Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

NYC and 21 states file federal suit over proposed changes to green card eligibility

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a pair of federal lawsuits attempting to block the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce self-sufficiency requirements for immigrants seeking permanent residency.

_________________________________________________________________________

Those applying for a Green Card or Visa – Primary Target

The public charge rule directly affects non-citizens who are currently in the U.S. legally on temporary visas (work visas, student visas, temporary statuses) or applying for green cards/visa adjustments from abroad.

If federal officers determine they are likely to rely on government benefits, their green card or visa application can be denied.

Current Green Card Holders – Secondary Target

Once a person already has a green card, utilizing public benefits generally does not jeopardize their status or lead to deportation. However, the rule can impact them if they leave the U.S. for more than 180 consecutive days and try to re-enter, as they are treated like new applicants subject to admissibility checks upon return.

_________________________________________________________________________

The legal challenges target the GOP administration’s updated “public charge” rule — a policy taking effect September 18th that directs immigration officials to evaluate whether non-citizen visa and green card applicants are likely to become dependent on taxpayer-funded government aid, including Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.

Joined by local officials from liberal jurisdictions including Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, alongside a coalition of 21 Democrat state attorneys general (AGs), the lawsuits argue that the administration “exceeded its authority” by broadening the criteria used to evaluate financial independence.

The left-wing plaintiffs allege that assessing non-cash benefit usage creates unnecessary confusion. During a press conference, Mayor Mamdani criticized the Trump administration’s policy, arguing it would deter immigrant families from utilizing city-provided services and lead to higher long-term healthcare costs for municipal governments.

However, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) firmly defended the measure as a lawful, common-sense enforcement of longstanding immigration principles designed to safeguard federal resources.

Federal officials dismissed the local and state lawsuits as politically motivated attempts by sanctuary city leaders to preserve non-citizen access to costly public entitlement programs.

Defending the policy, a DHS spokesperson stressed that the GOP administration is committed to safeguarding taxpayer dollars, asserting that U.S. immigration laws must prioritize self-reliant applicants rather than foreign nationals seeking to live off government assistance.

Ensuring that immigrants remain self-reliant has been a fundamental tenet of U.S. immigration law for generations, they added, expressing confidence that federal courts will uphold the rule against the state and municipal challenges.

Keep reading

Leaked Data Show Israel Covered Up HUNDREDS of COVID Shot Deaths and Hospitalizations Within Weeks of Vaccine Rollout

A newly published peer-reviewed study has exposed an internal Israeli Ministry of Health pharmacovigilance dataset documenting 531 hospitalizations and 67 deaths within weeks of mass COVID-19 “vaccine” rollout.

Nearly half of all hospitalization reports involved myocarditis or pericarditis. Among people under 30, that figure surged to 151 of 211 (71.6%), including 48 patients under 18.

But the most important revelation was how early Israeli authorities had this information. By March 25, 2021, barely three months into the vaccine rollout, Israel had already reported to Pfizer 46 deaths, 157 hospitalizations, and 65 myocarditis/pericarditis cases. These were not retrospective estimates assembled years later; they came from an operational Ministry of Health pharmacovigilance dataset used to document serious events considered relevant enough to report directly to the manufacturer. The median reported interval from vaccination to death was just 3 days.

Israel had already alerted the CDC and European Medicines Agency to approximately 40 myocarditis cases by the end of February 2021. By March 25, the internal records contained the 46 deaths, 157 hospitalizations, and 65 myocarditis/pericarditis reports described above. Yet the study reconstructs a delay of roughly three to four months before the myocarditis signal was meaningfully communicated to clinicians and the public.

When the risk was finally acknowledged, the public messaging emphasized that myocarditis was “rare,” “mild,” and transient and that vaccination benefits outweighed the risks. That characterization was fraudulent given their internal record containing hundreds of serious hospitalizations, severe cardiac injury, and deaths.

