memeorandum: Russian Spy Tactic: Hack Smartphones of NATO Soldiers (Wall Street Journal)

8:15 AM ET, October 4, 2017

Top Items:

At his local Starbucks, Las Vegas shooter remembered for berating his girlfriend — The workers behind the counter at the Starbucks inside the Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, Nev., winced whenever Stephen Paddock and his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, lined up for their usual beverages.

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and FOX6Now.com

NBC News:

Las Vegas Shooter Wired $100,000 to Philippines Last Week — Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock wired $100,000 to an account in his live-in girlfriend's home country of the Philippines in the week before he unleashed the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, according to multiple senior law enforcement officials.

Discussion: AOL, NBC News, Axios, TheBlaze, Daily Wire, The Last Refuge, CANNONFIRE, The Daily Caller, RedState, Talking Points Memo, IJR, The Week, Instapundit, Power Line, Business Insider, WFXT, Joe.My.God. and ABC News

The Daily Beast:

Las Vegas Gunman May Have First Planned to Attack Chance the Rapper and Lorde Concert … LAS VEGAS—The gunman who murdered at least 59 people at a country-music concert on Sunday might have originally targeted another Las Vegas music festival held the previous weekend, according to a senior law enforcement source.

Discussion: Mother Jones, CANNONFIRE, The Nevada Independent, Daily Wire, IJR, Los Angeles Times and New York Times

David Smith / The Guardian:

Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend returns to US as police reveal details of his planning — Authorities investigating the Las Vegas mass shooting, the deadliest in modern US history, are preparing to question the girlfriend of gunman Stephen Paddock who has flown back to America after being named …

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

If Only Stephen Paddock Were a Muslim — If only Stephen Paddock had been a Muslim ... If only he had shouted “Allahu akbar” before he opened fire on all those concertgoers in Las Vegas ... If only he had been a member of ISIS ... If only we had a picture of him posing with a Quran in one hand and his semiautomatic rifle in another ...

Discussion: Althouse

NBC News:

Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock Gambled With at Least $160K in Recent Weeks — Mandalay Bay shooter Stephen Paddock gambled with at least $160,000 in the past several weeks at Las Vegas casinos, according to senior law enforcement officials. — There were 16 Currency Transaction Reports, or CTRs, filed for Paddock in recent weeks.

Discussion: NBC News, AOL, TheBlaze, Axios, Daily Wire, IJR, Business Insider, The Week, The Last Refuge, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:
New details emerge about Marilou Danley, girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock

Discussion: NPR, The Week, NBC News, neo-neocon and Talking Points Memo

New York Times:
Las Vegas Shooting: Gunman's Rifle Had ‘Bump Stock’ to Make It Rapid-Fire Weapon

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState, The Week, CityLab, Mediaite, Fox News, Guns.com, NewsBusters, The Guardian, IJR and Latino Rebels, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:

Tillerson's Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence — WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.

Discussion: CNBC, Towleroad, The Week, Raw Story, Mediaite and Washington Times

Wesley Lowery / Washington Post:

Two strangers bond over country music and beer. Then the gunshots started. — Up-and-coming country star Luke Combs had just started his set on the smaller of the two festival stages when Kody Robertson, an auto parts salesman from Columbus, Ohio, squeezed in at the end of the bar next to Michelle Vo …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and IJR

Washington Post:

Police say Las Vegas gunman planned ‘extensively,’ used cameras to monitor police as they approached — LAS VEGAS — Authorities in Las Vegas said Tuesday that the gunman who killed least 59 people at a country music festival “extensively” planned the massacre, placing cameras in his suite …

Discussion: The Week, NPR, Daily Breeze, Power Line, Refinery29, IJR, AOL, ABC News, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Daily Wire, Talking Points Memo, San Bernardino Sun, Q13 FOX News and ThinkProgress

Avi Selk / Washington Post:

What a macho, gun-packing Instagram star did when he was caught in the Las Vegas shooting … Guns and women got Dan Bilzerian where he is today — the so-called “King of Instagram,” with nearly 23 million followers, a mansion full of guns and a hot tub full of women.

