentences for the 1975 death of two FBI agents killed during a confrontation between FBI and AIM on the Pine Ridge reservation. Lopez Rivera is a Puerto Rican former community organizer from Chicago who is serving a 55-year sentence for "seditious conspiracy," an outmoded charge that makes it illegal to plot against the US government.

Throughout the 20th century, the United States has tried dozens of Puerto Rican independence activists with seditious conspiracy - including 11 of Lopez Rivera's codefendants, whom President Clinton freed in 1999 after a remarkable campaign for their release.

"We have to demand freedom for those who struggle for freedom," said Alejandro Molina, a member of the coordinating committee for the National Boricua Human Rights Campaign, a prominent organization demanding freedom for Lopez Rivera.

Peltier and Lopez Rivera are two among dozens of people incarcerated for actions they took as part of radical social movements. Many are former members of the Black Panther Party - people such as Herman Bell, Romaine Chip Fitzgerald and Ed Poindexter - who have been in prison for more than 40 years. They are some of America's political prisoners.

For some, the idea of political prisoners conjures images of far-off dictatorial regimes imprisoning opponents for their beliefs. Yet this country has a long history of imprisoning its dissidents. Political prisoners have included people incarcerated for nonviolent direct actions, such as sabotaging nuclear weapons facilities or participating in civil disobedience. But the ones who have received the longest sentences and the harshest treatment inside are people who have been convicted of violent offenses, typically against police, or conspiring against the government.

In fact, political prisoners have been the canaries in the coal mine for mass incarceration: Some of the most distinguishing features of the American prison state - aggressive policing, hefty charges, preventive detention, lengthy sentences, parole denial and prolonged solitary confinement - were first deployed as means to stop radical social movements beginning in the 1960s. Political dissidents and other oppressed communities remain guinea pigs for the intensity of American punishment.

Who Qualifies as a Political Prisoner?

Focusing on the issue of political prisoners more broadly provides a fuller accounting of where mass incarceration comes from and how it works than does a narrow focus on nonviolent drug offenders. It also connects today's movements to ones that came before.

"They are freedom fighters who stand as living reminders of the Black Freedom struggle, the criminalization of black resistance, and a Black Liberation Movement that started centuries before their birth," activists déqui kioni-sadiki and Sekou Odinga wrote of Black political prisoners in a recent issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy. Kioni-sadiki chairs the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, which hosts an annual dinner in support of political prisoners. Odinga was paroled at the end of 2014, after serving more than 33 years in maximum-security prisons for helping free fellow Panther Assata Shakur from prison in 1979, among other charges. Shakur was granted political asylum in Cuba, where she has lived since 1984.

Defining who is a political prisoner is a challenge - especially in a country with a prison population so large, impoverished and disproportionately Black, Latino/a or gender nonconforming. Every aspect of the law, from policing to imprisonment, is shaped by complex political processes, and so everyone in prison is there, in some sense, as a consequence of politics.

"The vast majority of people in prison are there not so much for what they did but for who they were when they did it," said Laura Whitehorn, who spent more than 14 years in prison for conspiring to bomb several government buildings in protest of police killings and aggressive US foreign policies in the 1980s.

Everyone in prison may be subject to what Whitehorn calls a "political system of 'justice.' " But there is a difference between that and "someone who breaks the law or is treated unfairly because of their involvement in social struggle."

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover described first the Black Panther Party and later AIM as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."

Political prisoners are incarcerated not just for their beliefs or identities, but also for the actions they took in service of those beliefs. They are people who "commit a political act that has a criminal consequence," said Lois Ahrens, director of the Real Cost of Prisons Project, which educates people about the American prison system and supports people within it. Some of history's most famous political prisoners - Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. - all violated the laws of their nation in pursuit of social justice. That is why international law defines political prisoners as those who struggle against racist or oppressive regimes, including through force. Mandela, for instance, was imprisoned for his role in armed resistance to apartheid.