Keep reading

The Crippling Effects of Unnecessary War

In California, gas stations are facing a unique challenge. The station signs are only configured to go up to $9.99 per gallon and at several stations the price of diesel has reached that maximum. Diesel prices are higher than they have ever been in history.

Worse, according to some news reports the advertising of the maximum price of $9.99 per gallon is meant to signal to truck drivers that they have run out of diesel altogether. Expensive diesel is a hit to the economy, but running out of the fuel at any price is a whole different kind of crisis.

Our highways are filled with semi-trucks burning diesel to bring the products we depend on to the markets. Our freight trains use diesel to transport what is not transported by truck. When the price of diesel increases, the cost of everything moved by that diesel also increases. This is one reason we are seeing much more inflation than the government wants to admit.

The diesel crisis is getting so serious that even President Trump has been forced to admit it. Of course, instead of taking at least part of the blame over his war of choice against Iran and his continuation of the proxy war against Russia through Ukraine, he is blaming Ukraine’s military strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

President Trump is now asking Ukraine to stop attacking Russian energy resources because diesel is a global commodity and the scarcity produced by the attacks is hitting us here at home. But the strikes deep inside Russia are guided by US intelligence, which provides the targeting data for Ukraine.

The Russia/Ukraine war is only part of the problem. Despite President Trump’s bluster about controlling the Strait of Hormuz, the fact is Iran is in control and very little oil – or anything else – makes it out without Iranian approval.

Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis joining the fight only makes matters worse. Over the weekend they attacked Saudi Arabia’s bypass pipeline, taking much more oil off the market.

The real problem here is not oil or diesel. The real problem is that wars of choice spin out of control and destroy the economies of those who launch them. Empires throughout history have been undone by endless overseas wars. No amount of bragging about the size and strength of our military can change this reality.

Now we are seeing the chickens coming home to roost.

Keep reading

Energy Truce In Shambles: Ukraine Strikes Russian Refinery Despite Trump’s Warning Amid Global Diesel Crisis

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian forces struck the Syzran refinery in Russia’s Samara region, about 75 miles west of Samara and 466 miles southeast of Moscow. The strike comes days after President Trump urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian refineries, as average US retail diesel prices jumped above $6 a gallon and alarming disruptions to global refining capacity threaten fuel supplies ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter. 

Zelenskyy wrote on X: 

Russia continues to attack our energy sector, regular logistics, and critical infrastructure. And our responses to them for this are tangible. There are new results from the Defense Forces of Ukraine regarding the refinery in Syzran. There was also a strike in Taganrog on a drone production facility, as well as on a drone preparation and launch site in the Oryol region. Targets were hit in the Black Sea as well. I thank every one of our warriors for the effectiveness of our long-range sanctions!

The day before, the United States also announced a significant decision regarding Russia’s VTB Bank – one of Russia’s systemic banks, which is heavily involved in schemes supporting Russia’s war and, in particular, its relations with the Iranian regime. All such schemes that work against peace truly need to be dismantled. I thank our partners for this useful step!

There is no alternative to ending this war. And all forms of pressure on Russia must create the right diplomatic conditions. Glory to Ukraine!

Keep reading

MASSIVE SPYWARE BREACH: Spain’s President Lost Millions of Messages, Emails, Photos and Audio to Pegasus

A new assessment of the Pegasus spyware attack on Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has revealed the extraordinary scale of information extracted from his cellphone, reigniting questions about who was behind the operation and what may have happened to sensitive government data.

Spain’s National Intelligence Centre, known as the CNI, has acknowledged that Pegasus extracted approximately 2.7 gigabytes of data from Sánchez’s phone during the 2021 cyberattack.

To illustrate the enormous volume of information represented by that amount of data, the CNI estimates it could correspond to roughly 5 million text messages, 100,000 emails, 1,200 photographs or 40 hours of recorded audio, according to reports published in Spain.

A Spyware Attack on the President

Sánchez’s phone was compromised by Pegasus in May 2021, with investigators determining that approximately 2.6 gigabytes of information were extracted during the first attack and another roughly 130 megabytes during a subsequent intrusion.

