April 5, 2018


News and Views


IF NOT TRUMP, WHO? THE RNC?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/05/trump-denies-knowing-hush-money-payment-porn-star-stormy-daniels/482357002/?csp=chromepush
Trump denies knowing about hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels
Gregory Korte, USA TODAY Published 4:59 p.m. ET April 5, 2018 | Updated 5:02 p.m. ET April 5, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump denied knowing about his lawyer's $130,000 payment to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election, telling reporters Thursday that he doesn't know where the hush money payment came from.

Why, then, would his attorney make the payment to secure the silence of the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels?

“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael," Trump said aboard Air Force One.

Trump's comments about the relationship broke an 11-day silence since Daniels went public with claims of an extramarital affair with the real estate mogul in a 60 Minutes interview. She said she received threats to her physical safety if she spoke out, and that she received a $130,000 payment to keep quiet just before the 2016 presidential election.


A DOMESTIC INCIDENT? POLICE ARE NOW SAYING NOT.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/04/05/the-youtube-shooter-fits-the-most-important-narrative-of-all/
Post Partisan Opinion
The YouTube shooter fits the most important narrative of all
By Molly Roberts April 5 at 4:07 PM

Photograph – Shooting suspect Nasim Najafi Aghdam is shown in an undated photo provided by the San Bruno, Calif., Police Department. (AFP/Getty Images)

Few would have guessed the next shooting to make national news would be carried out by a female animal-rights activist enraged at YouTube for demonetizing her fitness videos. And because YouTube shooter Nasim Najafi Aghdam doesn’t fit into the familiar narratives of the gun epidemic, those on the right have taken to Twitter to create narratives of their own.

This was another instance of Islamist terrorism, some announced, and Aghdam was Muslim. (She was not.) Or she was an “illegal immigrant” (also wrong). Or, better yet, an artificially intelligent robot. (Wait, what?) One contingent even postulated that the name “Nasim” is traditionally male, so Aghdam must have been a transgender woman — after all, another added, cis “women would never do such a thing.”

And for pro-gun commentators less prone to conspiracy theorizing, Aghdam was the exception that disproves the rule. No longer, conservatives crowed, could liberals argue that angry white males armed with semiautomatic rifles were the greatest threat to American civilians.

There’s a problem with this argument, apart from the vulgarity of smirking when a shooting proves agenda-convenient. The fact that Aghdam doesn’t match the common profile of a shooter who captures this much media attention underscores the one thing that does unite every instance of gun violence: guns.

One reason Aghdam doesn’t match the common profile of a mass shooter may be that she’s not one. Instead, she’s part of a side story to the saga of large-scale slaughters like the Parkland, Fla., massacre: “active shooter” incidents, as law enforcement labels them, that don’t necessarily end in a slew of deaths. Aghdam injured three; no one except Aghdam has died. Apart from her gender, it turns out, the circumstances of her assault don’t diverge much from the norm.

Aghdam stirred such a frenzy in part because she chose to attack one of the highest-profile workplaces in the country. But the FBI counts 220 “active shooter” events between 2000 and 2016; stories similar to this one simply don’t often inspire such feverish coverage or conspiracizing. And even those less-noticed tales garner more attention than the firearm homicides that have soared in recent years, as firearms in circulation have soared, too.

So, no, Aghdam doesn’t fit the narrative of the white male gun nut simmering with repressed rage who lets it all out with an AR-15 (though perhaps she would have killed more people had California’s stringent gun laws not barred her from that weapon of war). She doesn’t fit the narrative of the Islamist terrorist who murders in the name of jihad, either. But Aghdam does fit a narrative that’s bigger than any of that, and it’s not one that does the National Rifle Association any favors: She wanted to hurt people, and she had a gun to help her do it.

Molly Roberts is an editor, writer and producer for The Post's opinion section. Follow @mollylroberts

https://www.cbsnews.com/live/?ftag=CNMe94798 –
NEWS VIDEO WITH NO TEXT.



POLICE WARNED

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/05/us/youtube-shooting/index.html
YouTube shooter's family expresses 'shock,' but says police warned before attack
Anchor Muted Background
By Dakin Andone, CNN
Updated 12:52 PM ET, Thu April 5, 2018

The videos YouTube shooter posted online 02:06

(CNN)Family members of the woman who opened fire at YouTube's headquarters this week were stunned by news of the attack in San Bruno, California, but said they warned police ahead of the shooting.

Nasim Najafi Aghdam was upset with some of YouTube's policies, according to San Bruno police Chief Ed Barberini, motivating her to shoot and wound three people before killing herself.

Aghdam used YouTube to post videos about her views on animal rights and her vegan lifestyle, among other topics.

"Our family is in absolute shock and can't make sense of what has happened (Tuesday)," Aghdam's father said in a statement to CNN affiliate KTLA. "Although no words can describe our deep pain for this tragedy, our family would like to express their utmost regret, sorrow for what has happened to innocent victims."

But police in Mountain View, California, where Aghdam was found early Tuesday hours before the attack dispute the family's characterization of phone calls with authorities.

Aghdam had been reported missing Saturday in San Diego County. Mountain View police said they let her go after she indicated she had left home due to "family issues" and was living out of her car and looking for work. Police said they then contacted her family to let them know she had been found.

