Stephen Paddock Goes to Vegas and Stays There

He was just a guy.

Eric Paddock talking about his brother, Stephen

Aren't they all? It seems like it anyway.

By every indication 64 year old Steve Paddock was living the good life, the American dream really. He was apparently flush with money and comfortably retired, or semi retired. Two years ago he moved into a home on a golf course in a seniors community 80, or so miles outside of Las Vegas. His life style was so discreet and unremarkable the Mesquite, NV police department didn't even know who he was until the phone calls began to come in yesterday evening.

Now, just about everyone in these 50 United States knows his name. That's because last night Mr. Paddock appears to have gone off his nut in the worst way imaginable. As of this hour he is accused of being the perpetrator of the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the republic. And, as we all know far too well in order to set that gruesome record you have to kill scads and scads of people.

At the moment the count is 59 confirmed dead, 60 if your count Paddock, who police say committed suicide as they busted in his hotel door. Over 500 more were wounded, or injured as they tried to flee the killing ground--an open air country and western music festival.

No one knows why Paddock opened fire, at least not yet. However, that hasn't stopped some from giving their opinions via the internet.

The deadly clowns known as ISIS, or at least someone claiming to be them, issued an online statement claiming Paddock had recently converted to Islam and pledged his allegiance to them. Of course the way things are currently going for that outfit they're liable to claim responsibility for anything, up to and including a traffic accident at the intersection of May Avenue and NW 63rd street in Oklahoma City. The FBI is saying there is no evidence of a connection to ISIS, or anyone else.

On the other hand, the conspiracy wankers are already infesting YouTube, saying the shooting--which involved over 22,000 witnesses, victims, police, emergency medical techs, and hospital personnel--was faked by the government. According to them the entire faux attack involved the usual suspects, you know, shadow agencies looking to take away every one's guns and paid crisis actors. As proof they cite the lack of blood and bodies in videos shown on cable news. At 10:15 central time this morning there were at least 16 different YouTube channels claiming they had proof the entire nightmare was a fix. 

If you believe in genetic predestination one supposes we could blame it on his father, Benjamin Paddock, aka, Big Daddy. He was such a bad guy he made the FBI's most wanted list back in the early 1960's. His wanted poster described him being diagnosed as psychopathic with suicidal tendencies. It noted he should be considered armed and dangerous. According to Fox News, he died a free man in 1998 after doing a minimum amount of prison time and paying a couple of hefty fines.

The only real hint about what might have gone wrong available to the public right now is Stephen Paddock loved to hit the tables when he was in town. So much so there are some recent bank transactions on his account involving fairly large sums of money. The situation remains so confused though, no one knows, or is saying if the money transfers were deposits, or debits. 

What we do know is he checked into the Mandalay Bay Hotel on September 28th. Last night he knocked out two separate windows in either a suite, or connecting rooms so he could change his firing position. In addition, he didn't have to be much of a marksman. When you use a fully automatic weapon on a crowd of 22,000 souls jammed into a fenced area like cattle, picking out individual targets is a waste of time. Just point and pull the trigger, baby, then let the law of averages take over.

We also know, thanks to Nevada law, it was perfectly legal for Stephen Paddock to drag an arsenal up to his 32nd floor vantage point. In fact, within a week, there will be a major gun show in Las Vegas so someone doing just such a thing wouldn't even raise eye brows at the front desk, or among the bell staff.

Yes, officer, he looked like just another patriotic good ol' boy exercising his second amendment rights. Who would have ever thought?

Right.

Ladies and gentlemen the bar is most certainly open. Just keep your backs to the wall and your eyes on the door. Hey, this is America and God only knows who is coming through it next and how heavily armed and bat shit crazy they will be.

10-2-17