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.

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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They Track Every Dollar You Move. They Ignored $378 Million of Epstein’s.

Try to wire $15,000 to a foreign bank account sometime.

You’ll be asked to fill out compliance forms explaining the purpose of the transfer. Your bank’s compliance department will review the transaction. A Currency Transaction Report will be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. And depending on the bank, you may receive a follow-up phone call asking you to further justify why you’re moving your own money.

Try to open a bank account overseas and it gets even more fun. Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, every foreign bank on Earth is required to report American account holders to the Internal Revenue Service. The paperwork burden is so heavy that thousands of foreign banks have simply stopped accepting American clients altogether.

Deposit $10,000 in cash and the government automatically files a report. Split it into two deposits of $5,000 to avoid that report and you’ve committed a federal crime called “structuring” — punishable by up to five years in prison.

This is the financial surveillance infrastructure that every American lives under. It was built over decades, starting with the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970 and expanded massively by the Patriot Act after 9/11. We are told it exists to catch money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism financing, and financial crimes.

Yet over twelve years, Jeffrey Epstein moved $378 million across 270 wire transfers without a single flag.

Bank of New York Mellon — one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in America — processed every one of them. At least 18 were round-dollar $1 million wires in 2007 alone — textbook structuring.

The bank’s own compliance review could not identify a legitimate business purpose for any of the 270 transactions. And no Suspicious Activity Report was filed until 2019 — only after Epstein had been arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

More than a decade passed between when the transactions occurred and when regulators were notified.

This wasn’t an isolated case, either. Both JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank settled lawsuits related to their Epstein banking relationships. The pattern was identical: process the money, ignore the red flags, settle quietly later.

But while the banks were asleep, another arm of the government was not.

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So-Called ‘Moderate’ San Francisco Mayor Signs Ludicrous Reparations Scheme That Could Award Each Black Resident $5 MILLION

The People’s Republic of San Francisco has decided to enshrine race-based reparations into law with the help of their alleged ‘moderate‘ mayor.

As the Daily Mail reported, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie gave black residents of his city an early Christmas gift by signing a reparations bill that could grant each one of them a whopping $5 MILLION in reparations. The legislation was signed on December 23.

Per The Daily Mail, here is how this scheme will unfold:

The ordinance establishes a reparations fund, as recommended by the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC) in its 2023 report.

The legislation establishes the fund but does not allocate any money to it, setting up the framework for any future contributions, whether they be through the city or privately donated.

The AARAC is tasked with developing ‘recommendations for repairing harm in our black communities,’ according to its website. Per the 2023 report, every eligible African-American adult in San Francisco should be handed a $5 million lump sum to ‘compensate the affected population for the decades of harm that they have experienced.’

Approximately 50,000 black people live in San Francisco, and the qualifying requirements remain unclear.

This move also comes despite the city facing a whopping $1 billion budget deficit. But this did not deter Lurie in the slightest.

“For several years, communities across the city have been working with the government to acknowledge the decades of harm done to San Francisco’s black community,” Lurie wrote.

“While that process largely predates my administration, I am signing the legislation to create this fund in recognition of the work of so many San Franciscans and the unanimous support of the Board of Supervisors.”

Roughly a week before Lurie signed off on the plan, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted in favor of it.

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Beyond Oil: How The Iran War Could Send Food Prices Soaring

In the wake of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, the financial press has reflexively focused on oil. Tanker traffic, Brent crude, and the risk of triple-digit prices dominate the discussion.

But oil is not the only commodity posing a serious long-term risk.

Another deep vulnerability runs through natural gas—and from there into nitrogen fertilizer. If commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz were significantly restricted, the impact would extend beyond fuel markets. It would reach directly into global food production.

That’s because the Gulf region is not just a major energy exporter. It is one of the world’s most important suppliers of nitrogen fertilizer—the foundation of modern agricultural yields.

