THAT's LIFE...

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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September 27, 2017

"Mormons are providing an additional $11 million in assistance for victims of famine in eight countries in Africa and the Middle East. The humanitarian effort was recently approved by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to provide assistance to troubled parts of the world experiencing drought, civil conflict, disease and other challenges.

LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church, is partnering with 11 global relief organizations to support 25 projects in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Kenya, Uganda and DR Congo."

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=CDbW_& ... 29SC6MX74w

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Joel
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Jared Kushner Registered to Vote as a Female

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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"North Korean firms or joint ventures in China will be shut within the 120 days of the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions, China's commerce ministry say.
Overseas Chinese joint ventures with North Korean entities or individuals will also be closed, the ministry said in a statement on its website, not giving a time frame.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on September 12 to boost sanctions on North Korea, banning its textile exports and capping fuel supplies.
The UN action was triggered by North Korea's sixth and largest nuclear test this month. It was the ninth Security Council sanctions resolution over North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006.
Beijing has been North Korea's closest major ally in recent years, but has been put under increasing pressure - notably from the United States - to take a stronger line with Pyongyang.

The UN sanctions also ban sales of natural gas to North Korea and purchases of the North's textile exports, another key revenue source.
China, which provides the bulk of North Korea's energy supplies, announced on Saturday it would cut off gas and limit shipments of refined petroleum products, effective January 1. It made no mention of crude, which makes up the bulk of Chinese energy supplies to North Korea and is not covered by the UN sanctions.
China also has banned imports of North Korean coal, iron and lead ore, and seafood since early September.
On Thursday, the commerce ministry defended its recent imports of North Korean coal as permitted by UN sanctions.
A ministry spokesman, Gao Feng, said imports that were reported in August were allowed by a "grace period" for goods that arrived before the UN ban took effect.
The imports are "in line with the (UN) resolution," Gao said."

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Joel
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Re: Jared Kushner Registered to Vote as a Female

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Joel wrote: September 27th, 2017, 11:05 pm

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Law Trump Hated Could Ensnare Manafort

Post by Joel »

Law Trump Hated Could Ensnare Manafort

Donald Trump once railed against a Watergate-era reform law that prohibits American companies from bribing foreign government officials.

"What are we — prosecuting people to keep China honest?" he said in 2012. "Now every other country goes into to these places and they do what they have to do. It’s a horrible law and it should be changed. I mean, we are like the policemen for the world. It’s ridiculous."

Could it be that the very law that Trump slammed is what prosecutors could be using as leverage to cut a deal with Paul Manafort?

What is the Law?
Payoffs and payback were a big issue coming out of President Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign when an investigation revealed that corporate slush funds had been used for political contributions and for bribing foreign government officials with an eye to landing contracts overseas.

As a result, in 1977 Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the first U.S. statute criminalizing the bribery of foreign officials.

Breaking the law is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Two of the top prosecutors on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s teams, which is investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, have significant FCPA experience — Andrew Weissmann, former chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Greg Andres, former deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division.

Andres testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2010 about DOJ’s enforcement of the anti-corruption law.

"We do not hesitate to seek jail terms for these offenders when appropriate," he told the committee. "The department has made the prosecution of individuals a critical part of its FCPA enforcement strategy — we understand well that it’s an important and effective deterrent."

So how does the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act figure in the Russia investigation — at least from what we know so far?

While the main theories of the case in the Russia probe have focused on hacking, conspiracy, or financial crimes, this international anti-corruption law could be yet another vital tool in Mueller’s arsenal in getting Manafort to cooperate.

William Steinman, a Washington D.C.,-based attorney and an FCPA expert, said he believes Mueller and his team will use the law "not with the intent of taking him to court, but to add to the list of issues his lawyers have to wrangle with."

"They’ll keep piling it on in the hopes that it’s too hard and too exhausting to fight," he said. "They want to build pressure, make plausible arguments and induce people to roll over."

A person is guilty of violating the law if the government can prove:

1) A U.S. citizen or company organized under the laws of a U.S. state

2) offers, promises to offer or gives

3) Money or anything of value

4) to a foreign official or someone acting in an official capacity on behalf of a foreign official

5) In order to obtain/retain business

Why is this a problem for Manafort?
He offered to give "private briefings" to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska on the 2016 campaign. The email exchanges suggest this could have been a quid pro-quo exchange.