"I don't think you can separate the issue of who is a political prisoner from the politics and movements for progressive social change and national liberation that exist around the world," said Bob Boyle, an attorney in New York City who has represented several political prisoners.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover described first the Black Panther Party and later AIM as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." Many of America's political prisoners began their activism in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s before joining above-ground organizations such as the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, the Republic of New Afrika or underground organizations such as the Black Liberation Army, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, or the Weather Underground.

These and other revolutionary organizations at the time came under intense repression by various law enforcement agencies. Most famously, the FBI initiated its notorious counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) to spy on, intimidate, harass, imprison and even kill activists from the Black Power, Puerto Rican independence, indigenous sovereignty and antiwar movements.

"It was a movement that was attacked, not just individuals," Boyle said.

Partly motivated by this repression, some people tried to continue their activism underground. They embraced more militant tactics. When they were arrested, they faced stiff charges and long sentences - longer than those faced by people with no political profile charged with similar offenses. Whitehorn, for instance, was held in preventive detention awaiting trial for nearly five years. During that time, Klan leader Don Black served two years for stockpiling weapons and explosives in a plan to invade the island of Dominica, and abortion clinic bomber Michael Donald Bray served 46 months for bombing 10 abortion clinics.

The criminal charges brought against these activists obscure the political nature of their arrests and ongoing imprisonment. They are doing collective time for the movements they come from. Some people from our movements may have taken "actions that you wouldn't necessarily agree with," Boyle told me. "But there needs to be a recognition that they are still part of the movement."

According to Alicia Garza, cofounder of Black Lives Matter, America's political prisoners remain incarcerated for their vision of universal social justice.

"So we have to ask ourselves, why is the state afraid of them," Garza said in a recent talk. "The simple answer is that the state is afraid because of the fundamental challenges that the Black Liberation movement posed to the ongoing conditions of poverty and racism and patriarchy and privatization and on and on and on. So our fight must also be to free all political prisoners."

Political Prisoners Post-9/11

To Diana Block, a longtime anti-prison activist and founding member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners, it is both "common sense as well as principle" to support people who are repressed for their activism. Otherwise, she said, it may have a chilling effect when the government inevitably responds to increasing radicalism with severe repression.

That chilling effect is especially disconcerting in this moment of renewed activism against prisons and police violence. Already, conservatives have tried to denigrate those killed by police as well as those who protest that violence as "criminals."

"This new movement must prioritize our prisoners - our past prisoners and our prisoners to come," Black Agenda Report editor Glen Ford told an audience in May at the Left Forum conference.

In recent years, the FBI has pursued its targets with a severity reminiscent of its actions 40 years ago. Recent victims include Muslim activists opposed to US wars in the Middle East, radical environmental activists and anarchists. Using informants or entrapment, the FBI has made political prisoners of several such people since 9/11. Once in prison, they have often been placed in solitary confinement as a result of their political beliefs and affiliations. Some, such as army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, have been held in solitary even prior to a conviction.

Take the case of Daniel McGowan, an environmental and social justice activist who was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy and arson charges related to actions he took with the clandestine Earth Liberation Front in the early 2000s. McGowan was arrested in a sweep of radical environmentalists that some activists have taken to calling the "Green Scare." The government added a "terrorism enhancement" to his charges. He ultimately served six years in federal prison.

In August 2008, one year into his sentence, McGowan was transferred to a new isolation unit in Marion, Illinois. It is a prison with a long history of isolating political prisoners through long-term solitary confinement. In the 1970s, the prison was home to a permanent-lockdown unit that even the warden admitted was created to "control revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in the society at large." That control unit confined numerous political prisoners and inspired other isolation prisons, including a short-lived control unit for women political prisoners in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Administrative Maximum prison in Florence, Colorado, which has also housed dozens of political prisoners.

Marion's new experiment in isolation is called a "Communication Management Unit." (Another CMU opened in 2006 at the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.) The prisoners there are kept under more intensive surveillance and less able to communicate with the outside world. The CMUs place extreme limitations on access to phone calls, mail or visits. People are not placed in CMUs for any disciplinary infraction and are given little explanation as to whether or how they might get back to the general population.

