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Trump’s generals thwart him on the Iran deal

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It’s no secret that President Trump is desperate to withdraw the United States from the Iran deal. Trump blatantly resents the agreement, the crowning foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration, and lambastes it whenever he can. That included his speech last month at the U.N. General Assembly, during which he called the deal “an embarrassment” and hinted to reporters that he was ready to scrap it.

Now the White House faces its latest deadline — Oct. 15 — to certify to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the terms of the deal. Trump has grudgingly given that approval two times this year, but has loudly signaled that he won’t keep doing so. Speculation over the deal’s demise has given a wing to a flurry of op-eds from neoconservative wonks and Iran hawks in Washington, cheering on possible “decertification.”

But there’s a crucial constituency that may not be on the same page as Trump: “his” generals. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine general, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee and fielded questions on the administration’s thinking regarding the Iran deal.

During the hearing, Senator Angus King (I-Maine) asked Mattis: “Do you believe it’s in our national security interest at the present time to remain in the JCPOA?” (The JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is the formal term for the Iran deal.)

“Yes, Senator, I do,” Mattis responded.

He also stated that “If we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, then clearly we should stay with it … I believe at this point in time, absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with.” Iran’s Press TV pointedly featured the comments on its social media accounts.

Mattis, known for his antipathy toward Iran, is hardly the sort of official whom conservatives can deride as an appeasenik — nor was he the only Marine in the room to back the deal. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Iran “is not in material breach” of the deal and that the agreement’s implementation has “delayed the development of nuclear capability by Iran” — precisely as the Obama administration intended.

But the White House sees things differently from the Pentagon. Trump insists that Iran has abrogated the terms of the agreement “in spirit” by testing ballistic missiles and continuing its destabilizing activities in the Middle East. A move by Trump to decertify Iran would give Congress two months to decide whether to restore sanctions on Tehran — an act that could compel Iran to renege on its own commitments. (Congress could also possibly do nothing and let the deal slumber on with European partners taking the lead, which they have pledged to do.)

Another path fervently sought by some Iran hawks is for Congress to use the opportunity to force a renegotiation and expansion of the deal to make it broader than a simple arms control agreement. Critics say the prospect of such a renegotiation is fantasy and, in an interview with Politico’s Susan Glasser, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif rejected it outright.

“The belief that such an outcome is possible is deeply rooted in a fundamental critique of the Iran deal advanced by some Israeli officials, conservative think tanks, and Trump himself: the idea that Obama simply lacked the skill and political will to push for tougher terms when the JCPOA was struck in July 2015,” wrote Colin Kahl, a former Obama administration official. “There’s just one problem: It’s a myth. More pressure would not have produced a better outcome two years ago — and threatening to blow up the deal will not produce a better one today.”

“The United States will be seen as having violated a deal that was working, the Iranians will feel free to resume their nuclear activities, and the strong international coalition that forced Iran to the table in the first place with its global sanctions will be impossible to put back together,” wrote Philip Gordon of the Council on Foreign Relations in The Washington Post.

Gordon, who also served in the Obama administration, added: “Trying to suddenly conjure up a brand-new deal that addresses every problematic aspect of Iran’s foreign policy and blocks its path to a nuclear weapon is a recipe for achieving neither set of goals.”

Nevertheless, there’s a real likelihood that Trump will punt the matter to Congress, passing the buck to an already divided and dysfunctional body. “This could very easily take on a momentum of its own,” warned Jon Finer, the chief of staff to one of the Iran deal’s key architects, former secretary of state John F. Kerry. “You could be in a situation where the administration [won’t certify compliance] and Congress will say, ‘Well, the administration has spoken as to Iran’s implementation of the deal,’ and this moves forward whether or not people have fully thought through the consequences.”

One of the consequences of the deal collapsing could be the resumption of Iran’s nuclear program, prompting yet another nuclear-tipped geopolitical crisis. “I know there are some Republicans who are so rabidly against the agreement they might vote to impose sanctions,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to Al-Monitor, “but I have to believe there are enough reasonable Republicans that they wouldn’t put both North Korea and Iran on a pathway to nuclear weapons.”

Whatever the mood in Washington, a new poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that a clear majority of Americans say that the United States should stick to the deal. The country’s top defense officials seem to share that view. But it’s still doubtful that the commander in chief is listening.

