Economist Recomends Bug-out Bag

From: Washington Examiner

I, along with many other economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings. The growing debt and deficit spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation in the U.S. dollar risks the dollar’s status as the reserve currency of the world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution. I don’t disagree with their concerns

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New Book On Political Islam

From Macmillan Books:

As a wave of popular unrest toppled autocratic rulers across the Middle East and North Africa, many in the West watched with growing concern as Islamists came to power. The continued prominence of Islam in the struggle for democracy in the Muslim world has confounded Western democracy theorists, who largely consider secularism a prerequisite for democratic transition. In Political Islam in the Age of Democratization, Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai offer a comprehensive view of the complex nature of contemporary political Islam and its relationship to democracy. With a useful theoretical framework, classification of Islamists, and rich historical context, this book is a compelling and insightful analysis of Islamism and the role that religion is likely to play in any future Muslim democracy.

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Golden Knights Involved In Near Fatal Accident

From Stars and Stripes:

Two members of the Golden Knights parachute team were tangled together, plummeting to Earth at 65 mph with little chance of survival.

Today, both Golden Knights were honored by the Army for risking their own lives while saving each other.

They each received a Soldier’s Medal, the highest Army award for valor outside of combat, in a ceremony at Fort Bragg that included remarks by Karl F. Schneider, acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

 

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Army Delaying Training Women Infantry

From Military Times:

“Our view is, when we open [the military occupational specialty], we start sending women to the training,” Brinkley said Dec. 4 after briefing the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. “When we open infantry up, we start sending women.”

The female Marines who graduated from infantry basic training will not be assigned to infantry jobs because those jobs in the Marine Corps are not yet open to women. The women will go to different MOSs.

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Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam

Russia Strengthens Ties With Vietnam is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

Summary

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part series about Russia’s intensifying focus on East Asia. Part 1 examines Russia’s traditional interests in the region and its closer relationship with Vietnam.

Recent challenges in exporting energy to Europe have made an orientation toward Asia more desirable for Moscow. Russia’s economy depends on hydrocarbon exports, and while Western Europe is attempting to become less dependent on Russia by seeking new energy sources, Asian markets have large and indiscriminate appetites for energy.

Although Russia’s focus in Asia traditionally has been on China, Japan and South Korea, it also has ties to Southeast Asia, which remains a strategically significant — though not absolutely essential — area for Moscow’s efforts to extend its influence and energy exports eastward. Notably, Moscow recently struck a spate of energy and defense deals with Hanoi in an effort to strengthen their relationship, open up new markets for Russian energy and balance against China’s moves in Central Asia. Moscow’s moves into Asia through Vietnam are proceeding piecemeal, paralleling Russian moves elsewhere in the region. Read the rest of this entry »

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Military To Add Mobile Devices To Networks

From FierceMobileIT:

For the first time in U.S. military history, foot soldiers and company support teams in Afghanistan are using specialized handheld mobile devices to access digital maps, exchange information with other troops and store mission-critical information. What began in 2011 as a way to supply soldiers with high-resolution maps on a PDA-type device eventually morphed into a suite of over 50 apps on something that now more closely resembles a mobile phone.

From Military.com:

In May, the Defense Department approved government-issued Apple devices using the iOS 6 operating system to connect to its networks, so long as they are operated within the confines of mobility pilots or a mobile device management (MDM) solution, once that is in place.

Likewise, the Samsung Knox version of Android was approved for use on DoD networks, pending the rollout of an MDM solution, said DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart.

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Iran Exploiting US Immigration

From The Washington Times:

The memo called the EB-5 program a weak point in the nation’s immigration security because visa holders can become green card holders and eventually citizens — without going through the background checks that most prospective immigrants face. The program is designed to attract foreigners who pledge to invest in the U.S. economy.

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Russian Saber Rattling

From RIA:

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia was “preparing a response” to plans by the United States to develop a new fast-strike weapons platform capable of hitting high-priority targets around the globe.