The majority of the men are there for their politics: 60 percent of those held in CMUs are Muslim, many of them are the victims of suspect Homeland Security dragnets. A group of CMU prisoners, including McGowan, has sued the BOP to close the unit. As a result of the lawsuit, Aref v. Holder, McGowan discovered that he was placed in the CMU because he wrote a series of political essays for The Huffington Post and activist newspapers, as well as the political tone of his letters.

Objections to the Discourse of Political Imprisonment

Mujahid Farid does not like the designation "political prisoner." He did not even identify as a "prisoner," even though he spent 33 years confined in maximum-security prisons across New York. He spent most of that time writing articles and filing lawsuits around prison conditions; he even cofounded the first comprehensive peer-education AIDS program inside a men's prison. The group formed after Kuwasi Balagoon, a Black Liberation Army political prisoner serving a life sentence, died in prison from an AIDS-related illness.

"I'm against the whole label of people behind the walls as 'prisoners,' period," said Farid, who is now coordinator of the Release Aging People in Prison campaign. "It's a dehumanizing term. We should always refer to people as people, not by one single aspect of their condition. Sometimes it takes an effort, more words, but I think the effort is worth it."

Other people object less to the terminology than to dividing people in prison. Are "political prisoners" more deserving of support than other people in prison? What about the people who become activists once incarcerated?

"There's 50, maybe 100 political prisoners [in the United States], and the amount of attention they get, the resources some of them have versus others just toiling away unknown" is frustrating, said Ahrens. "My connection is to the 99.9 percent of other people who are incarcerated."

Many of the most politically active people in prison are those who became activists to challenge the dire circumstances of confinement.

Ahrens suggests that people "doing the real work" inside deserve wide support and recognition, regardless of the offense for which they were convicted. The people she has in mind are filing lawsuits, protesting abusive treatment, forming civil and human rights organizations, educating other people in prison and the public about life in prison. This often includes people who only became activists once inside. Ahrens regularly communicates with more than 100 such people in prisons throughout the country, none of whom went to prison for politically motivated actions but who have become stalwart organizers.

"They are the ones telling us what's happening inside," Ahrens said. "They know what the fixes are."

Indeed, many of these people have faced similar reprisals for their activism as those imprisoned for activism on the streets: they have been subject to solitary confinement and routinely denied parole. They too have become political prisoners.

Political Organizing Inside Prison Walls

Politics do not end at the prison wall. Prison organizing has simultaneously emphasized ameliorating abuse in prison while working for broader social change. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, political prisoners around the country conducted urgent life-saving work around HIV/AIDS that included peer education and protests against institutionalized homophobia.

Today, as Ahrens suggests, many of the most politically active people in prison are those who became activists to challenge the dire circumstances of confinement. Several of them were mentored or inspired by political prisoners of the 1960s and 1970s.

Robert Saleem Holbrook was just 16 years old when he was sentenced to life without parole in 1991. Once inside Pennsylvania's state prisons, he met veterans of the Black Panther Party and other Black radical movements. They taught him and other younger prisoners to challenge both their own self-destructive behaviors and the violence of the government.

"Prisoners like myself and countless others who came to prison for offenses unrelated to political activity, that have been influenced and inspired by the example of Political Prisoners, have used their examples to transition ourselves out of the criminal behavior and thought process," Holbrook wrote about the mentorship he received in prison.

The men mentoring Holbrook included former Black Panther Russell Maroon Shoatz and Joseph Jojo Bowen, a one-time gang member who killed a warden and deputy warden in 1973, allegedly in retaliation for the intense repression of Muslim prisoners. Both tried to escape prison several times in the 1970s and early 1980s. Shoatz escaped in 1977 and 1980, and Bowen led an ambitious but failed escape attempt in 1981. Pennsylvania authorities have kept both men in solitary confinement for decades. Bowen has been in solitary since 1981, while Shoatz was released into the general population in 2013, after his family campaigned to end a 22-year stretch of isolation.