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If the gunman was Muslim, would we be talking about Las Vegas ‘terrorism’?

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A candlelight vigil is pictured on the Las Vegas strip following a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 2, 2017. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

On Oct. 1, 2017, a man named Stephen Paddock opened fire on attendees at an outdoor concert festival in Las Vegas, killing at least 58 and wounding 500 more, in the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

As the news filtered in, policymakers, pundits and members of the public debated whether the incident should be classified as terrorism. As with other recent violent incidents — including the shootings at Fort Hood and Charleston — opinions diverged widely.

Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced that the Las Vegas attack was not terrorism, because it was perpetrated by “a solo actor. A lone wolf.”

The FBI made a similar declaration, noting the absence of ties to foreign organizations — although ISIS quickly took credit for the attack regardless. But the Democratic National Committee and Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) characterized the attack as an “act of terror.”

If the perpetrator is Muslim, are we quick to label an incident as “terrorism”?

One question often raised in these incidents is whether violence is more likely to be characterized as terrorism when the perpetrator is a Muslim. On Twitter, journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote that “in the early stages of mass shooting, ‘no signs of terrorism’ means: ‘shooter isn’t Muslim.’”

[Americans who live closer to a mass shooting are more likely to support gun regulation]

In new research, we find that the identity of the perpetrator matters for defining terrorism, but it’s not the only thing that matters. How we define terrorism also depends on other contextual factors that might — or might not — be highlighted in the media.

How do we decide what counts as terrorism?

To help explain this contentious question, we’ve been conducting studies to explore how members of the public decide which violent incidents count as terrorism, and which don’t. In a new article in the American Journal of Political Science, we turn to experimental methods to better understand how the public decides whether violent incidents are acts of terrorism.

If the responses of ordinary citizens constitute a central means through which terrorism operates, understanding what ordinary citizens think counts as terrorism is a crucial prerequisite to understanding how they react to it.

How we did our research

We fielded a survey experiment on 1,400 adult Americans. We showed each respondent summaries of a series of incidents, with randomly generated attributes: the type of tactics used (for example, a shooting versus bombing); if there were casualties; what the target was; where the attack took place; who the perpetrator was (including whether or not they were identified as Muslim); what their motivation was (for example, a personal dispute, policy change, hatred), and so on. We then asked participants to tell us whether they thought of each incident as being an act of terrorism or not. For more on the methodology, see here.

[Lots of Republicans actually support gun control]

Our results showed that ordinary citizens classify terrorism based not only on relatively straightforward facts on the ground, such as the number of casualties — but also information about the perpetrator, which is often highly ambiguous in the immediate aftermath of incidents.

Considerations about the type and severity of violence matter: If the attacker in Las Vegas had used a bomb rather than a gun, for example, we would be much more likely to think of it as terrorism. But our respondents are also heavily influenced by relatively subjective descriptions about the perpetrator’s identity and motivations. These are the “who” and “why” questions — and the media has considerable latitude in how it chooses to answer them, especially in the hours and days following an attack.

Here’s why this matters — predictive models based on our experimental results show that subjective descriptions of the perpetrator make it more/less likely that Americans see the event to be terrorism.

For example, the Daily Mirror speculated about Paddock’s family history of mental illness. Other outlets emphasized other factors. Was he motivated by hatred, or was his motivation unclear? Did he have foreign ties, as the claims by ISIS in the immediate aftermath seemed to suggest? And what if he was Muslim?

Our models suggest that how the public understands an attack depends on which of these factors are mentioned or highlighted. And the media decides which factors make it into the descriptions of attacks that occur.

[America is a violent country]

Here’s the test: building off our experimental results, we calculated the changes in the predicted probability that an event with the characteristics of the Las Vegas attack will be perceived as terrorism if we code the attack’s attributes in different ways. If the perpetrator is described as having a history of mental illness, we have no information about his identity and his motivation is described as unclear, our model suggests a 35 percent likelihood that the public will perceive this as terrorism.

If instead we hold all else equal but describe the perpetrator as Muslim, the probability of viewing it as terrorism increases to 46 percent. If we then omit the references to mental illness, the probability inches up to 53 percent. If we then attribute the incident to political goals, the probability jumps to 73 percent. And, if we also suggest the potential of foreign ties, the probability jumps further to 81 percent.