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First Annual Field & Tactical Medicine Conference

For Immediate Release:  December 12, 2013

Dallas, Texas – Caleb Causey, owner and director of training for Arlington, Texas based Lone Star Medics, announced today the first annual “Field and Tactical Medicine Conference.”  The two-day conference will be held March 29-30, 2014 at the MCM Elegante Hotel-Dallas 2330 West Northwest Highway Dallas, Texas 75220.

Over 20 well known instructors in the field and tactical medical training industry will present hands-on instruction in field and tactical medicine.  “The program is structured for the healthcare professional, the public safety officer, and shooting sports enthusiast, as well as the school teacher or lay person who wishes to hone his or her skills in how to respond to medical emergencies,” said Causey.  Each instructor will present at two different levels, the layperson’s level and the healthcare professional’s level.  There are no prerequisites for any conference session.  “Each session will feature hands-on skills practice in life-saving measures that could arise during a disaster, on the athletic field, at an accident site, or in the home,” added Causey.

Who Should Attend:

  • Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians
  • School administrators and teachers
  • Outdoor sports enthusiasts and hunters
  • Citizens with concealed handgun permits
  • Law enforcement
  • Security personnel
  • Parents
  • Military
  • Medical professionals

 

Subjects Covered:

  • Prepper medicine
  • Traumatic head injuries & concussions
  • Identifying & treating common K9 injuries in the field
  • Importance of dental care in the field
  • Environmental emergencies (heat & cold related injuries, altitude sickness)
  • Controlling moderate to severe bleeding using the latest techniques and equipment
  • SCUBA diving and water sports related injuries
  • Surgical airway techniques for maintaining a compromised airway
  • Survival medicine past 48 hours from time of injury
  • Proper mindset and mental preparedness during emergencies
  • Advanced assisted breathing/ventilation techniques
  • Lessons learned during natural disasters
  • Patient movement techniques and maximizing evacuation/transportation assets
  • Medical considerations during active shooter/mass casualty events
  • Differences between EMS and Tactical Medicine for healthcare professionals

 

About the Instructors:

Causey has brought together some of the foremost instructors and professionals for this unique conference event.  With extensive real-life experience and proven teaching skills, these individuals will show conference attendees how to identify and treat immediate life-threatening injuries or illnesses.  In a world that is marked by increasing violence and natural disasters, it pays to be ready, confident, and prepared for emergencies.  This conference will empower attendees to be just that.

For more information, instructor biographies, and registration, visit: http//:www.lonestarmedics.com/tactical-medicine-conf

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Gun Grabbers Are Liars

From Reason.com:

The problem for gun control advocates is that they keep promising that no way will registration lead to confiscation of firearms, even as it does just that. The Brady Campaign’s Dennis A. Henigan accuses the National Rifle Association of peddling “fear” for even raising the possibility. In the New York Times, Charles Blow calls such concerns “cultural paranoia.”

Yet gun owners seem to have legitimate worries. Hundreds of New York City residents are receiving, and publicizing, letters demanding the surrender, not of scary “assault weapons,” whatever arbitrary definition may locally apply to that slippery term, but of target rifles and cowboy guns.

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New Navy Missile Launcher

From Wired.com:

In a recent round of tests announced Tuesday, Chemring Countermeasures and Raytheon Missile Systems say they have successfully fired a Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin missile from a prototype multi-role Centurion launcher during testing at the Defence Training Estate on Salisbury Plain in England, where it was able to hit a static target.

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Citizens Ignoring Gun Registration

Connecticut voters voted in anti-gun politicians. Anti-gun politicians pass anti-gun registration laws. Voters ignore the law. Is this hypocrisy? Can some social scientist explain this?

From Reason.com:

Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s criminal justice advisor, said that so far fewer people than expected have registered weapons under the new law. However, he said gun owners should take seriously the consequences of ignoring the law. Disregarding the registration requirements can carry felony charges in some cases, which can make Connecticut residents ineligible to own guns.

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Tactical Reloading – Paul Howe

Tactical Reloading – Paul Howe – CSAT

http://youtu.be/SX9Y9FAK51U

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Kerchief the Forgotten Versatile Kit

From Dave Canterbury of the Pathfinder School

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Sheriffs Ignore Gun Control Laws

From The New York Times:

Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.

The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high.

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