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.

FBI is probing ‘suspicious’ breach into bureau networks

The FBI is investigating a possible cyber breach into bureau networks, the agency confirmed to Nextgov/FCW.

“The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” the bureau said Thursday. The statement did not elaborate further.

CNN first reported the incident and said the breach concerned a network used to facilitate and manage court-ordered wiretapping requests, citing a person familiar with an investigation into the matter. Nextgov/FCW could not independently confirm the matter was linked to wiretap systems.

Wiretaps are a common law enforcement technique used to lawfully intercept communications data on domestic targets. To obtain data, FBI analysts are typically required to obtain a warrant from a judge, allowing them to compel communications providers to hand over call, text or email data tied to a target. Specialized court orders can also allow for real-time surveillance of phone calls.

The FBI is also a heavy user of a communications intercept law housed in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lets certain agencies target overseas foreigners’ communications without a warrant. 

Telecom providers’ “lawful intercept” wiretapping systems were ensnared in a sweeping Chinese hack uncovered in 2024. The hackers, tied to a group called Salt Typhoon, leveraged the intrusions to target communications of high profile political officials including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Foreign adversaries may, at any point in time, be targeting U.S. government systems. Wiretap contents are especially high-value intelligence targets because they could reveal sensitive information about what officials are thinking or planning.

It’s not clear if Salt Typhoon or another collective tied to foreign hackers was involved in the incident. Salt Typhoon is likely holding onto pilfered data “in perpetuity” for future theft and cyber exploitation, a top FBI official said last month.

The FBI has lost many of its staff in the last year amid a mix of firings and other mechanisms used by the second Trump administration to curtail the size of the federal workforce. That turnover has threatened the bureau’s national security resources, experts argue.

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Clinton Judge Orders Trump Admin to Refund $130 Billion in Tariffs

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump Administration to refund $130 billion in tariffs.

The US Supreme Court recently struck down President Trump’s tariffs in a 6-3 decision.

The Supreme Court said President Trump does not have the authority to impose the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

The high court’s decision only invalidates Trump’s tariffs under the IEEPA.

Chief Justices Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch sided with the three liberal justices.

Conservative Justices Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh sided with President Trump.

In his dissent, Kavanaugh warned that refunding the tariffs would be a ‘mess.’

The Trump Administration asked for a 90-day delay in refunding the tariffs, but the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request on Monday.

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected the Trump Administration’s request to delay the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs.

On Wednesday, Judge Richard Eaton, a Clinton appointee, said the Trump Administration to begin refunding $130 billion in tariffs.

Fox News reported:

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to begin the drawn-out task of refunding billions of dollars to companies that paid tariffs the Supreme Court recently invalidated.

Judge Richard Eaton, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, laid out the estimated $130 billion refund process in a three-page order, saying it would begin with U.S. Customs and Border Protection calculating what importers would have paid without the now-invalid tariffs. Eaton also made clear he had sole jurisdiction over the refunds, which more than 1,000 companies have sued over in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

“The Chief Judge has indicated that I am the only judge who will hear cases pertaining to the refund of [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] duties,” Eaton wrote. “So there is no danger that another Judge, even one in this Court, will reach any contrary conclusions.”

The case in question was brought by Atmus Filtration, Inc., a company that paid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Trump imposed on nearly every country on an emergency basis under IEEPA last year.

Last week FedEx filed a lawsuit seeking a refund.

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Britain is Trying to Censor Americans – But America is Fighting Back

Ofcom has confirmed it is referring 4chan to a final enforcement decision under the Online Safety Act. The target is a Delaware company that runs an entirely anonymous imageboard from the United States, with no offices, staff, servers or assets in Britain. The demand: install age-verification systems and content filters so that British children cannot access the site or face daily fines levied from London on an American platform. This case is not an outlier. It is the clearest real-world demonstration of what the new generation of “online safety” laws requires: private companies must build automated filters that decide, in advance, which legal speech is too harmful for minors to see. The question the regulators never quite answer is simple: what exactly does the filter catch?