"The father confirmed to us that the family had been having issues at home, but did not act in any way concerned about why his daughter had left," it said.

Two of the shooting victims in the San Bruno attack have been released from the hospital. On Thursday, the remaining patient's condition was upgraded from serious to fair condition, according to Brent Andrews, a spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Aghdam held grudge against YouTube, relative says

The violence in San Bruno clashed with relatives' perception of a woman they believed to be a peace-loving vegan. Her brother told CNN affiliate KGTV that "she never hurt any creature" before Tuesday.

A woman who claimed to be the shooter's aunt but would not share her name said Aghdam's father told police his daughter was "angry" at YouTube, and police should be careful.

"And police said, 'We are going to watch her,' but they didn't watch her," she told CNN's Miguel Marquez outside the family home Wednesday in Menifee, California. Aghdam had harbored a grudge for a year, the woman added, after the video-sharing site put what she called a "filter" on her videos.


NO, THANK YOU. WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43648343
Russian spy: Moscow bid for joint poisoning inquiry fails at OPCW
April 4, 2018 9 hours ago
Russian spy: Moscow bid for joint poisoning inquiry fails at OPCW
0
Photograph -- Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned by a nerve agent called Novichok

Russia's proposal for a new, joint investigation into the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in England has been voted down at the international chemical weapons watchdog at The Hague.

Russia has accused Britain of blocking access to an investigation being carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Britain earlier said Russia's call for an inquiry with the UK was "perverse".

Russia lost the vote by 15 votes to six, while 17 member states abstained.

China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran were among the countries that backed Russia's motion at the OPCW executive council, Reuters reported.

Russia called the meeting to challenge the UK, which has blamed Moscow for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southern England.

Russia has strongly denied any involvement and in a press conference after the vote said what happened in Salisbury looked like a "terrorist attack". It strongly criticised the US and EU countries for siding with the UK.

The votes backing Russia and the abstentions showed that more than half of the council "refused to associate themselves with the West's point of view," said Russia's ambassador to the OPCW Aleksander Shulgin,

He said the UK had told the council "a dirty flow of complete lies... outright Russophobia".

At the Hague meeting, UK acting representative John Foggo had said the victim of a chemical weapons' attack was not required to work with the "likely perpetrator". Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson later accused Russia of trying to undermine the watchdog's work and said the international community had "seen through these tactics".

Row over Johnson's Salisbury response
Porton Down: Britain's secret research facility
The British government says a military-grade Novichok nerve agent of a type developed by Russia was used in the attack.

The incident has caused a major diplomatic fallout, with the expulsion of some 150 Russian diplomats by the UK and its allies being met by counter-expulsions by Moscow.

'Preposterous suggestions'
On Tuesday the UK's Porton Down laboratory said it could not verify the precise source of the Novichok nerve agent used in Salisbury, although it did say it was likely to have been deployed by a "state actor".

The comments were seized upon by Russia to discredit the UK's accusations. It has requested that the UN Security Council meet on Thursday to discuss the situation for a second time.

At The Hague on Wednesday, the European Union offered its full support to Britain and reiterated that it backed the UK's assessment that it was "highly likely" that Russia was responsible.

British envoy Mr Foggo told the emergency OPCW meeting that the UK had blamed Russia based on:

the identification of the nerve agent used
knowledge that Russia "has produced this agent and remains capable of doing so"
Russia's record of conducting state sponsored assassinations
The assessment that Russia "views defectors as suitable targets for assassination"
He said that Russia had offered more than 24 "contradictory and changing counter-narratives" about the attack, including "preposterous" suggestions that Sweden, the US or Britain itself could have been responsible.


Media captionUK Security Minister: It is "beyond reasonable doubt" Russia is responsible
Russia's President Putin, speaking in the Turkish capital Ankara, said he hoped "common sense" would prevail.

Russian spy: What we know so far
Sergei Lavrov accuses West of 'children's games'
What was the OPCW meeting about?
Russia called the meeting to confront Britain and to propose a new joint investigation with the UK into the Salisbury attack.

Western powers portrayed the bid as an attempt to undermine the OPCW's existing investigation. The global watchdog is analysing samples from Salisbury in order to identify the nerve agent used. It was asked to do so by the UK, and Russia was not invited to participate.

Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
A team believed to be from the OPCW carry out tests in Salisbury

The OPCW expects to receive the results of its independent laboratory tests within a week. Russia has signalled it will reject the results of the investigation if its experts are prohibited from taking part.

The watchdog does not have the power to attribute blame, but it could ask the Kremlin to grant its inspectors access to former Soviet Union production facilities to check all of their chemical weapons stockpiles have been destroyed.

Did the UK already have a sample of Novichok?
Analysis by the BBC's David Shukman

The only way that scientists can be totally sure who made the Novichok agent is to compare it with another sample of the substance made in the same lab. That's what happened when Sarin was used by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and more recently by President Assad in Syria.

Experts already knew which clues to look for, and that allowed them to lay the blame definitively. Novichok is much less well known. The traces of it gathered in Salisbury will have been put through detailed scientific screening and that would reveal the ingredients of the chemical and maybe also its basic structure.