It isn’t just the attacker’s identity that matters

Tweeting after the attack, Piers Morgan said, “If the shooter was Muslim, we’d call this a terrorist attack.” Our results suggest it’s not that simple: The effect of social identity on terrorism classifications is real (especially among respondents who self-identify as politically conservative), but modest compared to many of the other factors we analyze.

The broader problem is that the media treats Muslim perpetrators differently — they are less likely to be referred to as suffering from histories of mental illness, and their actions more likely to be attributed to political motivations.

These results suggest media coverage profoundly shapes how the public comes to understand violent events. Many of the considerations we rely on most heavily when categorizing events as terrorism are relatively subjective — and require information that’s not available for days or weeks after an incident occurs.

This means pundits and policymakers have considerable leeway in how they choose to frame acts of violence — and our results show that what they report may shape public opinion long before the full details are known.

Connor Huff is a PhD candidate at Harvard University.

Joshua Kertzer is an assistant professor of government at Harvard University.

The Las Vegas Shooter Didn’t Just “Snap.” They Never Do.

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A leaked investigation photo from the Las Vegas hotel suite used by PaddockBild Exclusive/Polaris

In the opening monologue to his late-night TV show on Monday, an emotional Jimmy Kimmel channeled what millions of Americans were thinking about the gun massacre on the Las Vegas Strip that killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500 others. Kimmel described it as an inexplicable attack by “a very sick person” with an “insane voice in his head.” On the brink of tears, Kimmel said, “We wonder why, even though there’s probably no way to know why a human being would do something like this.”

It was a powerful moment, and yet these widely shared comments from Kimmel also reinforced a misconception that invariably marks the national discourse in the aftermath of indiscriminate mass shootings: that the perpetrator was severely mentally ill, and somehow just “snapped” and went on a killing spree. Law enforcement investigators and journalists have found no record of mental illness for 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, whom police found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And as with the vast majority of mass shooters, there is substantial evidence showing that Paddock deliberately planned the massacre over a lengthy period of time and then methodically carried it out.

Sunday’s massacre resulted in the highest injury and death toll of any mass shooting in modern US history. As with most of these attacks, untangling motive can be quite complicated. That certainly is the case with Paddock, a former government worker, accountant, and itinerant high-stakes gambler whose personal background was a mysteriously blank slate in an initial wave of media reports.

But if determining why a mass shooter struck can be elusive, documenting how they cultivated and carried out their plans—and how insights into those behavioral patterns can help prevent other attacks—is a different story. Calling Paddock a “crazed lunatic full of hate,” as the Las Vegas mayor did, or “a very, very sick individual” as President Donald Trump did, may offer some catharsis. But it isn’t very helpful for understanding such crimes. (This kind of language can also perpetuate a dangerous stigma against mentally ill people, the vast majority of whom are not violent.)

Here are some of the key details known so far about Paddock’s attack—and, according to law enforcement and behavioral threat assessment experts I’ve spoken with, some of what investigators are scrutinizing to better understand Paddock’s planning and possible motive.

The pathway to violence

Coined by pioneers of the evolving field of threat assessment, the “pathway to violence” refers to a series of escalating behaviors leading to an attack, which can comprise a crucial period of time for possible intervention. Typically this process begins with a deep-seated grievance that turns to motivation, followed by planning and then an act of targeted violence. Though the process varies widely in its circumstances and duration, it precedes virtually all mass shootings.

According to police, Paddock arrived at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino three days prior to firing a deluge of bullets from his 32nd floor luxury suite. Over those three days he brought as many as 10 suitcases into the suite, presumably transporting his arsenal of nearly two dozen firearms (mostly assault rifles), ammunition, and accessories, including rifle scopes and tripods. Paddock also installed surveillance cameras inside and outside the room. And he used multiple rifles to conduct the attack from two windows he smashed out with a hammer.

The overall setup was “pretty sophisticated,” as one law enforcement official familiar with the investigation described it to me. Prior to Paddock’s three days at the hotel, this official said, Paddock likely undertook “days or weeks of planning, if not longer.” He may also have considered targeting another music festival the previous weekend. This was not the behavior of a person who had just “snapped.”