In the early 2020s, a political consensus formed on both sides of the Atlantic: social media is harming children and something must be done. The result in Washington was the Kids’ Online Safety Act (KOSA); in Westminster, the Online Safety Act (OSA), which received Royal Assent in October 2023 and began enforcement in 2025. The political appeal of both measures is genuine. Adolescent mental health deteriorated in the 2010s, parents are alarmed and platforms have appeared indifferent. But good intentions do not make good law, and the form these interventions took is constitutionally and morally indefensible. Both KOSA and the OSA rest on a duty-of-care model: platforms must take “reasonable measures” or implement “proportionate systems” to prevent minors from encountering content associated with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and suicide. This is not a regulation of conduct. It is a mandate to suppress speech based on its topic and its predicted emotional effect on a reader: the very definition of content-based regulation.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated the constitutional problem plainly in its July 2023 letter opposing KOSA: the bill “is a content-based regulation of constitutionally protected speech” that “will silence important conversations, limit minors’ access to potentially vital resources and violate the First Amendment”.  Under Reed v. Town of Gilbert, a law is content-based if it “applies to particular speech because of the topic discussed or the idea or message expressed”. Content-based regulations are “presumptively unconstitutional”.

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Embattled Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales Bows Out of 2026 Runoff Race After Explosive Affair Scandal With Staffer Who Later Took Her Own Life

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) suddenly announced Thursday that he will not seek reelection to Congress amid a rapidly growing scandal involving an alleged affair with a staff member, which has shaken Washington and prompted a House Ethics investigation.

The Texas lawmaker, who serves the 23rd Congressional District along the southern border, said he will complete his current term but will not run in 2026 after weeks of increased pressure from Republican leaders and grassroots conservatives.

In a social media statement, Gonzales stated he had made the decision “after deep reflection and with the support of my loving family” not to pursue another term in Congress.

“At 18, I swore an oath to defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. During my 20 years in the military and three terms in Congress, I have fought for that cause with absolute dedication to the country that I love.

From confronting the border crisis to standing with my communities after the worst school shooting in Texas history, my philosophy has never changed: do as much as you can, and always fight for the greater good.

After deep reflection, and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek reelection, while serving out the remainder of this Congress with the same commitment I have always had to my district.

Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful.

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Zelensky Casually Threatens to Unleash Ukrainian Military on Hungary’s Viktor Orbán for Blocking €90 billion EU Aid

A new war on the horizon?

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky have been clashing for years, over a number of issues, but most importantly, because Budapest does not support Kiev’s membership in either NATO or the EU.

Orbán has repeatedly said that Ukraine does not fulfill the conditions for membership in the organizations, and furthermore, its participation would ‘bring the war’ to Europe.

These stances, needless to say, caused Orbán to be seen as an enemy of Zelensky’s regime – to the point where Kiev’s ruler, having repeatedly offended the Hungarian president, now half-jokingly threatens Orbán’s life in public.

The reason for the recent escalation is energy.

Orbán and his government accuse Ukraine of cutting the supply of Russian oil flowing through the Druzhba (‘Friendship’) pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia, threatening their energy security.

Ukraine says that the pipeline was destroyed by a Russian strike – again, insanely suggesting Russians would destroy their own pipelines, like they did when the Nord Stream was destroyed.

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US offensive on Iran burned through an estimated $779M on first day

US forces spent an estimated $779 million, or about 0.1% of the entire 2026 US defense budget, during the opening 24 hours of its offensive against Iran, according to estimates and data compiled by Anadolu.

The US’ CENTCOM confirmed that the massive deployment included B-2 stealth bombers, F-22, F-35, and F-16 fighter jets, A-10 attack aircraft, and EA-18G electronic warfare planes. The operation also utilized MQ-9 Reaper drones, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and Patriot and THAAD missile defense systems.

Four B-2 stealth bombers, flying non-stop from Whiteman Air Force Base in the US state of Missouri, struck targets using 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), according to CENTCOM. Known for high maintenance requirements and a 40,000-lb (18,143-kg) payload capacity, the B-2 operations alone accounted for an estimated $30.2 million, based on flight hours, maintenance costs, and munition requisitions data from the US Defense Department’s 2025 and 2026 budget requests.

