Note left at scene
Law enforcement officials say Mercer left a note at the scene of the killings. They say the multi-page typed note was a philosophical rant of someone who was mad at the world. The officials say Mercer lamented the fact that he did not have a girlfriend.
[He] felt the world was against him [and that he would be] welcomed in Hell and embraced by the devil. He wrote that he was ‘in a bad way. He was depressed, sullen. He said he had no life. He felt the world was against him.
Weapons purchased legally
The ATF Bureau says thirteen weapons, six from the school and seven from Mercer’s residence, were purchased legally. All of the weapons were traced to a federal firearms dealer. Seven of the weapons were purchased by the shooter or his family members in the last three years. Law enforcement also recovered a jacket with steel plates and additional magazines.
Criticizes McCarthy
Trump says he is not sure if McCarthy would make a good speaker, due to McCarthy’s comments about the Benghazi committee and its effect on Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.
Certainly he’s not off to a great start. I watched that (comment), actually, and I was a little surprised by it. … It would have been nice if he didn’t say it, certainly, because then there would be no dispute…I would like to see someone that’s very tough and that can negotiate with the Democrats, and I don’t know that he’s that person. We need somebody that’s a very, very tough, smart, cunning person. I don’t know that that’s him, and obviously this statement hurt him pretty badly in the eyes of some, unfortunately.
Umpqua killings ‘horrible’
On Morning Joe, Trump says that while the Umpqua College killings are ‘horrible,’ it will be difficult to stop such events.
You’re going to have these things happen and it’s a horrible thing to behold, horrible…It’s not politically correct to say that, but you’re going to have difficulty and that will be for the next million years, there’s going to be difficulty and people are going to slip through the cracks. What are you going to do, institutionalize everybody?
Met gay couple on US visit
Francis met with Yayo Grassi, a gay U.S-based Argentine caterer, Grassi’s male partner of 19 years, Iwan Bagus and three other people for 15 minutes at the Vatican Embassy in Washington during his visit to the US on Sept. 23. Grassi has known the pope since Francis taught him literature and psychology at a high school in Argentina in the 1960s and has stayed in touch. Vatican spokesperson:
As noted in the past, the pope, as pastor, has maintained many personal relationships with people in a spirit of kindness, welcome and dialogue
Grassi:
What I can say is that he met with me knowing that I am gay, and we had an extraordinary, very moving conversation.
Admired Roanoke shooter
In a blog under the name Lithium_Love, an online identity linked to Mercer, he expresses admiration for Roanoke shooter Vester Flanagan.
People like him have nothing left to live for. On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are… A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.
Shot seven times
Family members say Mintz, and army veteran, was shot seven times while trying to save other students during the Umpqua killings. He was shot in the back, abdomen and hands, and has two broken legs, and has been in surgery since the shooting.
[He] tried to protect some people. We were told he did heroic things to protect some people…We’re not sure how his legs got broken. He was on the wrestling team and and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically…It was a great, great shock … We’ve all been sitting on pins and needles and praying very hard.
A message on Mintz’s Facebook:
This is Chris’s friend, Chris asked me to thank everyone for their support, he is grateful and keeping our community and all victims in his thoughts.
Accuses Bon Jovi of ‘standing with Israeli oppression’
In an op-ed for Salon, Waters accuses Bon Jovi and his band mates of standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel before listing many of the casualties suffered by the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government.
I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians. So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand. You stand shoulder to shoulder
With the settler who burned the baby
With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie
With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits…The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”
Davis meeting not an endorsement
The Vatican says the pope’s meeting with Davis was not an endorsement of her decision to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The Vatican wanted to “clarify” what happened “in order to contribute to an objective understanding of what transpired.”
The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects…Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City. Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the Pope’s characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the Pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.
Mercer identified as gunman
Mercer is identified as the gunman.
Obama comments
Obama offers his condolences to the families of those who were killed.
[America] will wrap everyone who’s grieving with our prayers and our love. [But] our thoughts and prayers are not enough…Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this. We’ve talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun…Each time this happens I am going to say that we can actually do something about it but we’re gonna have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself.
Will send back Syrian refugees
At a New Hampshire rally Trump says that if he’s elected president he will send back Syrian refugees taken in by the U.S. because they may be Islamic State militants in disguise.
I’m putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration. If I win, they’re going back…They could be ISIS, I don’t know…This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time. A 200,000-man army, maybe. That could be possible.