That could be matched with whatever is known about Novichok, maybe from lab notes handed over by defectors. And for Porton Down to describe it as "military grade" suggests a sophisticated state producer, not an amateur, though that itself is not categorical proof of Russian involvement.

That leaves another scenario in this secretive world of smoke and mirrors - that Britain did already have a sample of Novichok and was able to compare it to the agent used on the Skripals but does not want to reveal the fact, to protect a valuable source of intelligence.

What are Novichok nerve agents?
Is the UK under pressure?
Questions arose about whether the UK had been too quick to point the finger at Russia after the Porton Down laboratory said that it could not verify the precise source of the Novichok nerve agent.

Image copyrightAFP
Image caption
Porton Down dismissed Russian claims the nerve agent might have come from the laboratory

The laboratory said it was likely to have been deployed by a "state actor" but that it was not its job to say where the agent was manufactured.

Porton Down's chief executive Gary Aitkenhead dismissed Russian claims it might have come from the UK military laboratory.

On Twitter, the Russian Embassy highlighted a now-deleted tweet by the UK Foreign Office which suggested Porton Down had said the nerve agent had been produced in Russia.

Skip Twitter post by @RussianEmbassy
View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Russian Embassy, UK
✔
@RussianEmbassy
22 March: “Porton Down lab @dstlmod clearly established that the source of Salisbury toxic agent was Russia”
3 April: “ @dstlmod never had the task to establish the source of the toxic agent”

6:37 AM - Apr 4, 2018
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487 people are talking about this
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End of Twitter post by @RussianEmbassy
The Foreign Office said the tweet had been part of a real-time account of a speech by the UK's ambassador in Moscow and was deleted because it "did not accurately report our Ambassador's words".

Security Minister Ben Wallace dismissed suggestions the government had been giving out mixed messages.

"Unlike Russia, we allow the media to come and meet our scientists and question the science," he said. "That's important. That's why we have this debate today: we have nothing to hide."

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Boris Johnson, suggesting he exaggerated evidence provided by Porton Down.

Media captionDominic Casciani shows us the locations where Sergei Skripal spent Sunday 4 March with his daughter


YOUTUBE KILLING

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/us/who-is-nasim-aghdam-youtube-shooter/index.html
Police talked with YouTube shooter hours before attack -- and say they didn't notice anything disturbing
By Faith Karimi, Holly Yan and Joe Sutton, CNN
Updated 7:58 PM ET, Wed April 4, 2018

Photograph -- Panic at YouTube headquarters 00:56 Source: CNN

(CNN)Eleven hours before she shot up YouTube headquarters and then killed herself, Nasim Najafi Aghdam chatted with police.

It was 1:40 a.m. Tuesday, and Aghdam was hundreds of miles away from home. Police found her car overnight at a Mountain View parking lot, about 30 miles southeast of YouTube headquarters.

A quick check of her license plate revealed the owner had been reported missing from the San Diego area.

"We contacted the woman inside the vehicle, who was asleep, to check on her and to determine if she was the same person who had been reported missing," Mountain View police said.

Photograph -- Nasim Najafi Aghdam shot and wounded three people before killing herself, police say.

"At no point during our roughly 20 minute interaction with her did she mention anything about YouTube, if she was upset with them, or that she had planned to harm herself or others ... she was calm and cooperative."

So officers notified her family and let her go.

But Aghdam's brother said he called police about his sister, an animal rights activist with a serious grudge against YouTube.

WEBSITE RAILS AGAINST YOUTUBE

Police are investigating a website that appears to show the same woman lambasting YouTube for restricting her videos.

Video -- Woman rants against YouTube 02:06

Authorities have not confirmed whether the site belonged to Aghdam. But on Wednesday, San Bruno police Chief Ed Barberini said "we know (Aghdam) was upset with YouTube, and now we've determined that was the motive."

The website lists four YouTube channels for the woman -- one in Farsi, one in Turkish, one in English and one devoted to hand art. It also lists an Instagram page that focuses on vegan life.

The woman's grievances against YouTube appear to be centered around censorship and revenue.

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!" one post reads. "Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!"

Another post accuses "close-minded" YouTube employees of putting an age restriction on videos, saying it's aimed at reducing views and discouraging the woman from making new videos.

On a YouTube channel, the same woman described herself as a vegan bodybuilder and an animal rights activist. But by Tuesday night, the account had been terminated, with a YouTube message citing "multiple or severe violations" of its policy.

The website's postings aren't limited to YouTube. Videos on several social media platforms include posts on animal rights, vegan lifestyle and the political system in Iran. Others include a bizarre mix of musical parodies.

An animal-loving vegan

Relatives are trying to reconcile how Aghdam, whom they called a peace-loving vegan, was capable of such violence.

related video -- YouTube shooter visited gun range before attacking strangers

Before Tuesday, her brother told KGTV, "she never hurt any creature."

Aghdam was known for protesting against animal cruelty and supporting a vegan lifestyle, relatives said.

But in a phone call between Aghdam's father and police, the father said YouTube recently took action on some of Aghdam's vegan videos, a move that infuriated her.

Two calls, two different accounts.

When Aghdam's brother learned her car was found in Mountain View, he worried she "might do something."