The phone of then-Defense Minister Margarita Robles was also targeted.

The Spanish government said at the time that the attacks were external and had not been authorized by Spanish authorities. But the identity of the person or organization responsible for the attacks has remained a major unresolved question.

Pegasus, developed by Israeli technology company NSO Group, is among the world’s most sophisticated commercial surveillance tools. Once a device is successfully compromised, attackers can potentially gain access to highly sensitive communications and information stored on the phone.

For a sitting president, that could include private conversations, diplomatic communications, government documents, photographs, contacts and information involving national-security matters.

One of the most troubling questions surrounding the case is not simply how much data was extracted, but what the attackers obtained.

Spanish authorities have previously acknowledged that forensic investigators could establish the amount of data removed from the devices but could not necessarily determine exactly which documents or pieces of information were taken.

That means the 2.7-gigabyte figure provides an indication of the scale of the breach without answering the more consequential question: What did the attackers actually see?

The uncertainty has fueled political controversy in Spain and prompted renewed scrutiny of the government’s handling of sensitive communications.

Keep reading

America Now Has Weapons In Space — And Just Said So Out Loud

The US Space Force finally confirmed something that the national-security establishment has been hinting at for years: it has put “military weapons” in orbit around the Earth, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink confirmed at the Air and Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Monday.

“Today we are more ready than ever to face new challenges and we continue to ensure that we are doing our best to counter threats that are evolving, that are located anywhere in the world,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in prepared remarks at the National Harbor event. “This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.”

He declined to offer any information about the on-orbit space control weapons now being deployed, including how many are involved and how long it will take for them to be deployed. He said that revealing too much information would not help to further deterrence. “Me talking about the details of what we’re doing would actually not benefit deterrence. So we’re not going to talk about the specifics of what we’re doing, whether we’ve tested it, not tested it, etc.”

The disclosure of the existence of US space control weapons in orbit marks a significant shift in US policy regarding warfare in space. For years senior Pentagon officials refused to confirm the existence of offensive and/or defensive systems in space. In recent years China and Russia have been actively testing out a range of anti-satellite systems including inspectors, ground launched ASATs and maneuvering spacecraft designed to seek out and destroy enemy satellites in orbit.

Recently Space Force leaders have detailed a growing array of defensive tools such as countermeasures, satellite-hardening techniques and ground-based systems capable of directing powerful energy at hostile spacecraft. Earlier this year the Space Force activated its first ground-based electromagnetic warfare (EMW) station, called Meadowlands, which will target enemy satellites in space.

Keep reading

Elon Musk PAC Steps Up with Big Bucks to Fund Key Swing-State Races

With the midterm elections less than two months away, Elon Musk’s America PAC is funneling money into Maine congressional races to help maintain GOP control.

Musk’s PAC has dedicated $170,000 to ads, phone calls, mailers, and text messages supporting GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who is running against Democrat Troy Jackson, according to The Center Square.

Collins’ seat is crucial for Republicans and could determine which party controls the upper chamber for the final two years of Trump’s presidency. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 seat majority but have little room for error, given the Senate map.

Initially, Collins’ seat was thought to be safe after her original challenger Graham Platner was marred by scandal.

When he dropped out of the race in July, however, Jackson took his place and gave Democrats a fighting chance.

Platner was initially hailed as a populist hero and was able to survive revelations about a Nazi tattoo on his chest, offensive social media posts, infidelity, and allegations of abuse against former girlfriends.

The straw that broke the camel’s back came when he was accused of rape by Maine Democrat Jenny Racicot.

Keep reading

New York makes it official: Our high school diploma is worthless

New York’s race to the bottom in education continued apace Monday, as the Board of Regents scrapped the requirement that the state’s high schoolers actually learn something to graduate.

For 30 years, students needed to pass at least four Regents exams — in math, English, science and Global Studies — to earn a diploma. To be clear, this standard was the barest minimum. The governing board kept lowering the score needed to pass the tests, watering down the results. 

