Even with today’s 3% surge – the most in a month – on the heels of Unicredit’s CEO proclaiming that EU banks are “intensely” looking for funding solutions, European banking stocks have collapsed for a 4th straight week for the worst losses since 2012. Following the brief exuberance after Draghi unleashed his latest bazooka…
Author: The Tactical Hermit
Armed Texan and Part-Time Bard.
Military History: The 30 Years War
Thirty Years By John Farnam Protestant King Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, the “Lion of the North,” the “Snow King,” led a lean, efficient, and highly-mobile army that was able to move faster and hit harder than any thrown against it. He was ahead of his time and nearly unbeatable. His greatest fear was territorial encroachment…
Cold and Hot Ranges & The Use of “Safeties” in Training
In reference to the issue of the use of rifle or pistol safeties when conducting realistic tactical training, this video pretty much sums up my attitude: The weapons safety is to be disengaged when the drill starts and not re-engaged until the drill STOPS. When not shooting, finger is to be at High Register. Being…
Spy Movie Review: The Night Manager
First of all, let me say even though this series does not premiere in the U.S. until April 19th, I have already watched this entire 6-part series since it premiered in the U.K this past winter. I liked it, but don’t go into it expecting a straight laced Espionage thriller. It is more of a…
DIY Project: Secret Gun Compartment
Home firearm storage mostly consists of safes and ugly cabinets. This DIY secret gun compartment doubles as a living room mirror, but opens to reveal your firearms when you need them. Corey of Sawdust 2 Stitches shares a video of the gun cabinet she built below. It houses her AR-15 as well as magazines and other accessories. The…
Espionage Files: The Strange Trip Surrounding MK-Ultra
Ten scientists, some from the CIA, gathered in a cabin in Maryland for their semiannual review and conference in November 1953. On day two, a bottle of Cointreau — spiked with LSD — appeared; after it was emptied, Sidney Gottlieb, a CIA program director, informed his colleagues that they were in for a wild ride….
Military History: The USS Akron, One of the Worse Air Ship Disasters in U.S. History
On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg airship caught fire as it was trying to dock at Naval Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey. Thirty-six of the 97 people onboard were killed, in addition to one crewman on the ground. The disaster is often called the most devastating loss of life during the zeppelin era,…
Military Weapons From the Past: Japanese Type 100 Paratrooper
The Type 100 (sometimes called the Type 0) was one of the initial Japanese experiments in paratroop rifles. Manufactured from standard Nagoya Arsenal Type 99 rifles, the Type 100 used a set of interrupted lugs at the chamber to allow the rifle to be broken into two short sections. Only a few hundred of these…
Modern Crime: Japanese Yakuza Not Going Down Without a Fight
The yakuza, Japan’s notorious organized crime syndicates, are on the decline. While they still wield influence, their numbers have dwindled to around 53,000 members last year from a height of more than 180,000 in the 1960s, according to a recent report in the French newspaper Les Echos that cited data from Japan’s National Police Agency….
Future of Warfare: Metal Foam Armor
For thousands of years, armor was something people wore. Gunpowder, which could launch projectiles straight through metal garments, changed that, and with the invention of the tank in World War I, armor become something people rode inside. The invention of Kevlar in 1965 brought back wearable armor, and then armor-piercing bullets were designed to punch…