"I Googled 'Mountain View,' and it was close to YouTube headquarters. And she had a problem with YouTube," Aghdam's brother told CNN affiliate KGTV.

Photos 1 thru 8

He said he warned police that "she went all the way from San Diego, so she might do something."

But Mountain View police said they received no warning that Aghdam might do anything violent.

After discovering Aghdam in her car, police called the woman's father and brother.

"The father confirmed to us that the family had been having issues at home, but did not act in any way concerned about why his daughter had left. At no point during that conversation did either Aghdam's father or brother make any statements regarding the woman's potential threat to, or a possible attack on, the YouTube campus," Mountain View police said.

"Roughly one hour after our phone call to Aghdam's family, her father called us back to let us know that she made a series of vegan videos for her channel on YouTube and that the company had recently done something to her videos that had caused her to become upset."

But once again, police said, "At no point did her father or brother mention anything about potential acts of violence or a possibility of Aghdam lashing out as a result of her issues with her (YouTube) videos."

CNN's MIguel Marquez and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.

RELATED STORY -- YouTube shooter visited gun range before attacking strangers
RELATED STORY -- Why female shooters are rare


WOMEN AND MASS MURDERS, OR VIOLENT MURDERS OF ANY KIND – A FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST DISCUSSES THE SUBJECT. THE MALE PSYCHOLOGY IS PRETTY MUCH WHAT I THOUGHT. 1, ITS’ EVOLUTIONARY, 2, THERE’S MORE AGGRESSION AND LESS EMPATHY, 3, THEY WILL NOT CONFIDE IN OTHERS, MANY TIMES. EVEN AT THIS, THOUGH, ONLY 220 MASS KILLINGS ARE KNOWN IN FBI STATISTICS FROM 2000 TO 2016. IN OTHER WORDS, THERE ARE KILLINGS EVERY DAY IN EVERY LARGE CITY, BUT NOT USUALLY THAT SAME TYPE; AND ONLY 9 OF THEM WERE COMMITTED BY WOMEN. HE SAID THAT THERE AREN’T ENOUGH OF THOSE FOR A STATISTICAL SAMPLE, BUT I THINK IT BOILS DOWN TO ONE THING.

WOMEN ARE NOT IN MY OPINION REALLY “SLOW TO ANGER,” BUT THEY ARE SIMPLY LESS VIOLENT MOST OF THE TIME AND MAY BE AFRAID TO ACT OUT -- INTIMIDATED; AND WHEN THEY DO KILL IT WILL PROBABLY BE SOMEONE WHO IS VERY WELL-KNOWN TO THEM, OR ON THE IMAGINARY LEVEL AT ANY RATE, VIEWED AS SOMEONE SPECIAL – A LOVER, FOR INSTANCE; OR A RIVAL. WHAT I’VE SEEN OF RAGE KILLINGS LIKE THIS, THEY SEEM TO COME FROM DISAPPOINTMENT, LOSS OF STATUS AND FRUSTRATION, SUCH AS THIS WOMAN WHOSE VIDEOS – SHE THOUGHT – WERE BEING REJECTED BY YOUTUBE RECENTLY. SHE WAS TRYING TO MAKE MONEY AND ALSO EXPRESS HERSELF, ESTABLISHING CONTACT WITH OTHERS THROUGH THE INTERNET, AS MANY OF US DO.

SOMETHING THAT I THINK IS VERY IMPORTANT IN THESE CASES IS THAT THE INDIVIDUAL NEEDS TO BE “RECOGNIZED” ON THE PERSONAL LEVEL – THEIR INNER PERSON, IN OTHER WORDS, NEEDS TO BE TOUCHED PSYCHICALLY. THERE WAS A VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE SOME 20 YEARS AGO ABOUT THE FACT THAT IF THE MOTHER AND BABY DON’T LOOK DEEPLY INTO EACH OTHER’S EYES DURING THE VERY FIRST FEW MONTHS, THEY WON’T “BOND” CORRECTLY, AND THAT LACK OF BONDING CAN BE INVOLVED IN MENTAL ILLNESS FOR THE CHILD AS THEY FAIL TO GAIN SELF-ESTEEM, CONFIDENCE AND THE ABILITY TO LEARN TO LOVE OTHERS, CAUSING A DEBILITATING LACK OF CLOSENESS ON THE PART OF BOTH. THE MOTHER HAS, IN EFFECT, “REJECTED” THE CHILD, CAUSING HIM TO REJECT HER AS WELL. THAT MAKES FOR A SAD FAMILY.

THAT ARTICLE ABOUT EARLY BONDING INVOLVED THE SOCIOPATHIC PERSONALITY. IF THEY CAN’T ESTABLISH CLOSE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, THEY MAY NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY AMOUNT OF EMPATHY TOWARD OTHERS, CAUSING THEM TO BE MORE LIKELY TO COMMIT VIOLENCE OR MENTAL CRUELTY. IT ISN’T THAT SIMPLE, OF COURSE. THERE WERE HALF A DOZEN OR SO CHARACTERISTICS MENTIONED THAT ARE FOUND IN PSYCHOPATHIC/SOCIOPATHIC PEOPLE. I HAVE PLACED A VERY GOOD ARTICLE ON THIS “BONDING” SUBJECT BELOW THIS ONE.