"How do we use [this] to get whole?" Manafort said in one email exchange with a Kiev-based employee of his consulting firm days after Trump has named Manafort as campaign chairman.

Manafort’s spokesman said the email exchanges were only an "innocuous" effort to collect past debts.

But several months ago, The New York Times reported that Manafort owed as much as $17 million in debts to Russia-backed benefactors when he joined the Trump campaign.

That includes $7.8 million allegedly owed to a shell company in the British Virgin Islands connected to Deripaska, who was described in U.S. diplomatic cables as "among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis."

The oligarch also accused Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates of taking nearly $19 million intended for investment and then failing to account for the funds or return them, according to a 2014 court petition from the Cayman Islands.

If he intended to use those briefings to pay off past debts, collect on money owed or get new consulting work from the Russians, this could violate the FCPA.

This anti-corruption law looks at whether someone tried to bribe a foreign official with either money, or something else of value.

Based on the Justice Department’s past guidelines, federal prosecutors could certainly argue those briefings held value.

DOJ rules say that the term "foreign official" means not only any officer or employee of a foreign government but also any person acting in an official capacity for or on behalf of any such government.

Deripaska has stated in court documents that he has a diplomatic passport from Russia. He’s also sworn under oath that he's "on occasion" represented the Russian government abroad, for example, as a diplomat before the APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, an international body based in New York.

But even if this oligarch wasn't working directly for the Russian government, if he was working on Putin's behalf, that too could count.

Now, it's a long way from certain that Mueller's using this law to go after Manafort. But considering breaking this law brings a 20-year prison sentence, it's a powerful tool for a federal prosecutor.

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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“Hugh Hefner leaves behind a legacy of sexual exploitation and public health harms,” said Patrick Trueman, President of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “Playboy popularized the commodification of the female body in soft-core pornographic magazines in the 1960s, and it laid the groundwork for the public health crisis of Internet pornography that America is experiencing today. Reams of research show that Internet pornography is linked to neurological harms, sexual dysfunctions and increases in rates of sexual violence.”
“Hugh Hefner was not a champion of free speech. He was a pioneer in the sexual objectification and use of women,” Trueman continued. “Research shows that Playboy historically portrays female sexuality as subordination and universal availability to the male gaze. How can our society accept, let alone applaud, these messages about the value of women when we are simultaneously struggling with campus sexual assault, military sexual assault, and the culture of sexual harassment in Silicon Valley?”
“It’s time to acknowledge the reality that Playboy is actually just another brand for old-fashioned misogyny.”

https://www.movieguide.org/news-article ... risis.html

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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Ham married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain (Abraham 1:21–24), and so his sons were denied the priesthood.
Genesis 4–11: The Patriarchs

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Joel
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Invisible Prisons

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An excerpt from the media literacy documentary Beware of Images



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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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https://theroperreportsite.wordpress.co ... t-is-back/

Stormfront is back.

In a recent statement, Don Black said “Network Solutions finally unlocked our domain after I emailed their lawyer complaining about the delay.”

The Left in America has been increasingly resorting to new underhanded tactics to shut down free speech for people on the Right. Barack Obama in October of 2016 changed the way that website names were controlled so that the domain host could theoretically steal someone’s domain name.

Theory became reality on August 25th when Network Solutions decided to censor free speech by stealing Don Black’s website: Stormfront.org Their excuse for doing this was that they received a letter from a left-wing activist law firm accusing Stormfront of violating its terms of service and they parroted a claim by the SPLC.

It was completely ignored that Stormfront has NEVER tolerated anyone advocating violence on their website, so there’s no credible way to connect violent acts with Stormfront.

Many of these tech companies that provide Internet services are infested with Social Justice Warriors who are all too happy to deny free speech to the Right on the flimsiest of pretexts, especially any White Nationalists, who dare to stand up for the White race.

Network Solutions not only took down Black’s website, they held it “hostage” for over a month. Network Solutions was not only failing to provide Internet service as they were contractually obliged to do, they deliberately prevented Don Black from having access to his domain name so that he could move to a new host.