Each book and zine shared is a small act of resistance.

Even prolonged isolation, however, failed to stop their organizing. Holbrook points to Shoatz and Bowen as inspirations for his own activism inside prison. Holbrook has been a prodigious author, an advisor to Decarcerate PA and the Human Rights Coalition and cofounded an innovative correspondence course program for Pennsylvania prisoners in solitary confinement.

Holbrook's example is telling. Much of today's organizing inside prison is being done by people compelled to action because of their dire circumstances, regardless of what offenses led to their incarceration. Since 2010, people in several prisons and immigrant detention centers across the country have staged dramatic labor and hunger strikes to protest their conditions. The biggest took place in California, where 30,000 people refused food in 2013 to protest long-term solitary confinement. The leaders of the strike, a multiracial group, explicitly drew on the history of radical Black and Irish nationalism in coming up with their plan. They also issued "An Agreement to End the Hostilities" that urged multiracial and anti-racist unity in California's notoriously divided prison system.

On a daily level, political prisoners serve as mentors - both for people in and out of prison - and work to chip away at the prison system through legal or legislative reform efforts, writing, art, and other means. Being a political prisoner often means sharing resources, whether books, food, or access to legal resources or outside supporters.

"The [Federal] Bureau of Prisons technically prohibits sharing and actively creates boundaries between people, so basically, each book and zine shared is a small act of resistance," said McGowan, who estimates that upwards of 20 people would read the publications he received.

Being a political prisoner entails a long-term focus on education and empowerment. Political prisoners have participated in several innovative projects, including The Jericho Movement, which campaigns for the freedom of US political prisoners, and the Certain Days calendar, a collaboration between prisoners and artists throughout North America. Many political prisoners try to educate people on the outside through books, articles and artwork.

They also work with other people in prison. Tyrrell Muhammad described himself as a "19-year-old wayward young man" when he went to prison in 1979. He turned his life around inside, thanks in part to the mentorship of Albert Nuh Washington, a political prisoner from the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.

"His dedication to people like me was like water to a thirsty man," Muhammad said tearfully at a recent panel.

Washington was imprisoned since 1971. He became a well-respected imam throughout the New York Prison system. Muhammad said Washington tutored him in everything from Mark Twain and the history of slavery to the geopolitics of the African continent. Muhammad credits him with inspiring him to better his life and work for release.

Muhammad was paroled in 2005 and works at the Correctional Association of New York. Washington, however, died of liver cancer in prison on April 28, 2000. His deathbed appeals for compassionate release were denied.

Recent Victories

While the government still refuses to admit the existence of political prisoners, the last 18 months have seen some victories for several long-held political prisoners: Lynne Stewart, a New York attorney who has defended several political prisoners and who was serving a 10-year sentence for violating a gag order placed on one of her clients, was granted compassionate release with stage 4 breast cancer. Former Black Panthers Marshall Eddie Conway, Sekou Kambui and Sekou Odinga were each granted parole after serving more than 30 years in prison.

The last three members of the Cuban Five were freed as part of the move toward normalized relations between the United States and Cuba. Green anarchist Eric McDavid was freed in January after it was revealed that the FBI withheld evidence during his trial that showed that the FBI had entrapped McDavid, leading him to receive a 19-year sentence.

Finally, a New Jersey appeals court ruled that the state had unfairly denied parole to Sundiata Acoli and that the former Black Panther should be released on parole. The 77-year-old former NASA employee has been in prison since 1973, with many years in solitary confinement. He remains in prison as New Jersey authorities appeal the decision.

Aging in Prison

Meanwhile, several others continue to be incarcerated in stark conditions. Albert Woodfox, the last incarcerated member of the Angola 3, remains in solitary confinement after 43 years, despite a judge's order that he be freed. Transgender environmental and labor activist Marius Mason continues to serve the longest sentence - 22 years - of any Green Scare defendant and remains isolated in "administrative detention" without cause.