WE KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT THIS WOMAN FROM THE TWO ARTICLES WHICH I HAVE READ. THERE WAS NO MENTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING IN HER CASE, BUT THE BROTHER DID SAY THAT SHE HAD BEEN ANGRY AT YOUTUBE FOR STOPPING HER VIDEOS FROM BEING SEEN, AND THAT WHEN HE HEARD SHE WAS SO FAR AWAY, HE CONCLUDED THAT SHE MIGHT “DO SOMETHING.”

WHEN I LOOKED AT EVERY ONE OF HER PHOTOGRAPHS, HOWEVER, SHE WAS CLEARLY NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. I SAW A FRIGIDITY OR “FROZEN” CHARACTER TO HER EXPRESSION THAT I FEAR MORE THAN A PHYSICAL ASSAULT. THAT LACK OF EMPATHY AND INTEREST IS THE DANGEROUS PART. (ANY PSYCHOLOGIST WHO WANTS TO DISPUTE THIS CONCLUSION OF MINE, CAN WRITE ME AT THE BOTTOM OF TODAY’S BLOG POST. I WOULD ENJOY AN INTERACTION WITH A PROFESSIONAL ABOUT THIS.)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/health/female-shooters-youtube/index.html
Why female shooters are rare
By Madison Park and Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Updated 1:08 PM ET, Wed April 4, 2018

Story highlights
...About 4% of active shooting incidents involved female shooters between 2000 and 2016, FBI found
...There are fewer women behind firearm homicides and mass shootings, research shows


(CNN)As the investigation continues into why a female shooter opened fire at YouTube headquarters, data show that it's rare for women to carry out such shootings -- making Tuesday's incident unusual.

The shooting unfolded at the San Bruno, California, company premises when a woman shot and injured three people, and then apparently took her own life, officials said.

She appeared to have killed herself with a handgun, San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said. The woman has been identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, a 39-year-old from San Diego, California.
The motive remains unclear.

The motive remains unclear.

Women are rarely behind active shooting incidents, according to data from an FBI study.

The FBI examined active shooter incidents, defined as "an individual engaging in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area" in the United States. Nine of the 220 incidents that had been identified by the FBI (about 4%) had female shooters, according to the FBI list from 2000 to 2016.

The women in those shootings were usually armed with handguns and opened fire inside colleges, businesses, their current or former workplaces, according to the list.

The latest incident at YouTube may not qualify as a mass shooting or murder as three of the victims are hospitalized with injuries.

But in general, there are less female shooters when it comes to firearm homicides, said Adam Lankford, criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama.

FBI data from 2016 showed that 7.6% murder offenders in 2016 were female.

"Research shows that basically males commit more homicides than females, regardless of the subtype of homicide," Lankford said.

When it comes to mass shootings, there isn't one accepted definition. The Gun Violence Archive, which compiles data, defines it as an incident in which an offender shoots or kills four or more people. And the Congressional Research Service's defines it as when the perpetrator kills four or more people, selecting victims randomly and attacks in a public place.

But in those incidents, female mass shooters are rare.

"Men commit the overwhelming majority of mass shootings for basically the same reasons they commit most violent crimes," Dewey G. Cornell, a licensed forensic clinical psychologist and director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project at the University of Virginia, wrote in an email to CNN on Tuesday night.

"Men tend to be more violent than women because of a complex interaction of evolutionary and psycho-social factors. Men tend to be more aggressive and less inhibited by empathy, and men in distress seem to be less willing to turn to others for help," he wrote.

None of the perpetrators behind the 28 mass attacks in 2017 were female, according to a report by the US Secret Service.

A study led by Lankford, published in the journal Violence and Victims, looked at 292 public mass shooters worldwide from 1966 to 2012 and found that only one of those was female.

When asked why women are rarely mass shooters, Lankford said: "We can't really answer that question of differences between male and female offenders because we don't have enough female offenders. The problem, or the good news, is we don't have enough female offenders for a statically significant sample."

But there have been cases where women have carried out deadly mass shootings.

A married couple, Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik massacred 14 people at a holiday party in 2015 in San Bernardino, California. Farook had worked with the San Bernardino County health department, which was hosting the party when the attack took place. They were both killed in a shootout with police.

On January 30, 2006, Jennifer San Marco visited her former place of employment, a postal distribution center in Goleta, California, and fatally shot six employees after killing a one-time neighbor.

She then killed herself.


NOTE: ON THE SUBJECT OF BONDING, GO TO MY SPECIAL SUBJECT BLOG FOR TODAY CALLED “HOW DOES PARENT-CHILD LOVE FORM?” THIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE IS FROM HELPGUIDE.ORG.


"AS COMMANDER OF OREGON'S GUARD, I'M DEEPLY TROUBLED BY TRUMP'S PLAN TO MILITARIZE OUR BORDER."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oregon-governor-ill-say-no-if-trump-asks-me-to-deploy-national-guard-troops-to-mexico-border/ar-AAvuNbk?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
Oregon governor: I'll say no if Trump asks me to deploy National Guard troops to Mexico border
The Hill
Rebecca Savransky
April 5, 2018 4 hrs ago

Photograph -- Oregon Gov. Kate Brown © Provided by The Hill

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said she would reject a request from President Trump to dispatch National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no," Brown tweeted.

