Publisher’s note: What’s a “false flag”? Here’s a TruthStream video explaining ten ingredients that may indicate the presence of a “false flag” operation. Oh, so you mean a “conspiracy theory”? Um, no. Let’s remember that the phrase “conspiracy theory” is a term manufactured by the CIA in the 1960s to stanch the flow of bloody question asking from pesky US citizens dissatisfied with official government and media explanations for horrific events. Second, as Conspiracy Theory In America author Lance Dehaven-Smith explains, state crimes against democracy (SCADS) are best seen as connected “Deep State” maneuverings, rather than as isolated incidents. Below we present independent historian and analyst Stephen Lendman on the October 1 Las Vegas “lone gunman” attack. Already, YouTube is “massaging” their platform algorithm to censor any “falsified” (read: critical) videos raising questions about the “official” narrative surrounding Las Vegas. Other useful links: Truthstream Media on Cui Bono (“Who Benefits?”), live video footage of what appears to be a 4th floor shooter, and, from a U.S. ballistics expert, “5 things that don’t add up about the Vegas shooting.”  Here once again, too, is a friendly reminder of the FBI’s decades-long history of manufacturing domestic “terrorist plots,” a conclusion based on the work of independent journalist Trevor Aaronson and his book The Terror Factory.

The official narrative leaves much to be desired – conclusions drawn much too quickly, a disturbing red flag. Even Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade and Columbo needed time to solve murder mysteries.

On October 1, a mass shooting targeted the city’s Harvest country music festival.

Police claimed a lone gunman opened fire on the crowd from the Mandalay Bay hotel across Las Vegas Blvd., 390 yards away – 64-year-old Stephen Paddock called the perpetrator, found dead in his room.

Police claimed it was from a self-inflicted wound. Dead men tell no tales, Paddock conveniently unable to tell his side of the story.

Gunfire reportedly continued intermittently for around 10 minutes. Around two dozen firearms were found in Paddock’s 32nd floor room, including AR-15-style and AK-47-style rifles – two  mounted on tripods, equipped with telescopic sights.

Two bump stocks was also found, devices letting semi-automatic weapons fire nearly as fast as fully-automatic assault ones, illegal in America since 1986.

The US army defines assault rifles as “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachinegun and rifle cartridges. Assault rifles have mild recoil characteristics and, because of this, are capable of delivering effective full-automatic fire at ranges up to 300 meters (328 yards).”

The Mandalay Hotel was 390 yards from the concert venue. Nearly 600 people were killed or wounded in the attack.

It defies imagination to believe a 64-year-old man on his own could cause so much carnage in around 10 minutes of intermittent firing – about one casualty per second from a distance beyond the accurate range of the weapon or weapons used at night.

Paddock reportedly was a wealthy retired accountant, a frequent Las Vegas gambler. His brother Eric called him an ordinary guy, “not an avid guy guy (with) no military background…”

“There is no reason we can imagine why Stephen would do something like this.” No motive exists for the rampage, no explanation of how an arsenal of weapons were brought into the hotel unnoticed.

Paddock checked into the Mandalay hotel on Thursday, September 28, three days before Sunday’s incident. Yet housekeeping found nothing unusual in his room.

A weapons arsenal can’t be easily concealed. Even in satchels disassembled they’d look out-of-the-ordinary, so much luggage for one person for a short stay.

Raw video footage showed muzzle flashes from the 4th floor, not the 32nd where Paddock was staying.

If his brother was right saying he wasn’t a “gun guy,” how could he possibly have killed or wounded nearly 600 people in minutes by himself – a near-impossible feat!

The official story reported soon after the incident makes no sense, sounding more like an implausible grade B film than reality.

Most Americans are uninformed, out-of-touch and indifferent to horrors committed by their country, unable to distinguish between facts and fiction.

Virtually all instances of headline-making alleged threats or violent incidents are polar opposite how they’re portrayed.

False flags are a longstanding US tradition, originating in the mid-19th century, 9/11 the mother of them all.

Las Vegas appears the latest, clearly a well-orchestrated incident, likely planned well in advance of last Sunday, each time convenient patsies used, most people none the wiser.

Fear-mongering is used to convince people to sacrifice fundamental freedoms for greater security, not realizing that sacrificing one for the other assures losing both.

False flags are pretexts for militarism, wars, occupations, colonization, resource theft, and exploiting populations for profit – along with enacting police state legislation, facilitating state-sponsored ruthlessness, loss of fundamental freedoms the main domestic casualty.

Will Las Vegas be used for a greater assault on core constitutional rights, heading things toward possible martial law and suspending the nation’s founding document?

Will it be easier to escalate ongoing wars and launch new ones? Forget about gun control, no chance whatever of it being addressed legislatively.

Consider the irony. Trump banned travel to America from targeted predominantly Muslim countries, ordinary civilians there threatening no one when the real danger Americans face is home-grown.

It’s not Stephen Paddock or other convenient patsies blamed for state-sponsored crimes. It’s rogue elements running things in Washington.

Odds are they’re responsible for slaughter in Las Vegas. More evidence is needed to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Stephen Lendman is an author, historian and independent analyst based on Chicago.