Many who go to the parole board fare little better. Former Black Panthers Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim, among others, have faced repeated parole denials based on their convicting offense, whipped up by intensive campaigns by police unions and conservative media. In 2005, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez canceled the mandatory parole for Veronza Bower. He remains in prison.

Prison adds undue stress to the process of aging, leading to increased rates of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Perhaps the biggest concern for longtime political prisoners is that of all long-term prisoners: aging in prison and the atrocious state of prison health care. Since Nuh Washington died in 2000, at least six political prisoners have become ill and died either in prison or within weeks of compassionate release - Richard Williams, Marilyn Buck, Teddy Jah Heath, Bashir Hameed, Herman Wallace, and, in January, Phil Africa.

That history has supporters today concerned about the fate of former Black Panthers Mumia Abu-Jamal, the outspoken journalist imprisoned since 1981 who has been struggling with adult-onset diabetes and related conditions since he fainted in diabetic shock in March, and Robert Seth Hayes, battling diabetes, hepatitis C, and some as-of-yet-undiagnosed ailments. Hayes has been in prison since 1973.

Much as prisons try to foreclose the radical imagination, political prisoners animate alternate horizons.

The poor quality of prison health care affects everyone in prison, especially people serving lengthy sentences in maximum-security facilities. Prison adds undue stress to the process of aging, leading to increased rates of high blood pressure and diabetes, among other ailments. Those problems are exacerbated by routine parole denials for many people serving long sentences, especially those convicted of violence against police officers. Blocked parole flies in the face of ample evidence demonstrating that even people who may have committed antisocial acts tend to age out of crime.

These problems - poor health care, punitive isolation, long-term sentences and politically motivated parole denials - provide one arena where the issue of political prisoners connects directly to the overall problem of prisons. That is why, under the slogan of "if the risk is low, let them go," formerly incarcerated people and their advocates launched the Release Aging People in Prison campaign in New York. Similar efforts have formed elsewhere, including Pennsylvania's Coalition Against Death by Incarceration.

The focus on elderly people in prison challenges the way political prisoners have been among those who, as RAPP coordinator Farid put it, have been "treated as sacrificial lambs," first by a punitive state and now by a narrowly construed prison reform. It gets to the core problem of mass incarceration. "Talking about long-term prisoners, why they're in for so long and the politics they have, exposes the structure of permanent punishment," said Whitehorn, also a member of RAPP.

Around the world, countries have often released political prisoners in an attempt to heal past wounds and address current injustices. But the punitive culture of the United States - still unchallenged in mainstream debates about mass incarceration - has yet to excise its demons of repression. As Whitehorn told me, permanent punishment tries to deny "that there are such deep problems in the system that there are movements dedicated to changing them by any means necessary." Much as prisons try to foreclose the radical imagination, political prisoners animate alternate horizons. Their freedom remains a necessary part of the fight against mass incarceration.

For more information about US political prisoners see The Freedom Archives, The Macolm X Grassroots Movement and Prison Radio.

Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

DAN BERGER

Dan Berger is an assistant professor of comparative ethnic studies at the University of Washington Bothell. He is the author of several books and articles on US revolutionary movements, most recently Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era, which won the 2015 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Follow him on Twitter: @dnbrgr.

RELATED STORIES
Mass Incarceration Creates Costly Disaster Across America
By Linn Washington Jr, This Can't Be Hapenning | Report
Solitary Confinement: Torture Chambers for Black Revolutionaries
By Bret Grote, Kanya D'Almeida, Al Jazeera English | Report and Videos
Political Prisoner Marshall Eddie Conway Released After 44 Years
By Susie Day, Truthout | Report



THIS IS A REAL GEM FROM NEW SCIENTIST – HOW THE FIRST LIFE THAT CAN CONSUME AND UTILIZE SOME KIND OF “NUTRIENT,” AND WHICH CAN REPLICATE ITSELF MAY HAVE COME INTO BEING. SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I FOUND A SIMILAR ARTICLE ABOUT A TINY LIFE FORM CALLED ARCHAEA, WHICH ARE FOUND ALONGSIDE BACTERIA IN SOME OF THE EXTREMELY HOT POOLS OF WATER AT YELLOWSTONE IN RELATION TO GEYSERS.