Discussion: IJR

Mike Rowe:
Off The Wall — Mike - I live in Las Vegas, and I've seen you here often.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and RedState

CNN:

Exclusive: Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Michigan and Wisconsin — (CNN)A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: The Hill, The Atlantic, Shareblue, FOX6Now.com, Mashable and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Tony Romm / Recode:
Twitter and Facebook haven't stopped Russia-backed RT from advertising on their websites

Discussion: Engadget and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Karoun Demirjian / Washington Post: Senators expected to largely endorse intel report on Russian meddling, sound alarm about next election

Chris Cillizza / CNN:

Trump's Puerto Rico event was way worse than his tweets — (CNN)President Donald Trump faced a major test on Tuesday as he traveled to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico: Show the American citizens struggling for survival on the island that he understood their plight, sympathized with them and was doing everything …

Discussion: Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, The Week and Oxfam America

Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: Few approve of Trump's Puerto Rico response

Discussion: Politico

Dr. Sanjay Gupta / CNN:
Dr. Sanjay Gupta's dire warning on Puerto Rico

Discussion: Gizmodo

Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:
Trump officials allow Puerto Ricans to use food stamps for fast food

Discussion: New York Times, The Root, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Common Dreams and CNN

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
Trump hails ‘incredible’ response in ‘lovely’ trip to storm-torn Puerto Rico

Leah Libresco / Washington Post:

I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise. — Leah Libresco is a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism site. She is the author of “Arriving at Amen.” — Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me.

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Townhall.com, Daily Wire, Axios, Washington Free Beacon and FiveThirtyEight

Politico:
The gun lobby: See how much your representative gets

Discussion: twitchy.com and Daily Kos

Rosanne Cash / New York Times:
Country Musicians, Stand Up to the N.R.A.

Discussion: twitchy.com, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, ThinkProgress and The Guardian

ProPublica:

Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud — New York prosecutors were preparing a case. Then the D.A. overruled his staff after a visit from a top donor: Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz. — In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump's two eldest children …

Discussion: Raw Story

Elias Groll / Foreign Policy:

GOP Congressman Met in Moscow With Kremlin-Linked Lawyer at Center of Russia Investigation — Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met in Moscow with Natalia Veselnitskaya two months before she met with Donald Trump Jr. — Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Hill, The Week, Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

John Bowden / The Hill:
Kelly won't let Rohrabacher talk to Trump: report

Discussion: RedState

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

Ginsburg Slaps Gorsuch in Gerrymandering Case — Toward the end of the Supreme Court's argument in Gill v. Whitford, about the future of partisan gerrymandering, there was a revealing moment about the place of the newest Justice in the esteem of at least one of his peers.

Discussion: Instapundit

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:

6 Fresh Horrors From the Equifax CEO's Congressional Hearing — THE INITIAL DRAMA over Equifax's September data breach has mostly subsided, but the actual damage will play out for years. And indeed, there turns out to be plenty of spectacle and public controversy left.

Discussion: Krebs on Security, The Verge and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Nancy Scola / Politico:
IRS awards multimillion-dollar fraud-prevention contract to Equifax

Discussion: The Guardian, The Hill, The Verge, FOX6Now.com, ThinkProgress, SARAH PALIN, Instapundit, Engadget, Gizmodo, TheStreet, Raw Story and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Hayes Brown / BuzzFeed:

This Is Why The US Voted Against A UN Resolution Condemning The Death Penalty For LGBT People — It wasn't just about the provision protecting LGBT people from being killed via the death penalty. The US just really likes the death penalty. — The Trump administration is under fire …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Independent, RedState, Instapundit and ILGA

Stephen Peters / Human Rights Campaign:
Trump Administration Explains Votes Against United Nations Resolution

Discussion: Towleroad, Los Angeles Blade, Snopes.com, Splinter, Shareblue, Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.

Zaid Jilani / The Intercept:

Populists are on the March in the South: Bernie-Backed Insurgent Randall Woodfin Defeats Birmingham's Incumbent Mayor — Birmingham's Mayor William Bell, first elected in 2010, was supposed to have an easy re-election. A poll released in early August found that 57 percent of his city's residents thought …