Obsession with military-style weapons

Eric Paddock, a brother of the perpetrator who lives in Florida, told reporters that he and his family were “shocked” and “horrified” by the news, and said that Stephen Paddock was “not an avid gun guy.” Clearly he was misinformed. Authorities found a cache of 19 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and explosives material at Stephen Paddock’s residence in Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles from Las Vegas, and additional guns at a home he owned in Reno. Many of the 47 weapons found in total were purchased legally through gun sellers in Nevada, Utah, California, and Texas. Paddock had no military background, but his weapons and tactics—including 12 rifles modified with legal “bump stocks” allowing them to fire at a rate similar to fully automatic weapons—bore hallmarks of a plan designed for killing en masse.

Threat assessment experts have documented many cases where mass shooters cultivated a “pseudocommando” image—attackers who were obsessed with military-style weapons and paraphernalia and aspired to a “warrior mentality.” Whether Paddock ever voiced such interest is unclear, but his preparations and arsenal are an unambiguous measure of it.

Did he signal his intentions?

In the initial aftermath, most media outlets ran with Eric Paddock’s comments that the family, mostly estranged from Stephen, had no inkling that he might commit a violent crime. This is a very familiar trope in mass shootings. What the surprise among family members or neighbors about a perpetrator “snapping” really tends to mean is that “they didn’t know what was going on in his life that led up to it,” says Dr. Russell Palarea, a Washington DC-based threat assessment professional. In some cases that can include what experts refer to as a “triggering event”—being fired from a job, getting served with a restraining order, or some other negative life development that can set a potentially dangerous person’s plan into motion.

A thorough investigative process is critical to understanding what happened, says Palarea: “He may have amassed his arsenal with the specific intent of carrying out this devastating attack. Or, he may have been collecting firearms as an aficionado and had no perceived grievance, motivation, or need for notoriety back then. The shift could be more recent. What’s needed is a timeline of his behaviors.”

Forensic research shows that most mass shooters express their intentions before they strike, most often to a third party—a concept known as “leakage.” Data from Paddock’s computers and phone could shed light, as could his girlfriend of several years, Marilou Danley, a 62-year-old native of the Philippines who worked as a casino hostess. Authorities confirmed Danley was overseas when the massacre took place and returned Tuesday night to the US to speak with investigators. (Some signs began to emerge on Tuesday that Paddock might’ve been abusive toward Danley; a history of domestic violence is common among mass shooters. Paddock’s two ex-wives have so far declined to talk to the press.)

Psychopathy and suicidal behavior

As investigators seek deeper insight into what could explain the attack, perhaps the most intriguing background on Paddock goes way back: His father was a notorious bank robber once on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, classified by the bureau in 1969 as a dangerous psychopath with suicidal tendencies. (Suicidal behavior is also common among mass shooters—a majority take their own lives, as Paddock did.) According to threat assessment expert Dr. Reid Meloy, research indicates that psychopathic traits can be inherited, and that this is more likely to happen the more severe the trait. That condition “wouldn’t explain specifics of the act,” says Meloy, “but may explain the detachment and cruelty to carry out such an act.”

Evidence may yet emerge as to what was going on inside Paddock’s mind as he plotted his slaughter. It was without a doubt a hideous and evil act, and it was hardly inexplicable.

Slidely, a Video Creation Solution Acquires Unstock

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Tel Aviv, Israel: Slidely, the visual content platform and creator of PROMO, the #1 video creation solution for SMBs, announced today that it has has acquired Unstock, a mobile-first UGC (User Generated Content) video marketplace, expanding its ability to empower businesses of all sizes to easily create professional videos for successful marketing endeavors.

Last year, to meet the increasing demand for marketing-based professional video content, Slidely released PROMO, its instant video creation tool for SMBs. Since going live, PROMO by Slidely has attracted over 20,000 paying customers, based mainly in the US, and is set to pass $1M in MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) making it one of the fastest-growing marketing platforms for SMBs.

PROMO by Slidely,  provides access to millions of premium quality video clips from Getty Images, pre-edited licensed music and a user-friendly interface for customizing messages and logos. With PROMO, SMBs have the tools to create videos quickly, easily and affordably that can compete with the big brands’ videos. Over the last month, PROMO released numerous new product features, including Facebook Video Covers, as well as in-product integration with Facebook, HubSpot and Wistia. It was also recently named an official Facebook and Instagram Marketing Partner.