SIMILAR BEINGS ARE RESIDENT IN THE “BLACK SMOKERS” ON THE OCEAN FLOOR WHERE THE VERY ROCK IS SEPARATING AT THE LINES OF THE TECTONIC PLATES. THOSE PLATES ARE OFTEN THE LOCATION OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS. OTHER LITTLE GUYS ACTUALLY EXIST INSIDE ROCK IN SOME SITUATIONS. REALLY? YEAH, REALLY.

FOR MORE ON THAT, GO TO HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/ENDOLITH, “ENDOLITH, FROM WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA. ENDOLITH IS A WORD THAT SAYS IT’S MEANING – ENDO FOR INSIDE AND LITH FOR ROCK.
HTTPS://WWW.YELLOWSTONEPARK.COM/THINGS-TO-DO/SOME-LIKE-IT-HOT-RARE-MICROBES-FLOURISH-IN-YELLOWSTONE-NATIONAL-PARK-GEYSERS-AND-HOT-SPRINGS IS AN ARTICLE THAT DEALS WITH THE ALMOST-BOILING-HOT-WATER LOVING BACTERIA AND ARCHAEA.

I AM PLACING BOTH THE YELLOWSTONE AND THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES BELOW THIS FROM NEWSCIENTIST.COM, WHICH IS THE STAR OF THE SHOW. THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS TWO COMPETING IDEAS OF THE TYPES OF LIFE FORMS AND HOW THEY MAY PERHAPS HAVE ARISEN. ALSO, THEIR THEORY PUSHES THE DATE BACK BY A SIGNIFICANT FRACTION OF A BILLION YEARS. THINGS THAT ZOOM FORWARD INTO AN UNDETERMINED TIME DON’T EXCITE ME MUCH, BUT BACK INTO TIME WHOSE PHYSICAL TRACES STILL EXIST, NOW THAT IS FASCINATING TO ME. SO, HERE IS MY LATEST FRAGMENT OF THE NEWSCIENTIST.COM ARTICLE OF THE DAY. I NEVER HAVE MORE THAN THAT BECAUSE I DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO THEM. IF YOU WANT MORE ON THE SUBJECT, JUST GOOGLE SOME KEYWORDS FROM THE ARTICLE.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2149168-life-may-have-begun-millions-of-years-earlier-than-we-thought/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=ILC&utm_campaign=webpush&cmpid=ILC%257CNSNS%257C2016-GLOBAL-webpush-life
DAILY NEWS 2 October 2017
Life may have begun millions of years earlier than we thought
By Michael Marshall

Photograph -- RNA could have formed in warm little ponds soon after Earth formed
DEA / C. DANI I. JESKE/De Agostini/Getty

Life may have begun on our planet hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought, according to two studies published this week. But both papers are already proving controversial.

Ben Pearce of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues simulated conditions on early Earth to find out how readily the key molecules of life could have formed. They focused on “warm little ponds” on land, which are one of the suspected sites of the origin of life – the other being deep-sea vents.

Pearce tackled the formation of RNA, a close cousin of DNA that is widely thought to have been the basis for the first life. Many of the building blocks of RNA are found in asteroids and meteoroids, so Pearce calculated how much could have been delivered to Earth by impacting rocks – of which there were plenty during Earth’s first billion years – and then how much could have accumulated in ponds, given the molecules’ fragility and tendency to leech away.

He concluded that RNA could have formed within a handful of years of major impacts, implying that life could have formed very early in Earth’s history.

