Author: JoeSTP

The Washington Post – by Craig Whitlock

The mysterious workings of a Pentagon office that oversees clandestine operations are unraveling in federal court, where a criminal investigation has exposed a secret weapons program entwined with allegations of a sweetheart contract, fake badges and trails of destroyed evidence.

Capping an investigation that began almost two years ago, separate trials are scheduled this month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for a civilian Navy intelligence official and a hot-rod auto mechanic from California who prosecutors allege conspired to manufacture an untraceable batch of automatic-rifle silencers.   Continue reading “Probe of silencers leads to web of Pentagon secrets”

My Budget 360

Leave it to Wall Street to resurrect the subprime loan. This time, subprime has found a comfortable home in the automotive industry. In the car addicted US culture, subprime debt is back in a massive way.Subprime auto debt is the new risky debt product. This is a big deal. $924 billion in total auto debt is rummaging around the economy. What is even more disturbing is that delinquencies on auto debt are surging.Repossessions are up 70 percent because people simply can’t make their auto payments. What do you expect when you are pumping out subprime debt trying to churn more sales on marginal buyers? Most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck so taking on another debt payment isn’t necessarily a wise move. How big is this market? The latest data shows that a stunning one third of new auto loans are in the form of subprime debt. This is telling given that FICO is planning on being more lax with credit scores. Also, it should tell you about the underlying health of the economy when a large portion of your borrowers have marginal credit.   Continue reading “The new subprime is in auto loans: One third of all new auto loans are of the subprime variety. Repossession are up 70 percent.”

Newser – by Neal Colgrass

A man who fired a warning shot at his daughter’s troubled boyfriend and told him “the next one’s between your eyes” got 20 years for doing it—and by law has to serve every day of the sentence, CBS News reports. “And I was just like, ‘What?'” says Florida resident Lee Wollard, who insists he was defending his family. “You know, the blood just drained out of my head. I almost passed out.” But the charges against Wollard were serious: child endangerment, aggravated assault, and shooting into a building with a firearm. He was also swept up in a US legal movement known as mandatory minimum sentencing, which appeared in the late 1980s as a way to lock up drug dealers and customers, including first offenders, in America’s “war on drugs.”   Continue reading “Guy Fires Warning Shot, Gets 20 Years”

Local 21 News – by Sue Manning

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Young people who torture and kill animals are prone to violence against people later in life if it goes unchecked, studies have shown. A new federal category for animal cruelty crimes will help root out those pet abusers before their behavior worsens and give a boost to prosecutions, an animal welfare group says.

For years, the FBI has filed animal abuse under the label “other” along with a variety of lesser crimes, making cruelty hard to find, hard to count and hard to track. The bureau announced this month that it would make animal cruelty a Group A felony with its own category – the same way crimes like homicide, arson and assault are listed.   Continue reading “FBI turns animal cruelty into top-tier felony”

The Verge – by Amar Toor

Officials in China this week examined the anuses of 10,000 pigeons that were set to be released today in celebration of National Day, amid government fears of a possible terrorist attack. According to reports from state-run media outlets, the birds had their feathers, legs, and anuses searched for “suspicious objects” yesterday, before being packed onto a truck and sent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing for today’s ceremony. Many reports on the probe disappeared from China’s tightly-controlled media after being published, though some articles and tweets remain online. The entire process was reportedly videotaped.   Continue reading “Nervous Chinese Officials Search Pigeon Anuses for Bombs”

Sparks 31

Longtime NASWA member and former columnist T.J. “Skip” Arey N2EI has decided to make his book RADIO MONITORING A HOW TO GUIDE freely available under a Creative Commons license. NASWA is happy to provide you with this hobby classic free of charge.

radio_monitoring_a_how_to_guide1

Continue reading “Radio Monitoring – A How To Guide”

Forward Observer – by John Mosby

I get asked a lot, both in training environments and via email, “John, I understand the importance of tribe, but how do I go about finding like-minded people to form a group? Should I join a group that already exists?” It’s a popular question in survivalist-prepper circles because it’s such a hard topic to consider.

Let’s think about this: It’s got to be people you can trust to not steal your belongings, to watch your back while you sleep or work, to not turn you in to the police or DHS as a “crazy, gun-nut prepper,” and finally, to not kill you when your back is turned. Yet, they also need to be interested in prepping so that significantly begins narrowing down the playing field, and let’s face it – there are a lot of preppers who seem to be running more than a few bricks shy of a load. Do you want the crazy dude that fantasizes about killing people to be pulling security while you sleep?  How do you know the socially inept, hermit-like prepper down the river isn’t a pedophile or rapist?   Continue reading “Building Tribe, Part I”

Breitbart – by Austin Ruse

A new report from UN statisticians says their earlier predictions about global population stabilization are wrong and that we are on the cusp of major and dangerous growth.