CENTCOM’s buildup of various fighter jets of F-18s, F-16s, F-22s, and F35s contributed to the initial strikes, according to a post by CENTCOM on US social media company X. Based on flight hours, maintenance costs, and munition requisitions data from the 2025 and 2026 US department budget requests, these sorties cost an estimated $271.34 million.

Specialized aircraft, including the EA-18G Growler, A-10C Thunderbolt, and the MQ-9 Reaper, played a critical role alongside the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS). When factoring in P-8 Maritime Patrol aircraft, RC-135 reconnaissance planes, and aerial refueling tankers, as well as land-based HIMARS batteries, the cost for the combined air and ground assets, including the fighter jets, reached approximately $423.57 million.

The two US carrier groups in the region, the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford, also took part in the attack. The cost of operating the aircraft carriers along with their contingent of destroyers and littoral combat ships is estimated to come to $15 million a day.

Additionally, CENTCOM also released videos of its navy deploying scores of Tomahawk cruise missiles. While exact numbers remain classified, estimates suggest that roughly 200 Tomahawks were fired, totaling $340.4 million in munitions costs.

Combining these expenses, the total estimated cost for the U.S. strikes conducted last Saturday alone stands at $779.174 million, or some 0.1% of the 2026 US defense budget.

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Trump’s Plan To Escort Ships Through Strait Of Hormuz Would Put U.S. Navy Warships In The Crosshairs

U.S. Navy could soon be escorting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where maritime traffic has effectively stopped due to the current conflict with Iran, according to President Donald Trump. Doing so would demand that American naval vessels transit through the Strait, shifting them away from other duties. More importantly, it would also mean putting them right in a super weapons engagement zone full of Iranian threats that could include cruise and ballistic missiles, one-way-attack drones, explosive-laden kamikaze boats, and naval mines.

“If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible,” President Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media network.

“Effective IMMEDIATELY, I have ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade, especially Energy, traveling through the Gulf,” he also wrote. “This will be available to all Shipping Lines.”

“No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD. The United States’ ECONOMIC and MILITARY MIGHT is the GREATEST ON EARTH,” he added. “More actions to come.”

U.S. Central Command declined to comment when reached for more details. TWZ has also reached out to the White House.

The Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is just 20 nautical miles across at its narrowest point. A significant portion of the waterway falls within Iran’s national waters, which also overlap with those of Oman to the south. Under normal conditions, maritime traffic flows in and out through a pair of established two-mile-wide shipping lanes. Each year, roughly one-fifth of all global oil shipments, and an even higher percentage of seaborne shipments, pass through this one waterway. It is also a major conduit for liquid natural gas exports. Some 3,000 ships, including tankers and container ships, pass through each month.

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Miami GOP Secretary’s Group Chat Pushes Antisemitism, ‘Killing N-ggers’

The recent uptick in antisemitic and racist language being disseminated by younger GOP activists nationwide has largely been fueled by a younger generation that follows extremist online influencers like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, and Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback.

It appears this has now spread to the Miami-Dade Republican Party.

In a disturbing series of group chat entries obtained by The Floridian, Miami GOP Secretary Abel Alexander Carvajal ran a group chat in which the N-word was used over 200 times and members celebrated the removal of an African-American activist from the FIU College Republicans.

Carvajal’s chat, titled “Uber Retards Yapping Inc.,” gives a shocking glimpse into the GOP’s younger element of college students who espouse hateful ideas. Even more concerning are the chat’s members: Carvajal, who is Secretary of the Miami-Dade GOP; Dariel Gonzalez, who is the FIU College Republicans Membership Director; and Ian Valdes, the FIU Turning Point chapter president.

For months, Carvajal created and served as the administrator of the chat. Many times he participated in the conversations. At no point did Carvajal close the chat or attempt to calm the narrative. He labeled his own control of the chat as “MaoTze Abel,” a joking reference to dictator Mao Zedong.

The chat goes beyond racist language. Sources have confirmed that Carvajal has recruited members of this racist and antisemitic element into the Miami-Dade GOP to serve as committeemen and committeewomen.