There are two problems with this argument, says John Sutherland of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

One is that organic compounds carried in meteorites would not necessarily survive the impact. “Large impactors that would have delivered the most organic material, collide with such energy that their organic cargo is atomised,” says Sutherland. In line with this, a recent study found that meteorite impacts can create temperatures of more than 2300°C.

The other problem is that Pearce simulated the wrong chemical process, Sutherland says. Pearce assumed that the first step in making RNA is linking together smaller molecules called nucleobases and ribose, but this “was experimentally shown not to work ages ago”, says Sutherland. In 2009 Sutherland demonstrated an alternative way of making RNA from simpler building blocks (Nature, doi.org/chvzcw). “These authors are still assuming the old model,” he says.

A second study, published last Wednesday, claims to have identified the oldest firm evidence of life – dating back 3.95 billion years. That is only half a billion years after the Earth formed. Reliable fossils of microorganisms have been dated to roughly 3.5 billion years ago, but the evidence for older life has been less clear.

Tsuyoshi Komiya of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues studied graphite found in ancient rocks in northern Labrador, Canada. Graphite is a crystalline form of carbon used to make pencil leads. It contains two forms of carbon: carbon-12 and carbon-13. The samples Komiya looked at had relatively little carbon-13 (Nature, doi.org/cdqn).

This, the team claims, is evidence that life was present. And not just any life: organisms that were taking in carbon from their surroundings and using it as raw material to make new organic compounds. Such organisms are known as “autotrophs” and today they include all green plants, which manufacture sugar from carbon dioxide and water. These early autotrophs would have been single-celled organisms and they probably used a different chemical process, but the idea is the same. Autotrophs prefer to use carbon-12, so their remains tend to have very little carbon-13.

This result is surprising for several reasons. First, at this time, Earth was being bombarded by large rocks from space, which would have battered the young planet’s surface. If life was present, it must have been impressively resilient.

But only if Komiya’s study is correct. His only evidence for the existence of life is the unusual ratio of carbon isotopes, and this may not be definitive. “There are many ways in which abiotic processes can produce such an imbalance, so to conclude that it is evidence for life is simply not justified,” says Sutherland.

Sutherland says a set of chemical reactions known as the Fischer-Tropsch process could be responsible. This process makes organic compounds from hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and show a similar bias towards carbon-12. It is known to occur naturally, for instance in meteorites.

Komiya’s team assumed these reactions were not responsible for their results, on the grounds that there cannot have been hydrogen in Earth’s atmosphere. But Sutherland says there could well have been. If there was water and carbon monoxide in the air, and hot iron from meteorite impacts to act as a catalyst, “hydrogen can easily be generated”.

Nevertheless, evidence is mounting that life was present earlier than 3.5 billion years ago. For instance, in 2016 fossilised stromatolites – layered mounds made by microbes living in sediments – were controversially claimed to have been found in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks. Then in March 2017, researchers described apparent fossilised microbes from rocks that were 3.77 to 4.28 billion years old (Nature, doi.org/f9s5gw). That claim also divided opinion.

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1710339114


MORE LITTLE CRITTERS

Https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/some-like-it-hot-rare-microbes-flourish-in-yellowstone-national-park-geysers-and-hot-springs
Rare microbes flourish in yellowstone national park geysers and hot springs
The thermal biology institute at montana state university studies life forms and microbes found in the hot springs and geysers of yellowstone national park.
Staff jun 21, 2011

Rare Microbes Flourish in Yellowstone National Park Geysers and Hot Springs

The hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park attract research from throughout the world, but one of the hotspots of research is found at the Thermal Biology Institute at Montana State University (MSU).

Formed in 1999, the Institute has been likened to a 21st century "Corps of Discovery," focused on expanding knowledge of Yellowstone's geothermal environments.

Rather than focus on the large-scale geology that has raised the specter of a supervolcano slumbering beneath the park, the Institute is more focused on the unique life-forms that live in hot springs--scalding hot water, laden with a witch's brew of chemistry hostile to humans, yet embraced by microbes and viruses.

