Random News and Notes 1 November

Spooky season is over. I hope everyone had an enjoyable All Hallow’s Eve. Today starts Turkey month. At least for those of us in the US. Our Canadian neighbors had theirs already, back on the 13th of October.

Now, on to the news.

As the Schumer Shutdown enters it’s 2nd month, a pair of federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to fund SNAP despite not having the funding available. The judges – in separate cases – have ordered the USDA, the agency that administers federal food assistance benefits programs, to use contingency funding to at least partially fund SNAP and WIC.

Unfortunately, the statutory language would seem to prevent the contingency funding from being used in that manner.

Some 42 million people get some sort of federal food assistance every month.

An interesting and somewhat horrifying story from just north of me got an update recently. As most of you know, I reside in the central leather stocking region of the PRNY. There are several Haudenosaunee reservations in my immediate area. This story involves one of the reservations, the Akewsasne Mohawk reservation in the North Country. That particular rez straddles the US/Canadian border and the St Lawrence river. It is a very active illegal crossing point for both goods and people.

52 year old Stephanie Square is a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk and a dual US/Canadian national. She is also a human trafficker. Allegedly. Square was just formally charged in the deaths of a Romanian family she tried to smuggle across the St. Lawrence river back on 29 March 2023. She was the leader of a group of Mohawks that were engaged in smuggling aliens across the border at the rez. She set up transportation of the family across the river despite high winds and very cold temps.

Winds were in the 30 mph range and temps were right around freezing when the attempt to cross was made. Needless to say, conditions were not good. Worse, the small boat foundered not long after taking off. All 5 people – including Square’s co-conspiritor – on board drowned or more likely succumbed to hypothermia.

Square was formally extradited to the US from Canada after being held in a Canadian jail since 2024. Co-conspirator Timothy Oakes, brother of the dead boat ‘captain’, was arrested on June 15, 2025, and remains detained pending trial for his role in the deadly conspiracy. U.S.-based co-conspirators Dakota Montour, 31, and Kawisiiostha Celecia Sharrow, 43, both of Akwesasne, New York, and Janet Terrance, 45, of Hogansburg, New York, entered guilty pleas on Jan. 23, 2025, Oct. 8, 2024, and March 6, 2025, respectively.

I told you about a leak about US military palns in Venezuela yesterday. The Miami Herald (of all places) reported that US action in the South American country was coming at any time. Well, it didn’t happen. Yet.

However, the Russians decided they were going to make a showing in VZ. They sent an Il-76 heavy lift cargo jet to Caracas. For what reason? Who knows for sure, but it is rumored the plane carried the remnants of Wagner Group.

. . . Algiers, Rabat, Dakar, and Nouakchott;
— This airline is already under sanctions for transporting cargo on behalf of Wagner, transporting weapons and ammunition to Venezuela and Africa.
What these Kremlin actions mean:
— Either the delivery of any type of weapons from russia and Africa to Venezuela
— Or the use of mercenaries affiliated with the former Wagner.
Should the Americans nevertheless launch a ground invasion of Venezuela, and the russian supply involved human resources, the US will encounter Wagner fighters with combat experience in Africa, Syria, and Ukraine, and with FPV drones.
An Il-76 can carry up to 50 tons, enough for small arms shipments or 100–200 personnel, but not a full battery like the S-400 (which would require multiple flights).
Of course, putin could also send a few thousand russian babushkas to Venezuela; we don’t know.

Recall if you will what happened the last time the US ran up against Wagner mercs. It was called the Battle of Conoco Fields and it went badly for Wagner. Very Badly. Some 40 US troops, mostly CAG operators, killed somewhere between 40 and 200 Wagner fighters and a couple hundred Syrians.

As a side note, the USS Gerald R Ford carrier strike group will be on station in the southern Caribbean by mid-week next week. Expect things to start poppin’ shortly after.

LOL, LMAO even

And yes, that was VP Vance’s Halloween costume.