Considering that Stormfront had been hosted by Network Solutions for over 20 years, it is truly outrageous that they would pull this with no warning and that they failed to give Black a grace period to move to a new host. Their actions were clearly malicious, unwarranted and deliberately intended to harm Stormfront."


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Joel
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Narcissism and low self-esteem predict conspiracy beliefs

Post by Joel »

Narcissism and low self-esteem predict conspiracy beliefs

Image

Individuals who hold strong beliefs in conspiracies often also score high in narcissism and low in self-esteem, according to 2015 research.

The series of studies, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, examined individuals to determine whether self-evaluation plays a role in predicting conspiracy beliefs.

“Previous research linked the endorsement of conspiracy theories to low self-esteem,” said Aleksandra Cichocka, principal investigator and corresponding author of the study.

“We propose that conspiracy theories should rather be appealing to individuals with exaggerated feelings of self-love, such as narcissists, due to their paranoid tendencies,” she continued.

In the first study, 202 participants completed a conspiracy beliefs questionnaire, a self-esteem scale, and an individual narcissism questionnaire. In the conspiracy beliefs questionnaire, participants rated the extent to which they agree with such statements as “A small, secret group of people is responsible for making all major world decisions, such as going to war” and “The American government permits or perpetrates acts of terrorism on its own soil, disguising its involvement.”

Scientists found that among participants, high individual narcissism and low self-esteem significantly predicted conspiracy beliefs.

In the second study, scientists sought to rule out the possibility that collective narcissism contributed to the results of the previous study.

“Because conspiracy theories often refer to malevolent actions of groups, we wanted to distinguish whether it is a narcissistic image of the self or the group that predicts the endorsement of conspiracy theories,” said Cichocka.

“For example…American collective narcissism predicted the endorsement of conspiracy theories involving foreign governments but not the American government,” she continued.

Study 2 determined that collective narcissism does not interfere with the role that individual narcissism and low self-esteem have on conspiracy beliefs. In other words, individual narcissists with low self-esteem tend to hold beliefs in conspiracies whether or not they also exhibit collective narcissism.

The third study aimed to account for the role low-self esteem plays in conspiracy beliefs by determining its relationship with negativity toward humans in general.

Scientists found that the factor of low self-esteem can indeed be explained by general negativity.

“The effect of low self-esteem on conspiracy beliefs can be largely attributed to the fact that low self-esteem predicts negative perceptions of humanity more broadly,” Cichocka reported.

Though the studies are not able to establish a causal relationship, they do indicate that narcissism, low self-esteem, and conspiracy belief are significantly correlated.

“Narcissists might be especially prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to their elevated self-consciousness connected with exaggerated feelings of being in the center of others’ attention,” said Cichocka.

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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Personally, I have fond memories of Mesquite Nevada, it is one of my favourite places in the United States.

Stephen Paddock bought just one of the guns that was found in his hotel suite from Guns & Guitars at Mesquite – a Sig Sauer 716.
Guns & Guitars Mesquite general manager Christopher Sullivan has been on the receiving end of death threats since the Las Vegas massacre. He said in a statement that 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock showed no signs of being unfit to buy guns.

Gunsmith Skipper Speece is an employee of Guns and Guitars in Mesquite. Skipper is Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's former personal bodyguard and was involved with the 2014 Bunkerville ranch standoff, following a 21-year legal dispute over grazing rights.

Skipper said: 'He came in a week earlier and says, "Hey, do you remember me, I'm Steve Paddock," and I said, "I've got some money for you," because we sold one of his guns. 'So I go to the safe and pull out the envelope and he's looking around and says "Hey, what's that rifle there," and points out the Ruger.’ Stephen Paddock bought the Ruger American .308 bolt-action rifle with an 18-inch barrel and four round capacity for $600 from Guns & Guitars in his hometown of Mesquite. just hours before arriving in Las Vegas. The rifle was not part of the 23-weapon arsenal found in his sniper's nest in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Gunshop worker Skipper Speece revealed Paddock was 'calm and normal' when he bought the weapon at around 3pm on September 28. It took around 20 minutes for the store to carry out vetting procedures and Paddock passed with flying colours – raising no alarm bells.
Skipper said Paddock was a regular visitor to the store and he had served him four times in total.
Marilou Danley had also been to the shop, but Skipper said nothing seemed amiss.

