Random News and Notes 15 November

On this date:

• 1315 – Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.
• 1533 – The explorer Francisco Pizarro enters Cuzco, Peru.
• 1626 – The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.
• 1777 – The Articles of Confederation, instituting perpetual union of the United States of America, are adopted by Congress.

• 1805 – Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party reach the mouth of the Columbia River, completing their trek to the Pacific.
• 1806 – Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn’t climb it.
• 1864 – Union Major General William T. Sherman’s troops set fires that destroy much of Atlanta’s industrial district prior to beginning Sherman’s March to the Sea.
• 1881 – The American Federation of Labor is founded.
• 1917 – Alexander Kerensky flees and Bolsheviks take command in Moscow.
• 1920 – Forty-one nations open the first League of Nations session in Geneva.
• 1943 – Heinrich Himmler makes public an order that Romani people (often referred to by the derogatory term Gypsies) are to be put on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”
• 1946 – The 17th Paris Air Show opens at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since World War II.
• 1957 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev asserts Soviet superiority in missiles, challenging the United States to a rocket-range shooting match.
• 1960 – The first submarine with nuclear missiles, USS George Washington, takes to sea from Charleston, South Carolina for her first operational cruise

• 1976 – A Syrian peace force takes control of Beirut, Lebanon.
• 1985 – Anglo-Irish Agreement signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.
• 1990 – People’s Republic of Bulgaria replaced by a new republican government.
• 2001 – Microsoft releases the X-box gaming console.

We start an abbreviated news segment with something unexpected. Starting in January, Amtrak will allow travelers 18 and older to bring unloaded guns and ammo in double-locked, TSA-compliant cases on about 1,500 daily trains as carry on luggage. This includes busy Northeast Regional and Acela routes. Riders must declare items ahead, with station agents adding a company lock before boarding.

Sorry for the choice of X post, this one was the least histrionic about it. Needless to say the usual retards are up in arms about it. All I can say is the last person you need to worry about on a train is the one who checked their gun.

The Trump admin is making changes to SNAP benefits. The Trump administration proposes ending broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP, a policy many states use to extend benefits to households over federal income limits via TANF links. USDA estimates this would cut access for 6.3 million people by 2029, or 17.6% of participants, plus free school meals for nearly 2 million children, building on 5.5 million already removed since mid-2025.

Officials call it closing loopholes to aid the truly needy. Critics say it harms working families, seniors, and those with disabilities amid high food costs. Average benefits stand at $188 per person monthly.

SpaceX had a major success yesterday. They caught Starship on it’s return from space. Flight 15 launched on Friday, deployed 26 advanced Starlink sats and returned to earth where it was caught by Mechazilla at Starbase Texas.

It was the first catch of Starship.