"As Commander of Oregon's Guard, I'm deeply troubled by Trump's plan to militarize our border."

She added: "There's been no outreach by the President or federal officials, and I have no intention of allowing Oregon's guard troops to be used to distract from his troubles in Washington."

Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation ordering National Guard troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexico border to address a "surge of illegal activity."

In a memo to Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump ordered the National Guard be used to secure the border "to stop the flow of deadly drugs and other contraband, gang members and other criminals, and illegal aliens into this country."

Trump first suggested Tuesday he'd like to deploy troops to the southern border to secure the area until his proposed wall can be built.

Trump in recent days has been tweeting his frustrations about current immigration laws. He has warned of "caravans" of migrants approaching the border and called on Congress to enact tougher regulations.


INSIDE THE HEAD OF DONALD TRUMP – THREE ITEMS

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tired-winning-yet-youre-not-alone-090032927.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=433beca8-469f-3942-9fad-a13615dd8aa8&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Tired of winning yet? You're not alone.
Matt Bai, Yahoo News • April 5, 2018

Image: Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: AP, Getty

These should be President Trump’s best days in office. The tax bill that marked his first (and only) real legislative achievement has grown more popular in recent weeks. His blowhard rhetoric toward North Korea appears to have yielded a rare diplomatic opening. He’s revived a couple of his most resonant campaign themes, slapping tariffs on China and threatening to send soldiers to patrol the southern border.

And yet, Trump’s approval ratings seem barely to have budged. According to a series of polls in the last few weeks (leaving aside a single conservative-leaning outlier), four in 10 Americans, give or take, are happy with his presidency.

How can this be?

Trump loyalists will point out that his ratings are several points higher than his all-time low, and that no less revered a president than Ronald Reagan was in the same ballpark at this time in his presidency. But Reagan was battling a prolonged recession; Trump should be riding a wave of recovery.

No, a Trump Malaise descends on the country, and it can only be about one thing, as the president himself surely understands. After all, he warned us it would happen, and now his prophecy has come to pass.

We’re tired of winning already.

We laughed at the oracle when he made this prediction. But we didn’t really hear him.

When Trump first started appearing on our television screens as a candidate, sometimes for hours at a time without paying a dollar for the privilege or being interrupted by any pesky interviewers, America was beset by pessimism.

For decades, we had watched as automation and the rise of foreign manufacturers decimated our industries and hollowed out whole communities. We had seen America’s preeminent role as a superpower shaken by rivals with nuclear ambitions and by zealots living in caves.

“Win the future” had been one of President Obama’s hundred slogans — for about 10 minutes, anyway. The truth was we were fighting the future to a draw, at best, and everybody knew it.

And then along came Trump, like a real-life Music Man with a truckload of fetching red hats. If he became president, Trump said, America would all of a sudden start winning again. Our rural areas and small cities would bounce back. Our borders would be safe. Our government would work for everyone.

There was just one catch. We’d win so much, Trump said, that we’d eventually grow tired of winning. He knew what he was talking about. Because Trump had been winning all his life.

He was born a winner, with a dad who made a small fortune in real estate. He gambled that fortune on big-city skyscrapers and faux-classic casinos and exclusive golf courses the color of money, and he won again and again, if you don’t count a couple of nettlesome bankruptcies and a huge payout to victims of his scam university. (And, you know, the frozen steaks*.)

So Trump understood how empty winning can be. How you think it’s going to soothe all your demons and wipe away all your cares, how you assume that once your team finally wins the championship you will wake up every morning with a smile on your face, but in the end it just leads to a void of disappointment and self-doubt.

And here we are.

Trump’s been pretty much the president he said he would be, even before he seized control of his own administration a few weeks ago and started replacing milquetoast policymakers with like-minded TV celebrities.

He’s told the Europeans and other allies who relied on our leadership for the last century to go figure things out for themselves.

He’s done his damnedest to discredit the entire idea of America as a nation of immigrants who share common values.

He’s responded to the Russian czar’s threat to nuke Florida by congratulating him on his hard-fought fake-election win and suggesting he visit Washington.

Thanks to Trump’s tax cuts and military buildup, we’re now rocketing toward an economic calamity in which just servicing the interest on our spiraling debt, coupled with our other obligations, will push interest rates higher and crowd out almost everything else the federal government does.

Oh, I know what you’re saying: This doesn’t sound like winning at all. But that’s only because you misunderstood what Trump was trying to say.

Trump doesn’t define winning the way you and I do. It’s not about giving back or improving people’s lives; as I’ve written before, Trump has never done that anywhere, unless you count remodeling a skating rink.

Winning, in Trump’s mind, wasn’t about us. It was about him.

It’s about ratings and primacy. Trump wants more than anything to exist outside of himself, to occupy your screens and your emotions. He always has.

Losing, to Trump, is receding from center stage. Winning is finding one way after another to keep us riveted to the show.

So Trump is absolutely delivering on his promise. He’s winning and winning and winning. Every day, it seems, he taps some new well of audacity, willing himself to become the overarching story of our time.