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Joel
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This Man Does NOT Deserve Liberty nor Security

Post by Joel »

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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Elder Hales Featured by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: "He Has Returned with Honor"

LDS Living Oct 5


Every day the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs chooses one veteran to highlight and feature on their Facebook page, telling their story of service. On October 3, they honored Elder Robert D. Hales.


http://www.ldsliving.com/Elder-Hales-Fe ... rs/s/86578

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

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https://www.ksl.com/?nid=157&sid=460686 ... -a-rampage


"LAS VEGAS (AP) — Stephen Paddock usually kept a cigar at hand, even though he didn't smoke. But he was quick to notice when somebody sat down beside him and lit up.
Then Paddock, a denizen of hazy casinos, would take out his cigar, light it and carefully aim its smoke back into the faces of those whose puffing annoyed him.
"He was the king of microaggression," his brother, Eric, said.
Last week, Stephen Paddock returned to the Las Vegas Strip, where he spent many hours and thousands of dollars at high-limit video poker machines, and eyed the fun-seekers crowding his oasis. But this time he did so from a 32nd floor casino hotel suite. Then he smashed open a pair of windows with a hammer and opened fire with a carefully assembled arsenal, murdering 58 fans gathered at an outdoor country music concert and injuring 500 more before killing himself.
Investigators and those who knew the 64-year-old former accountant and real estate investor say they cannot fathom what drove him to slaughter. Authorities, who have been trying to track Paddock's movements before the massacre, say there is evidence he also scoped out recent music festivals in Chicago and Boston. So far, though, they say there is no indication that any one incident or grievance turned the sometimes prickly high-stakes gambler into an executioner.
Paddock remains a cipher. But details that have surfaced so far about this murderer — a one-time IRS agent, a boyfriend recalled as both caring and caustic, son of a notorious bank robber — are clues, at least, to his mindset. Unlike most mass shooters, who are usually younger, he was the product of decades of experience and rumination.
Paddock made his living playing machines that reward those who set aside emotion in favor of calculus. He was a methodical planner who paid close attention to other people's behavior, according to those who knew him. And those traits, assets to a gambler, may well have made him more deadly, criminologists said.
Paddock moved from coast to coast over the years, but his story began and ended in the desert Southwest.
The oldest of four brothers, he was raised in Tucson, Arizona. When he was 7, his father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, tried to run down an FBI agent during a pursuit in Las Vegas. After the elder Paddock was caught and charged with a string of Phoenix bank robberies, agents came to the family's house to search for evidence.
A neighbor, Eva Price, took little Stephen swimming while agents combed through the home.
"We're trying to keep Steve from knowing his father is held as a bank robber," she told the Tucson Citizen at the time. "Steve is a nice boy. It's a terrible thing."
Benjamin Paddock was sentenced to 20 years in a Texas federal prison. But he escaped and spent a decade on the run, landing him on the FBI's Most Wanted List.
A wanted posting from 1969 described the older Paddock as an avid bridge player who went by numerous aliases and had been diagnosed as psychopathic. The FBI described him as egotistical, arrogant and a frequent gambler, according to an article that year in the Arizona Republic.
"He reportedly has suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and dangerous," the agency warned.
Paddock's mother moved with her sons to Southern California. Paddock's brothers recall that their mother, who worked as a secretary, did her best to raise the boys on her own, even when times were tight.
At John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, Paddock was a brainy kid, but defied the geek stereotype by dressing more like a hippie, said Richard Alarcon, a former classmate who went on to serve on the Los Angeles City Council. The other thing that set Paddock apart was his "irreverence toward authority," Alarcon said.
For a school contest, Paddock and other students were assigned to design bridges using no more than a specified amount of wood and no glue, in a bid to build the strongest structure.
Paddock's bridge "was like a brick, he put so much glue in it and he used so much more wood than he was supposed to," Alarcon said. "But he didn't care ... It was like he just wanted to build the best bridge ever, regardless of what the rules were."
Paddock earned a degree in business administration from California State University, Northridge, in 1977, a school official said. He then spent a decade working for the federal government, first for the postal service, then an IRS agent for six years and, finally, as a defense auditor, according to the government's Office of Personnel Management.
He married and divorced twice, remaining on good terms with both former wives, family members say, and left government work to become an accountant for a defense contractor.
Around the same time, he began investing in real estate, eventually buying and selling properties in California, Florida, Nevada and Texas. Eric Paddock said he and his brother had bought and sold some of those properties together and that Stephen Paddock's real estate and gambling exploits had turned him into a multimillionaire.
He lived in some of those properties. But neighbors said they saw little of him.
When Paddock bought a house in Brevard County, Florida, in 2013, he told neighbors he lived in Las Vegas, but wanted the home as a base to search for a place for his mother. He gave next-door neighbor Don Judy a set of keys and asked him to check the place when he wasn't around. Inside, Judy noticed, the place was outfitted sparsely, almost like a dorm room, with minimal furniture but two computers. Paddock showed Judy's wife a laptop on which he'd just won $20,000 betting online.