“Total Negro Death!” shouts Dariel Gonzalez, who has recently applied to become a GOP committeeman.

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Hegseth Brags of Mass Killings

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday boasted of the “death and destruction” the U.S. military can rain down on Iran, as reports say that U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have killed over 1,000 Iranian civilians in just four days.

Hegseth said at a press briefing that the U.S. and Israel should soon have “complete control of Iranian skies” and that it would mean “Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli airpower.”

“Every minute of every day until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long,” he added.

[As the Pentagon is reportedly seeking an additional $50 billion to wage its unauthorized war on Iran] Hegseth said the war wasn’t meant to be a “fair fight” and mentioned that the administration has loosened the rules of engagement for the military.

“Our war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight. And it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” he said.

Hegseth said that in the attack on Iran, which he has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” the U.S. military has “delivered twice the air power of ‘Shock and Awe’ in 2003,” referring to the massive bombing campaign that opened the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said at the conference that the U.S. had hit over 2,000 targets inside Iran so far.

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BRICS “Unit” May Bring the World One Step Closer to Global Currency

The BRICS alliance, originally formed in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa added in 2010, has evolved into a significant geopolitical and economic bloc. In a major expansion in 2024, the group welcomed four new members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Indonesia joined later, in 2025. This enlargement, referred to as BRICS+, now encompasses countries accounting for approximately 46 percent of the global population — more than 3.6 billion people — and about 35 percent of world GDP, surpassing the G7 in economic weight when adjusted for purchasing power parity. The expansion aims to amplify the group’s influence in global governance, challenge Western-dominated institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and promote multipolarity in international affairs.

Reducing Reliance on the U.S. Dollar

The motivations behind this growth stem from shared frustrations with the U.S.-led financial system, including vulnerability to sanctions and dollar dominance in trade. New members bring diverse strengths: The UAE contributes oil wealth and a financial hub, Iran adds strategic depth in the Middle East, and Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia represent resource-rich areas.

Amid this expansion, BRICS+ has pursued financial innovations to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar. A key development is the “Unit,” a prototype gold-backed digital settlement instrument unveiled in December 2025. Developed by the International Research Institute for Advanced Systems (IRIAS) in Russia, the Unit is not a full-fledged currency but a blockchain-based unit of account for cross-border trade and investments among BRICS+ nations. It is backed by a fixed reserve basket: 40 percent physical gold and 60 percent made of a weighted mix of BRICS currencies, including the Chinese yuan, Russian ruble, Indian rupee, Brazilian real, and South African rand. This structure echoes historical ideas such as John Maynard Keynes’ “bancor,” and may represent something even more consequential: a gradual shift away from a world in which a single national currency — the U.S. dollar — functions as the primary global reserve asset.

History of a Global Unit of Account

To understand the significance of this moment, it helps to look back to 1944 and the Bretton Woods conference. As economic journalist Ed Conway recounts in his book The Summit, British economist John Maynard Keynes proposed the creation of the aforementioned supranational currency called the “bancor.” Unlike the dollar-centered system that ultimately emerged, Keynes envisioned a global unit of account issued by an international clearing union. This bancor would not belong to any one country; it would be multinational, neutral, and designed to reduce global imbalances by discouraging both persistent deficits and persistent surpluses.

Keynes’ proposal was rejected. Instead, the postwar order placed the U.S. dollar at the center of the international monetary system — a national currency serving as a global reserve asset. Even after the collapse of the gold standard in 1971, the dollar retained its central role in trade settlement, commodity pricing, and sovereign reserves. For decades, that arrangement appeared stable. But the rise of China, the expansion of emerging markets, and the increasing use of financial sanctions have exposed structural tensions in a dollar-centric system. Countries subject to sanctions, or concerned about their vulnerability to dollar-clearing networks such as SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), have sought alternatives.

Recent BRICS discussions about cross-border payment systems, settlement in local currencies, and the creation of new financial instruments reflect a shared desire to reduce dependence on the dollar. Proposals for a digital, commodity-linked unit of account recall aspects of Keynes’ bancor: a reserve mechanism not tied exclusively to one sovereign state.

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