Even the reimagining of an old TV sitcom becomes a national conversation not because of anything that happens on the show itself, but because of what its star says about Trump, in the script and in real life. They should call it “Roseanne in Trumpland.”

Another win for the president.

And yes, we’re winning, too. Because like it or not, America has become the world’s Donald Trump. We’re shameless, unpredictable, outrageous. We’re a never-ending spectacle from which no one can look away. We’re the topic of all conversation, too.

We horrify and fascinate, and then we get up the next morning and somehow figure out how to do it again.

And we haven’t yet seen just how crazy and sordid this whole Russia investigation might become, dragging the country into yet another prolonged legal drama with unbelievable ratings, amazing, like you’ve never seen.

Of course Trump’s idea of winning feels deflating to most of us. It’s exhausting. It’s disorienting. It’s like putting your face up to an industrial fan every hour of the day.

It seeps into our dreams — all this dissembling and smallness and provocation bursting onto our TV crawls and iPhone screens — and when we wake up, we’re not an inch closer to giving our kids the America we promised them.

But you can’t really blame the president. He told us right from the start that we’d get tired of the whole noisy routine.

We were just too busy gawking to listen.

Read more from Yahoo News:

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Trump isn’t the first president to politicize the census
While others march, these teens shoot. At targets.
Photos: Shooting at YouTube’s California headquarters


TRUMP STEAKS AND MORE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyONt_ZH_aw

TRUMP HAWKING HIS STEAKS USING AN OKAY SCRIPT, BUT READING IT LESS WELL. SEE THE COLLECTION OF HIS OTHER COMMERCIALS BELOW. THEY’RE MUCH BETTER. THEY SHOW THE REAL DONALD TRUMP. HE’S A SHOWMAN AND A COMIC. HAVING TO STICK TO ANY SET OF RULES, AND THE GOVERNMENT IS FULL OF RULES, IS A TOTAL BORE TO HIM.


COMMERCIALS FEATURING DONALD TRUMP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgPxjDjAKyg
Ryan Holman
Published on Apr 6, 2017

I think that it is safe to say that Donald Trump has appeared in the most commercials of any President.

Footage is owned by: PepsiCo, Inc., Hasbro, Inc., Icahn Enterprises L.P., Yum! Brands, Inc., Viacom, Inc., Nike, Inc., Toshiba Corporation, cozone.com, McDonald’s Corporation, National Basketball Association, Visa Inc., Comcast Corporation, MGM Holdings, Inc., RTL Group S.A., Domino’s Pizza Inc., Trump University, The Trump Organization, Mondelez International, Inc., Serta Simmons Holdings LLC, ACN, LLC, Macy’s Inc., Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Benjamin Netanyahu Re-election Campaign, Rand Paul for President, Donald J. Trump’s Father’s Money, Hillary for America, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and Republican National Committee.

Footage was originally uploaded by: Agree To See, cpmilken, sirskyscraper, Josh Burdick, DJIDMix, mercatfat, drunkmonkleyfist, larry41onebay, The Hall of Advertising, Brand X, GoopHug, Piotr Zarychta, Chi-Town TV Fan, MTVCOPS, Ewan W, MrCallvin, Jagon331, mileyosiris, Alan Bloomfield, DrDreamyofSBS, carolinavideophone, Juan Abellán, acnrep2012, tluns23, shawnandterrifrye, Mary J, Century21RiverStone, c21keim1, Century 21 Commercial, Jonny Daniels, SimpleHappinessLove, FSR1, US Politics News, political observer, Dash Gys, Ryan O and Team Trump.



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-09/when-trump-steaks-at-a-trump-event-aren-t-really-trump-steaks
When Trump Steaks at a Trump Event Aren’t Really ‘Trump Steaks’
By Caleb Melby
‎March‎ ‎09‎, ‎2016‎ ‎4‎:‎06‎ ‎PM
Updated on ‎March‎ ‎09‎, ‎2016‎ ‎7‎:‎30‎ ‎PM

A chef with some steaks at a Donald Trump campaign press conference event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. on March 8, 2016.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Bush Brothers confirms that steaks shown at event are theirs
`Trump Steaks, where are the steaks? Do we have steaks?'

When Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump showed off a pile of beautifully marbled steaks atop a butcher board at a Tuesday campaign event, he called them “Trump steaks.” That’s true in the sense that they were steaks, and they were on a Trump property.

But they weren’t steaks from Trump’s fabled, now defunct, Trump Steaks business. They were from Bush Brothers Provision Co., a West Palm Beach, Florida, purveyor that counts Trump-affiliated properties among its customers, said John Bush, whose family owns the company. Photographs posted on Twitter showed plastic wrapping on the meat at the televised event where Trump celebrated primary victories in Michigan and Mississippi. The packaging matched that used by Bush Brothers, Bush said.

Trump gestured to the raw beef while addressing earlier criticism of his businesses made by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The steaks were displayed at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, alongside cases of bottled water and Trump-branded wine.

“Trump Steaks, where are the steaks? Do we have steaks? We have Trump Steaks,” Trump said, before joking that he’d sell them to attendees for $50 each.

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for his presidential campaign, said Trump clubs and other properties allow patrons to purchase meat.