But it was something: A tangible requirement — a responsibility — that showed we as a state cared about accountability.

And that’s exactly the word that the Teachers Union hates. It meant parents and politicians would start to question why a whopping 15%-20% of students didn’t meet graduation requirements. Testing highlighted bad instructors and bad schools. As usual, COVID is partly to blame here. The Regents board “temporarily” lifted requirements during the pandemic, and graduation rates rose to 87% in 2022. When the Regents tests returned, the state rate fell to 85%. The city’s: 81%. It was the largest year over year percentage drop in 20 years.

Keep reading

$5.5-million taxpayer-funded Manitoba daycare sits empty, flooded, and stripped by thieves

A $5.5-million daycare built with provincial funding has never cared for a single child and is now flooded, vandalized and stripped of valuable equipment.

The 74-space facility in East St. Paul was completed in 2024 for the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust. It was one of 22 daycares commissioned under Manitoba’s former Progressive Conservative government.

The province paid $3.3 million toward the project before cutting off funding in November 2024 amid uncertainty over who owns the land.

A CBC News investigation found broken windows, shattered glass, a damaged security system and extensive water damage. Two commercial refrigerators and a dishwasher have disappeared, copper wiring has been stripped, and rooftop air-conditioning units have been partially dismantled.

After the building went months without electricity, its sump pump stopped operating and approximately half a metre of water accumulated in the basement.

Patrick Ryan, volunteer board chair of Created 4 Me Early Learning Centre, estimated the damage now exceeds $1 million. The organization, which has 800 children on its waiting list, hired staff for the facility but later had to let them go.

The dispute began after the Peguis trust sold 75 percent of the company controlling the property to a numbered company owned by Andrew Marquess, a former trust adviser. The province says the ownership change may violate its operating agreement.

Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt said the government still has not received documentation confirming ownership and cannot provide a timeline for opening the daycare.

A former deputy minister also warned that the project may not have followed normal provincial or municipal procurement practices.

Keep reading

After 9/11, the ‘War on Terror’ Was a War of Terror

Three days after terrorists killed almost 3,000 people in the United States on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush stood behind a pulpit at the Washington National Cathedral and spoke to a nation in shock. “Our responsibility to history is already clear,” he proclaimed, “to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.” The vow was, of course, preposterous. Yet the “war on terror” that followed was scarcely more realistic.

“Terrorism is not an enemy. It cannot be defeated. It’s a tactic,” retired US Army General William Odom told C-SPAN viewers in 2002. “It’s about as sensible to say we declare war on night attacks and expect we’re going to win that war. We’re not going to win the war on terrorism.” But the American military crusade became more about persisting than winning. The ultraviolent momentum became its own reason. The destructive search for enemies created more. As years went by and the “war on terror” label faded, US warfare was so normal in so many places that it no longer needed a name or much of a rationale.

But 25 years ago, the impulse to avenge the horrors of 9/11 was instant. Fear and rage blended into high octane for war machinery. Suddenly, overwhelming public emotions were fully in sync with the psychology of a military-industrial complex set for large-scale killing.

None of the 19 hijackers were Afghan, and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s ties were much tighter with Saudi Arabia, but his presence in Afghanistan put that country in the Pentagon’s gunsights. The question in US media was not about whether, but when, to attack. The answer came on October 7 when American missiles began to explode in Afghanistan. Hours later, a Gallup poll found that “90 percent of Americans approve of the United States taking such military action, while just 5 percent are opposed, and another 5 percent are unsure.”

The air war remained quite popular in the United States. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held daily live televised briefings that catapulted him to national adulation. A pattern set in, taking for granted that American warfare was beneficent in intent and benign in meaningful impact. People dying under American bombs and less directly didn’t count for much. “The targeting capabilities, and the care that goes into targeting, to see that the precise targets are struck, and that other targets are not struck, is as impressive as anything anyone could see,” Rumsfeld asserted. And he added, “The weapons that are being used today have a degree of precision that no one ever dreamt of.”

Keep reading