From the Trenches World Report

The Rundown Live – by Kristan T. Harris

Could the SNAP EBT (Food Stamp) disaster that occurred across 17 states last weekend have been a planned drill rather than system failure? This letter sent out by the USDA makes your brain turn.

A USDA letter has surfaced that has been sent to states across the nation. States are being told to “stop the supplemental nutrition assistance program for the month of November, pending further notice.”  Which could mean that  if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to get federal government back up and running somebody at the Whitehouse decided you will not get your benefits. Worse yet, they have not sent anyone a letter letting people across the nation know their benefits are going to be postponed.   Continue reading “USDA Letter Leaked: Food Stamps Could Be Cut Off as Soon as November”

Common Dreams – by Cora Currier, ProPublica

The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made military parts to the world’s conflicts and make it harder to enforce arms sanctions.

Come tomorrow, thousands of parts of military aircraft, such as propeller blades, brake pads and tires will be able to be sent to almost any country in the world, with minimal oversight – even to some countries subject to U.N. arms embargos. U.S. companies will also face fewer checks than in the past when selling some military aircraft to dozens of countries.   Continue reading “In Big Win for Defense Industry, Obama Rolls Back Limits on Arms Exports”

Consumerist – by Mary Beth Quirk

Gather close, you young folk, and listen to a tale of times past, when everyone had phones that connected them to the rest of the world through wires. In days gone by, people relied on these so-called landlines especially in times of natural disasters or power outages. As such, one New Jersey island’s residents are none too pleased that Verizon won’t reinstall its landlines after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the original lines.   Continue reading “New Jersey Island Won’t Get Its Landlines Back After Sandy Because Copper Is Too Expensive”

Voice of Russia

Max Velocity Tactical

There have been a  few inquiries about how to set up a battle belt. I took a couple of photos of my battle belt after this weekend’s training. It’s an evolving thing but this is the current configuration.

This is a variation of a full battle belt that is ideally used for dismounted light infantry operations. It sits your gear nicely on your waist and the harness (suspenders) is important to take up some of that weight and ensure that you don’t have to do up the belt itself uncomfortably tight to stop it falling down over your hips. This kind of battle belt should sit below your hips. You can still wear a PC with it for the ballistic protection, and a ruck or patrol pack will sit nicely on your back, resting on the rear pouches.   Continue reading “MVT Battle Belt”

There is a large amount of confusion about reloading your own ammunition. The plain and simple fact is it is nothing more than putting powder in a shell casing pressing a bullet in the casing and you have a cartridge ready to shoot. Sounds easy right? Well it is as long as you follow the safety rules of reloading.

One of the major rules is NEVER mix powders. Never use a rifle powder in a pistol round or use pistol powder in a rifle or you could encounter catastrophic consequences. Use the proper powder for the proper cartridge and bullet you want to use. You don’t need a chemistry degree for this as all the powder manufactures have reloading data that you can get on line free of charge. You find the caliber you want to reload and the chart will give you all the bullet sizes and powders you can use and the proper charge for the cartridge and bullet.   Continue reading “The Mysteries of Reloading Ammo”

Monday Morning

It’s the biggest find in 50 years and the media is completely ignoring it…

It is 6 times larger than the Bakken, 17 times the size of the Marcellus formation, and 80 times larger than the Eagle Ford shale.

All told what was recently discovered outside a sleepy Australian town contains more black gold more than in all of Iran, Iraq, Canada, or Venezuela.     Continue reading “This Massive Discovery Has Put the Saudi’s Into a Panic”

Town Hall – by Thomas Sowell

The nomination of Janet Yellen to become head of the Federal Reserve System has set off a flurry of media stories. Since she will be the first woman to occupy that position, we can only hope that this will not mean that any criticism of what she does will be attributed to sex bias or to a “war on women.”

The Federal Reserve has become such a major player in the American economy that it needs far more scrutiny and criticism than it has received, regardless of who heads it.   Continue reading “A Return to Keynes?”

RT News

A powerful typhoon is bearing down on Japan – and its path is set to go through the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. It’s less than 24 hours until the storm is due to hit. The storm has been branded a “once in a decade event”.

The country’s weather agency has issued warnings of torrential rain and strong winds ahead of the coming typhoon, Wipha.    Continue reading “Strong typhoon heads for Japan and crippled Fukushima nuclear plant”

RT News

If the US debt-ceiling debate goes past the eleventh hour, and the default of the world’s largest economy becomes a reality, leading central banks around the world are gearing up to minimize losses and keep the world economy functioning.

If US lawmakers don’t reach a budget consensus and raise the debt ceiling by Thursday October 17, the US will become the first Western power to default since Nazi Germany in 1933, and will send markets into uncharted territory.    Continue reading “Plan B: Central banks getting ready for financial Armageddon”

Washington Times – by Stephen Dinan

Immigrant-rights protesters have chained themselves in front of an detention facility in Eloy, Ariz., and planned to blockade the main federal immigration office in Phoenix later Monday, hoping to stop anyone from being deported.

The moves are the latest act of civil disobedience from activists who are demanding the Obama administration halt all deportations. Among the protesters were illegal immigrants.   Continue reading “Protesters chain themselves to stop deportations in Arizona”

The Smoking Gun

A Pennsylvania man called cops last night to report that his Strawberry-flavored Jell-O snack was stolen from the break room refrigerator at his workplace.

The gelatin heist occurred at the Wakefern Food Corporation warehouse in Beinigsville, according to the Upper Macungie Township Police Department.   Continue reading “Worker Calls Cops To Report Theft Of His Jell-O Snack From Break Room Refrigerator”