The Energy Behind the Food System

Nitrogen fertilizer begins with natural gas. Through the Haber-Bosch process, methane is converted into ammonia, which is then upgraded into urea and other nitrogen products. In practical terms, nitrogen fertilizer is natural gas transformed into plant food.

Roughly half of global food production depends on synthetic nitrogen. Without it, crop yields would decline sharply.

Globally, about 180 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizers are consumed each year (measured in nutrient terms). Of that, roughly 55 to 60 million metric tons of urea move through international seaborne trade annually. The Middle East accounts for approximately 40% to 50% of that traded volume.

And nearly all of those exports must transit the Strait of Hormuz.

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Europe Is Building a Digital Identity System for 450 Million People

The European Union is quietly constructing what may become one of the most sweeping digital identity systems ever attempted. Under new legislation, every EU member state must provide citizens with a government-approved “European Digital Identity Wallet” by 2026. This system will allow people to store official documents, verify identity, access government services, sign legal contracts, and potentially interact with financial institutions through a single digital platform. It is being marketed as a modernization effort designed to make life easier for citizens navigating an increasingly digital economy.

Supporters claim the digital wallet will simply replace physical paperwork. Instead of carrying passports, driver’s licenses, or other credentials, individuals will be able to verify their identity online with a government-issued digital key. The European Commission argues that this will streamline bureaucracy and allow citizens to interact with both public and private services more efficiently across all 27 member states.

Yet the implications extend far beyond administrative convenience. Once identity becomes centralized within a digital framework controlled or approved by government authorities, participation in everyday life increasingly depends on that system. Access to banking, employment verification, healthcare services, travel documentation, and legal contracts can all be integrated into the same identity infrastructure. What begins as a convenience quickly becomes a gateway through which access to modern society is managed.

Governments have always maintained population registries in one form or another. What makes digital identity systems fundamentally different is the speed and scale at which they operate. When identification becomes digitized and interconnected across borders, the ability to monitor economic and social activity expands dramatically. Identity verification can occur instantly, records can be updated in real time, and information can be shared between institutions with unprecedented efficiency.

This development becomes even more significant when viewed alongside other technological initiatives currently underway in Europe. The European Central Bank continues to explore the creation of a digital euro, a central bank digital currency that would exist entirely within electronic financial systems. If digital identity platforms and digital currency systems eventually intersect, financial activity and identity verification could become closely linked within the same infrastructure.

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UK Consults on Social Media Age Verification While Directing Parents to Report “Hate Speech” to Big Tech

The British government launched a consultation this week that could require age verification for anyone using social media, gaming sites, or AI chatbots.

The consultation, titled “Growing up in the online world,” opened on March 2nd and closes May 26, 2026. It asks the public whether the government should ban under-16s from social media entirely, impose mandatory overnight curfews on platform access, restrict AI chatbot features for minors, and require platforms to disable “addictive design features” like infinite scrolling and autoplay.

The government says it will respond in summer 2026, and Parliament has already handed ministers new legal powers to act on the findings without waiting for fresh primary legislation.

The Prime Minister announced those powers on February 16, weeks before the consultation even opened. The government can now move faster once it decides what it wants. What the public thinks determines the packaging, not the destination.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall framed it this way: “The path to a good life is a great childhood, one full of love, learning, and play. That applies just as much to the online world as it does to the real one.”

The actual policy tools being considered are a different matter.

Age verification, as a mechanism, works by proving identity. Every user proves who they are.

A social media platform that must exclude under-16s must verify the age of its over-16s. That means collecting identity documents, linking browsing activity to real identities, or building infrastructure that a government can later compel to serve other purposes.

The surveillance architecture required to enforce a children’s safety law is the same architecture required to surveil adults. It gets built for one reason. It gets used for others.

Then there’s the “Help your child stay safe online” campaign site, the government launched alongside the consultation. The site includes a page directing parents to report “bullying, threats, harassment, hate speech, and content promoting self-harm or suicide” directly to platforms, with links to the reporting tools of Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Twitch.