Handpicked as part of Angelpad #10, Unstock is a crowdsourced video marketplace that has quickly built a community of creators and clients.  As part of the acquisition, Unstock’s stand-alone service will cease and its technology will evolve to integrate seamlessly into PROMO’s cloud based service by early 2018. The partnership will allow Slidely to converge the UGC platform of Slidely and the business platform of PROMO into a greater AI-based video marketing ecosystem. The Unstock teams in Silicon Valley and Warsaw are joining the larger Slidely team.

“The acquisition of Unstock will accelerate our plans to expand into new video types and use cases that further provide value and positive ROI for our current and future customers,” said Tom More, Slidely’s Founder and CEO. “We are very excited about the addition of the talented Unstock team to the Slidely family and look forward to executing on PROMO’s mission to democratize professional video creation for businesses.s.”

Why video marketing has to be a top priority (VB Live)

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Social video generates 1,200 percent more shares than text and images combined, so if video marketing isn’t even on your radar, you’re leaving money on the table. Don’t get left behind — join this VB Live event to find out how to leverage the extraordinary growth and potential of video marketing.

Register here for free.

Content only works if it arrives not only where and when consumers want to see it, but in the format they want to consume it in. Increasingly, that’s video — and why by 2021, video will represent 82 percent of all web traffic according to the
Cisco Visual Networking Index. 

Video content marketing is such an astonishing tool, it’s developed a corona of impressive statistics around it. Video: boosts click-through rates in marketing email by 200-300 percent; increases conversion rates by 80 percent when embedded in landing pages; helps 90 percent of customers make purchasing decisions; and increases the likelihood of online purchase by 64 percent.

It’s also a powerful tool for brand recall, with the benefit of compelling video and audio making it far more memorable than text content. 80 percent of customers remember a video they’ve watched in the last month — and that means they’re also far more likely to remember your brand.

But … only if your videos are actually memorable, clearly branded, and in line with your brand strategy. Creative is essential — too offbeat leaves customers nodding along and then clicking away without ever thinking once about you. Video is your opportunity to bring your brand message to life in living color, from design to production value to the message and the way it’s delivered. A relevant, compelling video with this kind of well-thought-out branding drives business decision leaders (sixty-five percent of them) to your website; thirty-nine percent might even contact you directly.

Or they might even share it — because video is shared 1,200% more than both links and text combined. But a hard sell is never going to get passed around, even in B2B marketing. Viewers are snagged by videos that are funny, emotional or inspirational, or educational. Start pushing them product specs and sales pushes too early in the sales funnel and they’ll be clicking away before the 10 second mark.

A lot goes into a video, from targeting to topic to message and production, but marketers find over and over again that the investment of time and resources has direct, bottom-line impact and delivers powerful results.

Learn how online home goods giant Wayfair uses video marketing as a hub of their content strategy, where to get started, and how to use video to boost sales, when you join this interactive VB Live event.

Don’t miss out.

Register free now.

In this VB LIve event, you’ll learn:

  • How to use video the right way to promote content to a targeted audience
  • How to leverage video at each part of the funnel to move customers along the journey
  • How to optimize video across social media
  • How video fits into a successful overall content strategy

Speakers:

  • Jess Jacobs, Director of Marketing, Wayfair
  • Stewart Rogers, Director of Marketing Technology, VB
  • Rachael Brown, Moderator, VB

Anthony Kennedy doesn’t tip hand in gerrymandering case

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Washington (CNN)A deeply divided Supreme Court took up a partisan gerrymander case on Tuesday that could change the way state legislators draw district lines and realign modern day politics.

    Kennedy, top right, appears in a formal Supreme Court portrait in April 1988. In the front row, from left, are Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan Jr., Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Byron White and and Harry Blackmun. In the back row, from left, are Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor and Kennedy. The Supreme Court meets with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in September 2009. 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    MUST WATCH

Trump says Puerto Rico officials should be ‘proud’ more haven’t died like in Katrina

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President Trump on Tuesday told Puerto Rico officials they should feel “very proud” they haven’t lost thousands of lives like in “a real catastrophe like Katrina,” while adding that the devastated island territory has thrown the nation’s budget “a little out of whack.”  

Trump’s remarks came as he touched down in San Juan amid harsh criticism of the slow federal response to the natural disaster and after he praised himself earlier in the day for the “great job” and “A-plus” performance he said his administration deserved for its response to Hurricane Maria.