"He said he was a gambler by trade, a speculator," Judy said.
At the Atlantis Casino in Reno, one of Paddock's regular haunts, he met Marilou Danley, a high-limit hostess there from 2010 to 2013, and they became a couple. Neighbors near Reno said as recently as this summer, they saw Paddock's girlfriend gardening in the front yard of a house he owned or taking Zumba classes at the community clubhouse. She'd wave and say hi, but none knew of her being close to anyone on the block — a fact that struck some as odd in a close-knit neighborhood of friendly older adults, many retired. All said they almost never saw Paddock.
He had a second home in Mesquite, Nevada, where neighbors recalled seeing little of Paddock after he bought a house on a cul-de-sac.
Siblings of both Paddock and Danley said they shared a loving relationship. In a statement released by her lawyer, Danley — who said Paddock sent her to the Philippines about two weeks before the shooting — described him as "a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and I hoped for a quiet future together with him."
Danley said Paddock had wired her $100,000 in recent weeks and told her to buy a house for her family in the Philippines.
But workers at a casino Starbucks in Mesquite that the couple frequented say Paddock often scolded his girlfriend in public.
"He would glare down at her and say — with a mean attitude — 'You don't need my casino card for this. I'm paying for your drink, just like I'm paying for you.' Then she would softly say, 'OK' and step back behind him. He was so rude to her in front of us," the store's supervisor, Esperanza Mendoza, told the Los Angeles Times.
Others who crossed paths with Paddock in recent months described him as despondent and smelling of alcohol.
When Paddock came into a Reno car dealership late this summer, he told salesman Scott Armstrong he was depressed and had relationship troubles.
"When's the last time somebody told you their life was miserable? It sticks with you," Armstrong said.
Still, investigators said they are finding little to explain what drove him to mass murder. He had no known criminal record, and so far investigators have not disclosed any evidence that he had struggled financially or otherwise.
On the contrary, his brother and professional gamblers say, his poker wagers paid off not just in winnings but with perks like free hotel rooms and poolside cabanas.
Most of Nevada's video poker machines are in bars, set up so drinkers can play from their stools for 25 cents a hand. But Paddock favoured high-dollar machines, separated from the rest of casinos, where top players rely on mathematical strategy to shrug off losses while playing for a big payoff.
Paddock, usually dressed in a button-up shirt and a pair of pants that "looked like he'd had it on for a few days," would sit for hours, often placing bets of $100 or more, rarely talking with anyone else but clearly conscious of his surroundings, said John Weinreich, a former executive casino host at Reno's Atlantis.
The gambler had a "God complex," he said, and expected quick service no matter how busy the staff was.
He said Paddock had a habit of staring at other people, as if silently challenging them to a contest. One high roller — an even bigger player than Paddock — told Weinreich it gave her the creeps.
"It was just his demeanor. It was like, 'I'm here. Don't cross me. Don't look at me too long,'" Weinreich said.
Eric Paddock said his brother was generous with the privileges the casinos bestowed on him. He recalled how during one trip to Las Vegas, Stephen ordered them a sushi meal that must've been worth $1,000, but was paid for by a casino. During that same outing, though, Stephen Paddock turned abruptly and demanded that his brother go get him a sandwich.
"That's the cost of being with Steve," he said.
Eric Paddock said he knew his brother owned a few handguns, but not so many that he'd call him a collector. But investigators say Paddock had bought 33 firearms in the last year alone, mostly rifles.
When Paddock visited B&S Guns in Garland, Texas, last year with his girlfriend, he asked whether there was a way to modify a gun to make it easier to pull the trigger, owner Paul Peddle said. Peddle recalled that Paddock had purchased handguns there before, had his license in order and seemed like a nice enough guy. Danley, who was walking with a cane at the time after surgery, played with Peddle's puppies while her boyfriend asked questions. And when it was time to go, Paddock walked her to the car and helped her to get in.
"He was very charismatic with her, very sweet," Peddle said.
When Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino last week, he requested a room on a higher floor, but was told nothing was available. Then a room freed up and managers moved him to a 1,700-square-foot suite on the 32nd floor. It lists for $590 a night. But as a big bettor, Paddock got it on the house.
Security appears to have paid little notice as he moved a series of bags containing 23 guns to the room. But they did respond to his complaints about loud music from a family staying in the room just below.
On Sunday night, Paddock donned black pants and a black glove and took his place before the floor-to-ceiling windows looking down at the crowd listening to country singer Jason Aldean. Outside the door of the room, he placed a camera in a catering cart and another in the door's peephole to keep an eye on those who might approach from behind.
It added up to a carefully conceived plan designed for maximum carnage.
In a chilling but unforeseen way, it echoed his deliberate approach to video poker. But those who saw how Paddock prided himself on his casino prowess and the perks it brought him said it made it that much harder to reconcile with the notion that he would target that very world for destruction.
"Girls brought him drinks. They served him big shrimp ... They put him up in fancy hotel rooms," Eric Paddock said this week, standing outside his home in Orlando, Florida.
"No affiliation, no politics, he never cared about any of that stuff," the shooter's brother said. "He just wanted to get a frickin royal flush."