Charon detailed images
NASA releases detailed photos and a flyover animation of Charon, taken by New Horizons when it made its close flyby of Pluto on July 14. Scientists say they expected to find a long-dead world pocked with craters, but instead the surface plays host to mountains, a red north pole and a host of other geological features including a canyon more than 1,000 miles wide that stretches across the moon’s Pluto-facing side, and perhaps along the far-side of the world. That canyon is probably four times longer than the Grand Canyon is on Earth, and twice as deep in some places.
We thought the probability of seeing such interesting features on this satellite of a world at the far edge of our solar system was low, but [we] couldn’t be more delighted with what we see.
‘Privacy is a fundamental human right’
In an interview with NPR, Cook says that Apple is committed to its customers’ privacy.
We do think that people want us to help them keep their lives private. We see that privacy is a fundamental human right that people have. We are going to do everything that we can to help maintain that trust…Our view on this comes from a values point of view, not from a commercial interest point of view. Our values are that we do think that people have a right to privacy. And that our customers are not our products. We don’t collect a lot of your data and understand every detail about your life. That’s just not the business that we are in.
People cover
Trump appears on the cover of People magazine’s October 12 issue. Inside, in a feature called At Home with Donald Trump, he talks about his family.
I just don’t have the time that I would love to spend with my children and my wife. I see less of my grandchildren than I might like. But they get how important this is…It’s a little scary for Barron. He thinks he is going to be taken away from friends. But I tell him if this happens, Daddy will help people, and can help children like him, and that makes him happy…My life is so busy and so crazy, and I’m away all the time. If I can just stay home and do nothing, it’s considered a great luxury.
Melania:
My husband is traveling all the time. Barron needs somebody as a parent, so I am with him all the time…He is who he is. Even if you give him advice, he will maybe take it in, but then he will do it the way he wants to do it. You cannot change a person. Let them be. Let them be the way they are…It’s a long road. I take it day by day. My husband has a lot of people cheering for him. We will see.
Blames Walker’s death on reckless driving
In response to Meadow Walker’s suit, Porsche blames reckless driving and excessive speeding for the crash that killed Walker.
As we have said before, we are saddened whenever anyone is hurt in a Porsche vehicle, but we believe the authorities’ reports in this case clearly established that this tragic crash resulted from reckless driving and excessive speed.
Gives Putin an ‘A’ on leadership
In his first interview on Fox News since his boycott, Trump talks with O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor. He says he supports Putin’s actions in Syria, and says Assad is preferable to ISIS.
If he [Putin] wants to fight ISIS, let him fight ISIS. I say there’s very little downside with Putin fighting ISIS…Personally, I’ve been looking at the different players and I’ve been watching Assad, and I’m looking at Assad and saying maybe he’s better than the kind of people that we’re supposed to be backing because we don’t even know who we’re backing. We have no idea.
Trump also says Putin is a better leader than Obama.
I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an ‘A’ and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.
‘We haven’t even started yet’
Speaking at BoxWorks, the annual conference by cloud storage firm Box, Cook is asked “What’s next for Apple?” by Box CEO Levie.
We haven’t even started yet. Keep in mind our goal isn’t to be the biggest. We’ve always wanted to make the best, and we’ve always believed very deeply that if we made the best products, we can keep investing and doing more work. We’re still doing that, and that part of our DNA is very much the same as it’s been.
UN is an ‘entirely corrupt body’
In an interview with Russia Today, Waters talks about the release of Roger Waters: The Wall, the media, and the UN.
It is an entirely corrupt body with wonderful intentions and often with very good men at the head of the general assembly – and rather inferior men pulling the strings behind the Security Council…There can be things that are fundamentally important politically – particularly in the Middle East where everyone is fighting everyone else as hard as they can all of the time – which can never actually get the support that they deserve, or a lot of the things can’t … unless the United States decides that they can.
He also criticizes the media.
[The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are] a mouthpiece for the government. The people, you Americans, would have to wake up to the fact that these newspapers and the rest of the media are not giving you the news.
Quits Twitter and Gawker
On the Re/code Decode podcast Dunham tells Swisher she has quit Twitter and Gawker citing verbal abuse and body-shaming.
I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I tweet, but I do it through someone else. I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, and so I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it really, truly wasn’t a safe space for me.
She says the decision was prompted after she posted a picture of herself in her boyfriends’ shorts:
It wasn’t a graphic picture. I was wearing men’s boxers, and it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women’s bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon.
She also says she has stopped reading Gawker and Jezebel:
I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, ‘I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me.’ And it’s like, it’s literally, if I read it, it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense.