This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.  Negotiations with Iran have reached a breaking point just as a parade of 6 planets is appearing in the night sky and a major blood moon eclipse is approaching next week. The skeptics will continue to insist that this is “just a coincidence” even as the missiles start flying. The third round of talks between the United States and Iran has ended in Geneva, and they produced nothing. The U.S. wanted Iran to transfer all enriched uranium out of the country, to cease all future uranium enrichment,…

Some skis are built for tidy corduroy and parallel grooves. Others are built for curiosity. When Ryan — my husband and fellow gear tester — and I first clicked into the Rossignol XP 105 Positrack skis near Togwotee Pass, we had absolutely zero intention of staying in the tracks. The plan was simple: push into fresh snow and see how far into the quiet we could go. The wide tips stayed on top, the fishscale base gripped confidently on climbs, and the skis felt composed when the terrain tilted downhill. Over the following months, we skied them across forest roads,…

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is no friend to gun owners, especially when Judge Frank Easterbrook is involved in a decision. Easterbrook infamously concluded in NRA v. Chicago that the Second Amendment did not apply to states, which were free to implement whatever gun controls lawmakers wanted; a decision that was overturned by the Supreme Court in McDonald v. Chicago.  Since then, Easterbrook has repeatedly held that “assault weapons” aren’t protected by the Second Amendment, and has rejected all challenges to the federal ban on possession of firearms by those convicted of a crime punishable…

Images by the author H&K’s iconic MP5 submachine gun has garnered a sterling reputation among folks who need it. I don’t know many shooters who haven’t heard of it. Unfortunately, with laws the way they are, owning one is an onerous and very expensive proposition. What’s a shooter to do who wants something like that legendary gun? Enter the Century Arms AP5. Manufactured in Turkey by MKS on original H&K machinery, it is a semi-auto version of the full-auto MP5.  (Speaking of full auto, don’t let the safety icons fool you… … only the safe and single-shot functions work. It…

The air was perfectly still as I ascended Ski Cooper under a bluebird sky. I could feel beads of sweat rolling down my temples, absorbing into my cap. Even without a breeze, though, I didn’t feel like I was soaking through my base layers. My body felt drier than usual. Normally, by this point in the tour, I’m drenched. I was wearing the Energyon Biotech Thermal Jersey. It’s a base layer made by the Italian company UYN (pronounced “Win“). This company has been around for over 75 years, but it’s recently come out of the gate with some surprising base…

West Virginia started something. We all knew it the moment it was announced that a bill had been introduced to allow the state to sell machine guns to citizens. Hell, it was better than my poor reading comprehension led me to believe when I first saw it, because the way the federal law reads, they can sell brand-new stuff to citizens, bypassing the 1986 ban. It’s glorious, and we knew someone else would follow suit.There are states where I figure this will pass more easily than others. I didn’t quite expect Kentucky to be the…

With some new, additional NFA barriers eliminated, I find myself rethinking niche suppressor designs that used to feel too costly to justify adding to the collection. Wipe-equipped cans use thin, often rubber, discs that the bullet punches through for superior gas sealing. On paper and often in video games and in movies, they promise exceptional, virtually Hollywood-quiet suppression in ultra-compact packages. However, in reality, they come at the expense of a short lifespan and or a more frequent and often tricky maintenance routine to be at peak effectiveness. I see models like the Gemtech Aurora 2 available through Silencer Shop as more…

As I worked down a bluff wall with a ned rig searching for smallmouth, the screen of my fish finder lit up. The boat had just gone over a submerged brush pile, and boy oh boy, were there crappie on it. I quickly reeled up, clipped the ned rig off the Trika 10X spinning rod in my hand, and tied on a crappie jig. I turned to the back of the boat and fired a cast just beyond the brush pile and let my jig get to depth. After a few cranks of the reel, I felt a “tap, tap……

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. civil rights agency has determined that the federal government can bar transgender employees from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, dismissing an appeal from a transgender woman who worked for the U.S. Army. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided Thursday against a civilian IT specialist who worked for the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas. The EEOC repeatedly declared her to be man even though the worker informed her managers that she identified as a woman in the summer of 2025 when she asked to use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with her gender…

The East Coast might have gotten walloped with a blizzard this week, but the spring season is tantalizingly close. There’s no stronger evidence of that than a bunch of outdoor brands dropping their spring 2026 collections. There’s almost too much new gear (but in reality, there’s no such thing). Backpackers have got a bounty of new products to look at. YETI released a line of backpacks designed for everything from casual dayhikes to weeklong adventures in the backcountry. Rab also dropped the Mythic 20, its lightest-ever sleeping bag, with a bunch of new tech to keep you toasty warm in…

If there’s one thing I think most of us can agree on, the concept of “rules for thee, but not for me” is the epitome of the worst thing lawmakers can do. That’s actually true, more or less, across partisan lines, even. No one likes the so-called elite getting a legal pass whereas we are held to a different standard. Most only shout about it when it’s the other side doing it, but the feeling tends to be pretty universal, even if partisan blinders help people ignore it when it’s inconvenient.I try to be consistent…

There are a lot of people walking around with a badge, a carry permit, or both, who have never actually been taught to shoot. They’ve been taught to qualify. Those are not the same thing. Paul Costa has spent nearly two decades in law enforcement watching that gap up close. As an assistant range master responsible for firearms training for over 700 officers, he had a front-row seat to what institutional training produces: people who can pass a course of fire on a known range, under no stress, with no time pressure that matters, and who haven’t meaningfully developed as…