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

Post by Elizabeth »

Driver 'deliberately mows down pedestrians after mounting the pavement outside London National History Museum before being pinned to the ground and arrested by police in front of stunned tourists'

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

Post by Elizabeth »

11 people injured with leg and head injuries. Black man deliberately drove at them in Central London. There is no chance this wasn't a terror attack.
Elizabeth wrote: October 7th, 2017, 9:48 am Driver 'deliberately mows down pedestrians after mounting the pavement outside London National History Museum before being pinned to the ground and arrested by police in front of stunned tourists'

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

Post by Elizabeth »

Image

The live Stephen Paddock had a neck tattoo. The supposed dead Paddock had none.

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Joel
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

Post by Joel »

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Elizabeth
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Re: THAT's LIFE...

Post by Elizabeth »

Sooting Las Vegas: Here is a list of the released names of people who died.

Adrian Murfitt, 35, Alaska.


Sonny Melton, 29, Tennessee.


Jordan McIldoon, 23, British Columbia.


Lisa Romero-Muniz, Age Unknown, New Mexico.


Quinton Robbins, 20, Nevada.


Sandy Casey, 35, California.


Jennifer Parks, 35, California.


Stacee Etcheber, 50, California.


Jack Beaton, Age Unknown, California.


Hannah Ahlers, 34, Home California.


Kurt Von Tillow, 55, California.


Thomas Day Jr., 54, California.


Susan Smith, 53, California


Jessica Klymchuk, 28, Alberta, Canada.


Rachael Parker, Age Unknown. California.


Lisa Patterson, 46, California.


Michelle Vo, 32, California.


Rocio Guillen, 40, California.


Kelsey Meadows, 28, California.


Jordyn Rivera, 21, California.


Denise Salmon Burditus, Age Unknown, West Virginia.


Carrie Barnette, 34, California.


Christiana Duarte, 22, Home Unknown.


Victor Link, 52, California.


Dana Gardner, 52, California.


Angela Gomez, 20, California.


Cameron Robinson, 28, Nevada.


Melissa Ramirez, 26, California.


Heather Alvarado, 35, Utah.


Bailey Schweitzer, 20, California.


Calla Medig, 28, Canada.


Brennan Stewart, 30, Nevada.