This is Trump’s first visit to Puerto Rico since the storm ravaged the island nearly two weeks ago.

“Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here, with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” Trump said, before turning to a local official to ask how many people had died in storm. “What is your death count as of this moment? 17? 16 people certified, 16 people versus in the thousands.”

Trump then praised officials in the room over the death toll.

President Trump talks to reporters as he departs the White House with First Lady Melania Trump, en route to inspect the storm damaged island of Puerto Rico. (Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post) (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

“You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together,” he said.

The president also seemed to fault the small island for imperiling the United States’s budget by requiring hurricane relief funds, saying, “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.

[Trapped in the mountains, Puerto Ricans don’t see help, or a way out]

Before Trump’s impromptu remarks, the president’s visit was intended to be highly scripted, including a briefing on relief efforts, a meeting with senior military personnel — as well as with Govs. Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico and Kenneth Mapp of the U.S. Virgin Islands — and an opportunity to visit with people impacted by the storm and the Navy and Marine Corps.

The president, who was accompanied by the first lady, is not expected to stray far from San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital and largest city, where recovery is much farther along than much of the rest of the territory.

[San Juan mayor continues calls for relief after attacks from Trump]

 San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who has been deeply critical of the government’s relief efforts and whom Trump has criticized on Twitter, also joined Trump for his first briefing on the island. On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Cruz had been invited to participate in Trump’s visit, but the mayor’s name did not appear on the president’s public schedule and it was not clear until Tuesday morning that Trump would encounter Cruz. 

Trump’s mixed reviews for his response so far, however, did not stop him from lavishing praise on himself and his administration. As the president, clad in a black windbreaker and khakis, departed the White House, he said Cruz has “come back a long way,” before returning to one his favorite topics — himself and his own performance.

“I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done, and people are looking at that,” he said. “And in Texas and in Florida, we get an A-plus. And I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it’s actually a much tougher situation. But now the roads are cleared, communications is starting to come back. We need their truck drivers to start driving trucks.”

He also thanked Rosselló for positive comments he had made about the administration’s work in Puerto Rico, saying, “He has said we have done an incredible job, and that’s the truth.”

[Trump returns to flood-ravaged Texas, this time to try out role of ‘consoler-in-chief’]

Trump’s response to Maria offers a sharp contrast with his actions in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which ravaged Southeast Texas. Trump visited Texas twice in the week after Harvey’s landfall, first in his role as commander in chief, checking in on relief efforts, and then as a “consoler in chief,” offering hugs and prayers.

[Lost weekend: How Trump’s time at his golf club hurt the response to Maria]

Though Trump and his administration initially offered a flurry of action as Maria tore through Puerto Rico, the president then effectively went dark, decamping for a long weekend at his private club in Bedminster, N.J.

The president at points also seemed to the blame Puerto Ricans themselves for their plight, lashing out at the mayor of San Juan — after she pleaded on cable television for the federal government to “save us from dying” — for her “poor leadership ability” and writing on Twitter that the island’s citizens “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

Trump’s visit comes as he is facing yet another tragedy not of his own making: a shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas that left at least 59 people dead and hundreds more injured. The mass shooting is the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, and Trump is scheduled to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Las Vegas Shooting Live Updates: Trump Calls the Gunman ‘Sick’

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A federal law enforcement official earlier said two rifles were outfitted with scopes and set up on tripods in front of two big windows. Another official said that among the weapons were AR-15-style assault rifles. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the investigation.

Sheriff Lombardo said that Mr. Paddock brought at least 10 suitcases into his hotel room over a period of time.

The sheriff said that Mr. Paddock fired through his hotel room door at security guards, striking one in the leg. The guard is still alive, he said. SWAT officers went in after the guard was shot.

In addition to the weapons at the hotel, the sheriff said the police retrieved 19 firearms, as well as explosives, several thousand rounds of ammunition and “electronic devices” from Mr. Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nev.

Who was the gunman?

Mr. Paddock, 64, was described as a high-flying gambler who lived in a quiet retirement community and played golf. Officials said he had no significant criminal history and drew little attention to himself.

Investigators are trying to piece together his financial history to search for clues that could help determine what set him off.

Details about Mr. Paddock’s career and livelihood were sparse, aside from observations by neighbors and family members that he routinely gambled large amounts of money. “He was a wealthy guy, playing video poker, who went cruising all the time and lived in a hotel room,” a brother, Eric Paddock, said.