“It is a very small, but successful business,” she said in an e-mail. “The meat is purchased from different locationally convenient purveyors and is always of the highest quality.”

. . . . I CAN’T GET ANY MORE OF THIS ARTICLE UNLESS I SUBSCRIBE. TO HECK WITH IT, BLOOMBERG.


JUPITER, FL - MARCH 8: A workers carries Trump branded steaks back to the kitchen before republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to speak at a campaign press conference event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday March 08, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A worker carries steaks back to the kitchen before republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to speak at a campaign press conference event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. on March 8, 2016. Photographer: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Trump frozen steaks were offered at Sharper Image stores and by mail-order catalog in 2007. The Classic Collection -- two filet mignons, two bone-in rib-eyes and 12 burgers -- was priced at $199. Sales have since been discontinued.

Bush Brothers is the oldest business in West Palm Beach’s Pleasant City neighborhood, and a fifth generation of family members has begun working for the firm, according to its website. The family isn’t related to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the campaign last month.

John Bush demurred when asked if his family minded Trump’s rebranding of their company’s meat.

“We do and we don’t,” he said.


POLICEMEN AND FIREFIGHTERS DO THIS, UNLESS THEY GET CAUGHT, IN WHICH CASE THEY MAY GET INTO SOME TROUBLE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-pruitt-asked-to-use-sirens-in-dc-traffic-and-was-told-no-for-non-emergency/
By JULIANNA GOLDMAN CBS NEWS April 5, 2018, 2:54 PM
Scott Pruitt asked to use sirens in D.C. traffic and was told no for non-emergency

Photograph -- FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2017 file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, AP

Several weeks after taking the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Scott Pruitt was running late and stuck in Washington, D.C., traffic. Sources tell CBS News that he wanted to use his vehicle's lights and sirens to get to his official appointment, but the lead agent in charge of his security detail advised him that sirens were to be used only in emergencies.

Less than two weeks later that agent was removed from Pruitt's detail, reassigned to a new job within the EPA.

Why are we talking about Scott Pruitt, Trump's embattled EPA administrator?
Attorneys general sue EPA, Scott Pruitt over pollution requirements
Special Agent Eric Weese, a 16-year veteran of the EPA, was replaced by Pasquale "Nino" Perotta. Perrotta now leads Pruitt's unprecedented 24-hour Protective Service Detail, which determined that Pruitt needed to fly in first class because of "specific, ongoing threats associated with the Administrator's air travel." The security detail, "shifted his class based on certain security protocols that require him to be near the front of the plane," the EPA wrote in a letter last month.

Pruitt's lavish travel, which totals more than $182,000, according to the Environmental Integrity Project, has included first class domestic and international flights for him and his security detail, private charters and a military jet. Reports on his expensive travel arrangements began a torrent of negative headlines over the past several months that peaked over the last week with stories examining his housing arrangements and very generous raises for two of his staffers. The bad publicity has cast an ethical cloud over the EPA administrator that's put him in danger of being the next casualty in the Trump Cabinet.

"I can't make any statements about the future of Scott Pruitt," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News Thursday.

In a statement, EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson told CBS News, "We have no knowledge of anyone being removed from the detail for not using lights and sirens." Asked why Weese was removed, an EPA spokesman said "We do not comment on personnel matters within EPA's protective service detail."

Recently however, two Democratic senators wrote a letter to the EPA asking, "Under what circumstances did the prior Special Agent in Charge leave?"

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Carper also said in the letter that they want to know why Perrotta and one of his business partners received an EPA security contract. Perrotta, they noted, citing the Associated Press, runs a side business called the Sequoia Security Group. His business partner, Edwin Steinmetz, who runs another security company, was awarded a $3,000 contract to sweep Pruitt's office for bugs. "Two other contracts," both under the $3,500 threshold for public reporting, "were given for the purchase of biometric locks."

"These facts raise questions about Mr. Perrotta's compliance with EPA regulations and concerns that he may have used his position at the agency to influence the award of EPA contracts to a person or company in which he has a financial interest," the Senators wrote.

Perrotta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Steinmetz told CBS News he can't confirm or deny any clients, but said, "We are under the required bid limit so they got a fantastic price. No one received a kickback for the service."

With reporting by Laura Strickler

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


MADDOW NEWS

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/4/18
White House lawyers question Bolton about potential ethics issues
Incoming National Security Adviser, John Bolton, faces questions from White House lawyers over the connections between his PAC and Super PAC and Cambridge Analytica. Duration: 20:25


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/4/18
Former acting US Attorney gives first interview since leaving...
Joon Kim, former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, talks to Rachel about the firing of US Attorneys in March 2017 and procedures in the Mueller investigation. Duration: 7:19


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/3/18
President Trump is under investigation, but not as a criminal...
Rachel Maddow speaks with Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig who reports that Trump’s lawyers say the special counsel is investigating the president but does not believe he is a criminal target at the moment. Duration: 20:45


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/3/18
Alex van der Zwaan is first person sentenced in Robert Mueller...
Alex van der Zwaan is given a 30 day sentence and a $20,000 fine, becoming the first person sentenced as a result of the Mueller investigation – penalties which shouldn’t be a problem given his close connection to Russian oligarch German Khan. Duration: 10:39