Rhonda LeRocque, Age Unknown, Massachusetts.


Bill Wolfe Jr., Age Unknown, Pennsylvania.


Andrea Castilla, 28, California.


Steve Berger, Age Unknown, Wisconsin.


Christopher Roybal, 29, Colorado.


Dorene Anderson, Age Unknown, Alaska.


Jennifer Irvine, 42, California.


Brian Fraser, 39, California.


John Phippen, 56, California.


Austin David, 29, California.


Keri Galvan, 31, California.


Charleston Hartfield, 34, Nevada.


Chris Hazencomb, 44, California.


Nicol Kimura, 38, California.


Carly Kreibaum, 33, Iowa.


Pati Mestas, 67, California.


Austin Meyer, 24, Nevada.


Carrie Parsons, 31, Washington.


Tara Roe Smith, 34, California.


Brett Schwanbeck, 61, Arizona.


Laura Shipp, 50, Nevada.


Erick Silva, 21, Nevada.


Derrick Taylor, 56, California.


Neysa Tonks, 46, Nevada.


Candice Bowers, 40, California.


Denise Cohen, 58, California.

.

nvr
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Re: Narcissism and low self-esteem predict conspiracy beliefs

Post by nvr »

Joel wrote: October 4th, 2017, 5:51 pm
Narcissism and low self-esteem predict conspiracy beliefs

Image

Individuals who hold strong beliefs in conspiracies often also score high in narcissism and low in self-esteem, according to 2015 research.

The series of studies, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, examined individuals to determine whether self-evaluation plays a role in predicting conspiracy beliefs.

“Previous research linked the endorsement of conspiracy theories to low self-esteem,” said Aleksandra Cichocka, principal investigator and corresponding author of the study.

“We propose that conspiracy theories should rather be appealing to individuals with exaggerated feelings of self-love, such as narcissists, due to their paranoid tendencies,” she continued.

In the first study, 202 participants completed a conspiracy beliefs questionnaire, a self-esteem scale, and an individual narcissism questionnaire. In the conspiracy beliefs questionnaire, participants rated the extent to which they agree with such statements as “A small, secret group of people is responsible for making all major world decisions, such as going to war” and “The American government permits or perpetrates acts of terrorism on its own soil, disguising its involvement.”

Scientists found that among participants, high individual narcissism and low self-esteem significantly predicted conspiracy beliefs.

In the second study, scientists sought to rule out the possibility that collective narcissism contributed to the results of the previous study.

“Because conspiracy theories often refer to malevolent actions of groups, we wanted to distinguish whether it is a narcissistic image of the self or the group that predicts the endorsement of conspiracy theories,” said Cichocka.

“For example…American collective narcissism predicted the endorsement of conspiracy theories involving foreign governments but not the American government,” she continued.

Study 2 determined that collective narcissism does not interfere with the role that individual narcissism and low self-esteem have on conspiracy beliefs. In other words, individual narcissists with low self-esteem tend to hold beliefs in conspiracies whether or not they also exhibit collective narcissism.

The third study aimed to account for the role low-self esteem plays in conspiracy beliefs by determining its relationship with negativity toward humans in general.

Scientists found that the factor of low self-esteem can indeed be explained by general negativity.

“The effect of low self-esteem on conspiracy beliefs can be largely attributed to the fact that low self-esteem predicts negative perceptions of humanity more broadly,” Cichocka reported.

Though the studies are not able to establish a causal relationship, they do indicate that narcissism, low self-esteem, and conspiracy belief are significantly correlated.

“Narcissists might be especially prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to their elevated self-consciousness connected with exaggerated feelings of being in the center of others’ attention,” said Cichocka.
It can be pretty easily established that governments can and have done wrong and covered it up in the past. The type of person to suspect and investigate this would be someone who, through their life, has learned to recognize the propensity towards corruption in high places. To get very far in an investigation, this person would also have to have the capability to recognize and detail incongruities between official government accounts of what happened in significant events versus what actually happened based on evidence.
These two traits might be defined as discerning and dogged.

