Tuesday News: Emotional Jimmy Kimmel on Las Vegas Mass Shooting; “More madness, more cowardice”; #TomPettyRIP

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, October 3.

• Police struggle to discern motive after 59 killed, hundreds hurt in Las Vegas (“Shooter had 23 guns at hotel, no criminal record, officials say”)
• Attack may be first mass shooting in U.S. using an automatic weapon
• Russians exploited Facebook tool tailored for corporate America to identify, influence voters
• Mass shootings are an American problem. There’s an American solution. (“Our aversion to gun control is out of line with our values.” It’s completely insane.)
• The carnage will continue (“Can you imagine this Congress and this president doing the right thing? Neither can I.” Right, which is why we need to change Congress next year…and for many years afterwards.)
• More madness, more cowardice (“Dwight D. Eisenhower’s brother suggested confiscating handguns — imagine that today.” Today, extremists like Barbara Comstock actually want to make it easier to purchase SILENCERS!)
• The worst kind of American exceptionalism (“Mass shootings get deadlier and deadlier, and politicians pretend nothing can be done.” Yep, we’re an exceptional nation alright – thanks a lot Republicans!)
• Facebook’s Russia-Linked Ads Came in Many Disguises
• 477 Days. 521 Mass Shootings. Zero Action From Congress. (“Political leaders have done nothing to curb the bloodshed since the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando last year.”)
• Leonhardt: Now Is the Time to Talk About Guns
• Goldberg: An Unfit President Fails Puerto Rico
• Jimmy Kimmel Shows You 56 Senators Who Voted Against Closing Gun Law Loopholes (And every one of them needs to be defeated.)
• Las Vegas, Gun Violence, and the Failing American State (“Obama didn’t come out and say it explicitly, but he was suggesting that the U.S. government, in its totality, is abandoning one of its basic duties: the protection of its citizenry from readily identifiable threats. And, of course, Obama was right. Of all the ways in which American democracy is showing symptoms of turning into a dysfunctional state, the inability to face down the gun lobby is surely one of the most egregious.”)
• If Newtown Wasn’t Enough, Why Would Las Vegas Be Enough? (“Our leaders are afraid to tolerate limits on Second Amendment ‘freedoms.'”)
• Hundreds of White House emails sent to third Kushner family account (“Lock ’em up?”)
• America’s big problem with guns? Our gun industry profits from fear and death (“America’s gun industry is out of control: It markets a toxic culture, and profits from all forms of gun violence” This is an evil industry.)
• Krugman: Republicans, Trapped by Their Flimflam
• Legendary rock star Tom Petty, frontman of the Heartbreakers, dies at 66 (Sigh…”Rock in Peace,” Tom Petty!)
• Alex Jones blames leftists, Communists, globalists, ISIS, antifa for Las Vegas shootings (This is someone the friggin’ “president” actually talks to and seems to take seriously!)
• Bill O’Reilly: Las Vegas shooting ‘the price of freedom’ (Gack.)
• Las Vegas Mass Shooting Exposes Gun Lobby’s Quiet Push to Deregulate Silencers (Demented.)
• Republicans Were So Busy Trying to Repeal Obamacare, They Ran Out the Clock on 9 Million Kids
• White American men are a bigger domestic terrorist threat than Muslim foreigners (“Since Trump took office, more Americans have been killed by white American men with no connection to Islam than by Muslim terrorists or foreigners.”)
• How 4chan and a pro-Trump outlet pushed a hoax about the Las Vegas shooting
• Country guitarist who survived Vegas shooting has political transformation, calls for gun control (“Caleb Keeter says he was a lifelong proponent of the Second Amendment ‘until the events of last night.'”)
• Google and Facebook spread conspiracies, dangerous misinformation in wake of Las Vegas shooting(“Social media networks and internet platforms failed their users at exactly the wrong time.” I’m increasingly concluding that social media, on balance, is a disaster.)
• Facebook says up to 10m people saw ads bought by Russian agency (“Ads during election and afterward focused on ‘divisive social and political messages’, says VP after company provided material to Congress”)
• Virginia Is a Microcosm of Democrats’ Down-Ballot Struggles. This Year They May Have Cracked the Code. (“Virginia Democrats haven’t run this many candidates in decades. Will it translate to votes?” Yeah,
  that’s the question.)
• Editorial: Should student directories be publicly available?
• Gun violence roils Virginia election — NRA puts ad on ice, gun control advocates cancel events (“After Las Vegas shooting, Democrat Ralph Northam calls for gun control while Republican Ed Gillespie offers prayers.” Gillespie and the rest of the GOP ticket are all “A” rated by the evil NRA. On November 7, make sure you send those @#$#@$ers a message by voting Democratic up and down the ballot!)
• Northam: “We do not need assault weapons on our streets” (Correct. Something Gillepie/Vogel/Adams certainly won’t say.)
• Altria, other tobacco companies will run ‘corrective statements,’ starting in November (F*** Altria.)
• Williams: Richmond marketing campaign won’t stop gun violence
• Virginia Senators announced more than $2.5 million in grants for Southwest Virginia
• Newport News eyes millions in state, federal funds for transportation projects
• Richmond City Council committee endorses proposal limiting mayor’s access to closed meetings
• 7th District candidates for Richmond School Board make their cases
• D.C.-area forecast: Sunny weather through the end of the week; warm-up starts Wednesday