Stephen Paddock in a photo provided by his brother Eric Paddock.


via Associated Press

Mr. Paddock and his three brothers were raised by their mother, who told the children their father had died when in fact he was in prison, Eric Paddock said. Mr. Paddock’s father was convicted in 1961 of committing a series of bank robberies and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He escaped from La Tuna federal prison in Texas in 1968 and became a used-car dealer and bingo parlor operator in Oregon.

The family moved around the country, from Iowa to Tucson to Southern California, another brother, Patrick Paddock II, said.

In an interview with CBS, Eric Paddock said that his brother Stephen was “not an avid gun guy at all.”

“The fact that he had those kind of weapons is just — where the hell did he get automatic weapons?” he asked.

‘I’ve never been that scared in my life,’ said one witness.

The police estimated that when the shooting began, there were 22,000 people at the Harvest Festival, listening to Jason Aldean, the final act of the three-day event.

Video of the shooting captured nine seconds of continuous, rapid fire, followed by 37 seconds of silence from the weapon and panicked screaming from the crowd. Gunfire then erupted again and again in extended bursts. Some concertgoers thought the noise was fireworks, but as it became clear what was happening, people fled, many of them unsure where the shots were coming from, or where they should go.

“Everyone was running, you could see people getting shot,” said Gail Davis, one of the witnesses. “I’ve never been that scared in my life,” she added. “To have this happen, I can’t wrap my mind around it.”

Video from the shooting showed Mr. Aldean running off the stage as the gunfire erupted.

Within minutes, a police officer on the scene radioed “to report cases of gunshot wounds “to the chest, legs, terminal arteries at the medical tent.”

A few minutes later, an officer said, “We’re making tourniquets out of blankets, but I’m running out of blankets here.”

Patients surged into Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, within walking distance of the concert, where at least 124 “met the criteria for trauma activation, said Dr. Jeff Murawsky, the hospital’s chief medical officer. They included patients with single and multiple gunshot wounds to the head, face, chest, body, arms and, in one case, a finger.

Reporting was contributed by Ken Belson, Jennifer Medina and John Eligon from Las Vegas; Julie Turkewitz from Mesquite, Nev.; Eileen Sullivan from Washington; Richard Pérez-Peña from New York; Liam Stack from London; and Russell Goldman from Hong Kong.


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Hitron Launches Video Campaign Focused on Cable Ops

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Hitron Technologies has introduced an MSO-focused video marketing campaign that takes aim at the growing need for cable operators to deliver and support whole-home WiFi coverage via a mix of gateways, extenders as well as a mobile app that broadband subs can use to monitor and manage those connections.

RELATED: Hitron ‘Coda-45’ Modem Nets DOCSIS 3.1 Certification

Hitron’s “Unleash Your WiFi” campaign, which features a 14 year-old- “senior scientist” as its spokesperson, details apps such as MyHitron (a WiFi network management tool for customers) as well as the vendor’s EasyInstall app for IoS and Android app, which covers elements such as device configuration, signal-to-noise ration and verification of the WiFi speed and coverage provided in a given home.

Hitron, which doesn’t sell devices through retail channels but is rather focused on direct sales to cable operators, confirmed that this is a campaign aimed at MSOs/affiliates, and that its operator partners are also free to use the videos.

Rogers Communications, Midco and Mediacom are among Hitron’s  known North American customers for its DOCSIS 3.1-certified CPE, and GCI has approved certain Hitron D3.1 CPE models.

RELATED: Rogers Rolling Out Hitron’s DOCSIS 3.1 Gateway

Hitron, which counts Arris, Technicolor, Sagemcom, and Ubee Interactive among its cable broadband CPE competitors in the B2B sector, confirmed that four major North American cable operators have launched D3.1 with the vendor this year, and has been picked by three others in the region for D3.1 gateways, including one for business-class service.

The vendor’s marketing and product focus on whole-home WiFi comes as such offerings become a greater priority for operators such as Comcast, which recently launched ‘xFi,’ a cloud-based WiFi management platform.

RELATED: Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up

Below are a couple of videos from the MSO-focused campaign:

Hitron Labs – Unleash Your WiFi from Hitron Technologies on Vimeo.

Hitron Labs – EasyInstall from Hitron Technologies on Vimeo.