There are those, who from world-weariness or lazy over reliance on gut-feelings, latch on to conspiracy theories, no matter how well-founded they be. I think this study is perhaps trying to label these more gullible people as having low self-esteem narcissists and at the same time cast all people who question government or mainstream narratives into this same mold. This matches what the rest of major academia and media has been saying and doing for a while. This type of behavior is not a healthy sign of a free society.

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Elizabeth
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Elizabeth wrote: October 10th, 2017, 4:49 am http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/supreme-date ... -cake-war/

"The U.S. Supreme Court has picked Dec. 5 to hear arguments in the case of a Colorado baker who was accused of violating a state regulation by refusing to promote a same-sex “wedding” with his artistry.

In Colorado, it was a biased Civil Rights Commission that ordered Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop to provide his customized wedding cakes to same-sex duos if he provided them to anyone. He also was told to undergo state-mandated, homosexual-rights thought training and take his staff with him.

A member of the state’s Civil Rights Commission, Diann Rice, publicly exhibited bias against him during a hearing, comparing him to a Nazi.

“I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting,” Rice said during consideration of Phillips’ case. “Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be – I mean, we – we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to – to use their religion to hurt others.”

“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out eight principles to help Americans who hold conservative moral values counter attacks on freedoms of religion, speech and conscience by homosexual activists

It was the same state commission that ruled homosexual bakers can legitimately refuse to create a cake with a Bible verse that condemns homosexuality, arguing it offends their beliefs.

Phillips contends he is protected by the First Amendment right to speak freely and to exercise his religious beliefs.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the U.S. government comes to his defense, arguing the making of a wedding cake is a form of expression protected by the Constitution.

“When Phillips designs and creates a custom wedding cake for a specific couple and a specific wedding, he plays an active role in enabling that ritual, and he associates himself with the celebratory message conveyed,” the brief points out.

The Colorado law, therefore, by forcing Phillips “to create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs,” intrudes on his First Amendment rights.

Colorado, the federal government argues, “has not offered, and could not reasonably offer, a sufficient justification” to force Phillips to makes such an expression.

Phillips lost in state court, where enforcement of the “gay”-rights agenda is common. A state Supreme Court justice has boasted of being a “gay” activist.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending Phillips, explained that Phillips considers the moral component of his work to be important. ADF points out that he also declines to produce products with a Halloween theme.

“Jack Phillips doesn’t design cakes for all events – he never has. He has a set of values based on his religious beliefs – a moral code – that guides his life, including his work. When an event conflicts with Jack’s beliefs, he doesn’t participate. The Constitution protects that freedom – not just because Jack is a person of faith, but also because he is an artist who pours his time, talent, and incredible skill into creating custom works of art for his customers,” ADF explains.

“But that hasn’t stopped LGBT activists and the State of Colorado from coming after Jack. They’ve accused him of intolerance and discrimination, forced him to reeducate his staff and file quarterly compliance reports with the government, and demanded that he design cakes for same-sex weddings.”

ADF argues the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision “may have redefined marriage, but it didn’t redefine freedom.”

“The government does not have the power to force creative professionals like Jack – or anyone for that matter – to celebrate events that violate their faith. That’s the kind of freedom the First Amendment guarantees, and that’s why we seek justice for Jack,” ADF says.

Phillips, who has generated a tidal wave of support, shares the Christian belief that the standard for marriage was established by God, and no earthly court, including the U.S. Supreme Court, can change it.

That position was stated emphatically by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of the New York Times best-seller “The Harbinger” and the inspiration behind the “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” movie. His most recent book, “The Paradigm,” is just out.

He was addressing the Washington: A Man of Prayer event in the U.S. Capitol in 2015, just before the Supreme Court released its marriage opinion, which four justices criticized as unconnected to the Constitution.

“The justices of the Supreme Court took up their seats [in a hearing] on whether they should strike down the biblical and historic definition of marriage. That the event should even take place is a sign this is the America of George Washington’s warning … a nation at war against its own foundation,” Cahn said.

“If this court should overrule the word of God and strike down the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself ordained, how then will God save it? Justices, can you judge the ways of God? There is another court and there another judge, where all men and all judges will give account.

“If a nation’s high court should pass judgment on the Almighty, should you then be surprised God will pass judgment on the court and that nation? We are doing that which Israel did on the altars of Baal,” said Cahn.

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