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Biden Autopen Investigation is Ongoing and NOT Closed

Fox News reported on Thursday that the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s autopen is ongoing – NOT closed – as previously reported by The New York Times, CBS News, and NBC News.

Fox News cautioned that Joe Biden is not the target of the investigation.

On Wednesday, The New York Times and other outlets, citing sources, reported that prosecutors in Jeanine Pirro’s office dropped the criminal case into whether Joe Biden’s aides unlawfully used the autopen to issue pardons.

According to Fox News, the Biden autopen investigation is ongoing.

Per Fox News: It is also clear that the target of any potential prosecution would NOT be former president Biden himself, “It’s hard to imagine how [Biden] could be criminally liable for pardon power,” said the senior DOJ official, describing that power as basically limitless.

The Oversight Project broke the story about the Biden autopen scandal wide open after they discovered thousands of acts of clemency and executive actions were signed with an autopen rather than a wet signature.

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Israel warns citizens abroad to avoid Chabad houses amid terror fears

The National Security Council warned Thursday of serious concerns over potential attacks against Israelis abroad, saying Iranian-linked actors and other groups may be attempting to target Israeli and Jewish sites overseas.

In a statement, the council said that since the start of Israel’s military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Roaring Lion, it has identified “a surge in motivation and an increase in terrorist activity and threats” by Iranian security bodies and affiliated groups to target Israelis and Jews worldwide.

The advisory said Iranian-linked actors were also attempting kinetic attacks in countries around Iran and across the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan, raising concerns about possible strikes against Israeli-related targets in those areas.

The council said several attempted attacks against Israelis had been foiled in recent days. It also warned of an increased threat from lone attackers.

According to the statement, a lone gunman opened fire March 1 in a nightlife district in Austin, Texas, in an attack linked to tensions surrounding U.S. strikes on Iran. In another incident on March 3, gunfire was reported at Jewish-related sites in Toronto, though the suspect had not been identified.

Israel first issued a warning to Israeli travelers abroad on Saturday, the day Operation Roaring Lion began. The updated advisory reiterated and expanded safety guidance for Israelis overseas, including a new warning regarding travel through the United Arab Emirates.

The National Security Council advised Israelis to avoid transit flights through the UAE until further notice. The existing travel advisory for the country remains at Level 3, indicating a moderate threat.

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Police Scotland HIDES True Scale Of Asylum Hotel Crimes Amid Fears of Violent Backlash

In yet another example of UK authorities protecting illegal immigrants over the country’s own citizens, Police Scotland has flat-out refused to disclose the number of police call-outs, crimes, and arrests at hotels housing asylum seekers.

This evasion comes as communities grapple with the fallout from open-border policies, where transparency takes a backseat to avoiding “heightened tensions” – tensions obviously fueled by those same policies.

The Scottish Daily Express submitted a straightforward Freedom of Information request seeking aggregated data on incidents at five specific locations: the Muthu Glasgow River Hotel in Erskine, McLays Guest House in Glasgow, The Watermill Hotel in Paisley, The Bruce Hotel in East Kilbride, and the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk. These sites, confirmed by police as housing ‘asylum seekers,’ have become flashpoints for public discontent.

Police Scotland’s response was to issue a blanket denial, wrapped in concerns over public safety. “Our understanding of the locations listed in your request is that they are currently, or have recently, been used to house homeless individuals, including refugees or asylum seekers,” the force stated.

But they went further, admitting past disclosures but now claiming a shift: “Whilst we have disclosed data for such premises in the past, we are increasingly aware of heightened community tensions regarding the use of such premises, particularly as connected to asylum/ immigration matters, and that means that the likelihood of harm from the disclosure of related data has increased significantly.”

The core justification boils down to this: “Furthermore, in the current climate it is our assessment that data regarding these premises has the potential to increase community tensions around these properties, which would not only require an increased police response but could also put individuals (police officers, residents and the wider public) at increased risk of physical harm.”

It’s a convenient excuse that dodges accountability while implying that the public can’t handle the facts.

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