MSU has been a. pioneer in thermal biology. For example, Keith Cooksey, a microbiology professor, has found microbes in extremely hot environments that feed on CO2 from hot springs. That has raised the possibility that these little bugs could help clean CO2 from smokestacks. Gill Geesey, another university microbiologist, has scuba dived to the bottom of Mary Bay of Yellowstone Lake to research bacteria colonies found at the openings of hydrothermal vents, emitting hydrogen sulfides.

Another researcher, Rich Stout, has helped figure out why hot springs panic grass is so common in geyser basins throughout Yellowstone. It turns out that a microscopic fungus on the roots helps the roots survive and thrive in the hot soil. Tim McDermott, a soil microbiologist and MSU Thermal Biology Institute scientist, says there's interest in transferring this type of plant/fungal partnership to farm fields, to enable wheat or other crop plants to withstand higher soil temperatures during hot, dry Yellowstone summers.

Institute researcher Mark Young, for example, has found novel viruses in environments greater than 175 degrees F at pH 3 or lower-the equivalent of boiling acid!

Research in thermal biology has really been taking off, said Susan Kelly, outreach coordinator for the Institute. She attributes this explosion in research partially to the development of new technologies, which give scientists "higher resolution of things they couldn't see or test before."

As a result, scientists are finding that the "diversity of life in Yellowstone's thermal hot springs is more complex than we'd ever thought before."

University of Colorado researchers have also been busy at Yellowstone. Research published recently in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that heat-loving microbes use hydrogen as an energy source-not just sulfur as was previously believed.

This new insight is bolstering arguments for life in other extreme environments, such as other planets. John Spear, lead author of the report, said there is lots of hydrogen in the universe. If there is life elsewhere in the universe, he said, hydrogen could be the fuel.

At a more mundane level, bacteria in ulcer-plagued stomachs also rely on hydrogen, say scientists. Jack Farmer, an astrobiologist who heads the Arizona State University Lead Team of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, is also fascinated by Yellowstone. He views hot springs as windows to Earth's primitive past, at the dawn of life.

The life forms studied by Farmer and the other scientists live nicely at temperatures between 176 and 237 degrees F.

According to Farmer, part of the reason science is making so many discoveries in thermal biology, is that until just a few decades ago, scientists assumed that life couldn't exist in such hostile (to us, anyway) environments, and therefore didn't look for life.

As scientists look more, they find more-enough to suggest that heat-loving life may be the most ancient life forms on earth and the likeliest form of life to be found elsewhere in the universe.



RACHEL MADDOW TONIGHT -- http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/2/17
Lots of info but no explanation for Las Vegas gunman's massacre
Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about all of the facts that are known so far about the Las Vegas gunman, none of which seem to explain why he did it. Duration: 47:09

THIS VIDEO IS VERY INTERESTING FOR ME BECAUSE IT ANSWERS TECHNICAL QUESTIONS IN A WAY THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE NON-ENTHUSIAST. IT ALSO ASKED WHY HE HAD SO MANY GUNS UP THERE AND HOW HE MAY HAVE GOTTEN THEM ALL UP TO THE 32ND FLOOR. IT HAS OCCURRED TO ME THAT PERHAPS HE DRESSED IN CLOTHING LIKE A MAINTENANCE MAN, TOOK ONE OF THE HOTEL’S FLAT DOLLIES UPSTAIRS FILLED WITH GUN BAGS. HE COULD PROBABLY GET THEM ALL UP THERE IN 4 TRIPS, 6 AT A TIME. HE COULD ALSO DO THAT UNDER COVER OF NIGHT AND IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING WHEN FEW OTHER PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY BE ON THE FLOORS. HE MIGHT EVEN HAVE USED THE OLD STANDBY OF BRIBING A GUARD OR GIVING HIM A PINT OF WHISKEY. (THAT’S WHAT THEY DO IN OLD MURDER MOVIES.)