The UN Population Division has traditionally been an objective purveyor of information used by UN and other policy makers around the word. This was the case under longtime Population Division chief Dr. Joseph Chamie, who is now connected to Fordham University. Under Chamie, the Population Division tended not to get involved in the divisive arguments about overpopulation. This changed under his successor, Hania Zlotnik, and continues under current chief John Wilmoth.    Continue reading “UN again spreads overpopulation fears”

CNN – by Cristina Alesci and Kate Trafecante

The United States is spending millions of dollars to destroy U.S. equipment in Iraq and Syria — gear the U.S. gave the Iraqi military that was later captured by ISIS forces.

The U.S has hit 41 Humvees since attacks began in August, according to data from United States Central Command.

The U.S. is sending $30,000-bombs to eliminate these armored vehicles, which cost about a quarter of a million dollars each depending what it is equipped with, according to Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.   Continue reading “One cost of war: U.S. blowing up its own Humvees”

Reuters

Nearly 600 U.S. soldiers accompanied by tanks and other vehicles will arrive in Poland and the Baltic states at the weekend for military exercises, the Polish defence ministry said on Friday.

The U.S. soldiers will replace a more lightly armed force of paratroopers and will take part in rotational exercises meant to show the United States’ commitment to NATO’s eastern allies, it said in a statement.   Continue reading “Nearly 600 U.S. soldiers with tanks to arrive in Poland, Baltics”

Market Watch – by Tess Stynes

NutraSweet Co. said it plans to exit the aspartame manufacturing business to focus on more profitable lines of sugar substitutes, which will result in the closing of a plant by the end of the year.

The Augusta, Ga., company said the aspartame plant employs about 210 workers, including contractors.

Chief Executive William DeFer said foreign competition was the main reason for the company’s shift in focus to its other sweetener products neotame and Twinsweet–an aspartame blend.    Continue reading “NutraSweet to exit aspartame business”

KWCH 12 – by Anne Meyer

WICHITA, Kan. – A major cut for the Air National Guard unit based at McConnell Air Force Base.

According to Sharon Watson with the Adjutant General’s Office in Topeka, around 30% of full time guard members at McConnell will be cut. That works out to around 150 jobs. Plus at least 60 part-time jobs are being cut as well.

Most of those guard members will get work at other guard locations in the state.   Continue reading “Major cuts to Air National Guard at McConnell”

Breitbart – by Ildefonso Ortiz

HOUSTON, Texas — An American citizen was beaten to death by drug cartel members while another barely managed to survive the kidnapping and torture just south of the Texas border.

The two men have been identified as 38-year-old Erick Candanoza, and 25-year-old Carlos Vela Moreno, who are from the border city of Brownsville and were in the business of selling used cars, according to Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio.   Continue reading “American Citizen Beaten to Death by Cartel Members, Another Citizen Injured”

USA Today – by Andrew Tilghman, Military Times

A small number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. will have an opportunity to join the military for the first time in decades under a new Department of Defense policy unveiled Thursday.

The new rules will expand an existing program allowing recruiters to target foreign nationals with high-demand skills, mostly rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training.   Continue reading “Military to allow undocumented immigrants to serve”

Christian Mercenary

What is the United States? It is not a republic as it follows no semblence of its Constitution, the very foundation of its power, of its authority. It is a system of terror, with the power to destroy lives with contrived charges; offhandedly encumbering citizens with debt and criminal charges on a whim. This is the very system our forefather’s fled and risked everything to resist. In effect, they have taken our citizenship, robbed us of our birthright.

Yet, we do not fight.    Continue reading “Willing Demons”

X Republic

Zachary Proper, age 15, committed suicide two weeks ago in an adult prison in Pennsylvania. There has been little media coverage of his death, suggesting a disturbing complacency about suicide by youth who would rather take their own lives than endure decades in jail.

How did Zachary end up serving time as an “adult”? At the age of 13, he was charged with killing his grandparents. Under Pennsylvania law, because Zachary was charged with murder, state law required that he be charged as an adult. He ultimately plead guilty to third degree murder of his grandparents and was sentenced to 35-80 years in prison.   Continue reading “15 Year old commits Suicide while serving a 80 year sentence in Adult Prison. Convicted at Age 13”