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.

US Senate Passes Housing Bill With CBDC Ban Until 2030

The US Senate has passed housing legislation that includes a ban on the Federal Reserve creating or working on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) until 2030, which is expected to be quickly taken up and passed by the House.

The Senate on Monday voted 85-5 to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which aims to increase the housing supply after a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders reached a deal last week to move forward with the legislation. 

The bill has included a CBDC ban since the Senate first passed a version of the bill in March, which outlines that the Fed may not, directly or indirectly, “issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency.”

Crypto advocates have long criticized CBDCs, which they see as an attempt by governments to bring digital currency under central bank control, and the bill is set to be a win for Republicans who have for years attempted to ban CBDCs.

The bill will now be sent to the House for a vote, where it is expected to pass quickly with the deal struck by House leaders last week, before it’s then sent to the president to sign it into law.

The CBDC clause in the bill became wrapped into the housing package as a political sweetener to secure support from House Republicans and the administration for faster passage.

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FBI Makes Two More ARRESTS in Plot to Turn Trump’s White House UFC Event Into a Mass-Casualty Attack

A total of seven domestic terrorists are now charged in conspiracy to commit murder at the historic freedom celebration on the South Lawn.

Two additional radical men have been arrested since Friday in connection with a chilling plot to attack the June 14 UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.

The event, a star-studded, patriotic celebration of American freedom featuring President Donald Trump, UFC President Dana White, and top fighters on the South Lawn, was targeted by radicals intent on creating mass casualties.

William Lee Spartacus Falkner was arrested midday Friday, June 19. Falkner, of Belfair, Washington, is charged by criminal complaint in the Western District of Washington with conspiracy to commit murder.

He appeared in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Court documents indicate Falkner is trained in drone operations and discussed using drones armed with explosives in online communications with co-conspirators.

Jordan W. Rincker, 28, of St. Joseph, Missouri, was arrested Sunday, June 21. Rincker is charged by criminal complaint in the Western District of Missouri with conspiracy to commit murder.

He appeared in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. Prosecutors allege Rincker acted as a key logistical and financial supporter, including taking $1,200 from another charged individual to help fund and arm members of the plot.

These arrests bring the total to seven individuals now facing federal charges in the conspiracy. Last week, five others were arrested and charged:

  • Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio;
  • Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California;
  • Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California;
  • Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and
  • Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska.

According to the Justice Department and court documents, the group conspired to carry out a multi-phase terror attack on the packed UFC Freedom 250 event.

Their plan allegedly involved deploying explosive-laden drones over the North side of the venue to sow chaos and force an evacuation. Snipers were then to be positioned to fire on “high-value targets,” including government officials and politicians, as crowds fled the South Lawn. Some reports indicate additional plans to storm the White House grounds.

The FBI disrupted the plot days before the historic event after learning of the threat around June 10. A concerned parent reportedly alerted authorities, helping thwart what could have been a devastating attack on a patriotic gathering celebrating America’s 250th anniversary and President Trump’s milestone birthday.

Alvarez, who went by the name “Shepherd” in an encrypted messaging app, was allegedly “responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the planned attack, based on conversation excerpts in June,” according to the FBI and Department of Justice.

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Senate passes ‘meaningless’ Iran resolution as Trump closes in on lasting peace deal

The Senate has approved a House-passed resolution directing President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities in Iran as the White House works to negotiate a lasting settlement with Tehran.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 50 to 48 to approve the resolution, which cleared the House in a 215-208 vote a day prior. The measure directs Washington to remove U.S. armed forces from the country unless Congress authorizes further military action, as under the 1973 War Powers Act.

Since the resolution is a “concurrent resolution” it does not pass through the president’s desk for approval and carries disputed legal force. It does not have the force of law, however, despite the approval from both chambers.

The Act states that the U.S. Commander-in-Chief must alert Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops into hostilities. Once the notification is submitted, a 60-day period begins, during which the president must terminate the use of force.

Members of the Trump administration, however, clarified that the operation against Iran was already considered terminated as of the ceasefire agreement established by President Trump on April 7th.

Four Republicans voted for the measure: Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

The same four GOP senators voted last week in an effort to discharge a similar resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but it failed to advance due to attendance issues from Democrat members.

Notably, two GOP senators missed the vote: Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Both senators had previously voted multiple times against Iran powers resolutions.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) voted “no” on Tuesday after alleging that he was open to hearing arguments from both sides of the debate. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat member to join the majority of Republicans in voting against the measure.

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The Myth Of Price Controls

The Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel’s recent admission that Cuba’s generalized price caps failed to contain inflation, generated shortages, encouraged illegal markets, and reduced tax revenues is another confirmation of a much older economic lesson: price controls do not solve inflationary pressures, and they intensify the distortions they are meant to prevent.

The Cuban case is especially revealing because the criticism comes not from ideological opponents but from the regime that imposed the controls and later conceded their failure.

According to Díaz-Canel’s own remarks, price controls in Cuba produced the opposite of their intended effect: instead of stabilizing prices, they encouraged product scarcity, illegal-market activity, higher effective prices, and falling tax revenues. The government’s decision to eliminate price controls therefore amounts to an empirical acknowledgment that administrative decrees could not keep pace with economic reality.

This episode matters beyond Cuba because it captures the core mechanism of price control failure. When official prices are fixed below levels that would clear the market, legal suppliers reduce availability, quality deteriorate, and transactions migrate to informal channels where the real market price reappears, often with a premium for risk and scarcity. Thus, inflation is not abolished by decree but only transferred from the official statistics into queues, shortages, and the underground market.

The Austrian School of Economics has long argued that prices are not arbitrary numbers but indispensable signals coordinating dispersed knowledge across an economy. Ludwig von Mises claimed that intervening against market prices does not eliminate the underlying forces of supply and demand but rather creates secondary distortions that generate demands for additional intervention. Friedrich Von Hayek reminded us that market prices transmit information that no planner can centrally aggregate in real time, making administrative price fixing structurally destructive.

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“Did They Screw Pratt?” – Trump Goes Off on California’s Rigged Elections, Reveals How Steve Hilton Beat the Cheat

President Trump on Tuesday went off on California’s rigged elections while delivering remarks in Macungie, Pennsylvania, saying Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt got cheated and that California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton only won his race because the feds intervened. 

Trump responded to Pratt’s sham election earlier this month, saying, “Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost,” noting his massive 40,000 vote lead on election night. “3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” Trump continued. Trump has also said that Hilton only won because “there was too much heat on ’em” after robbing Pratt.

Trump was questioning California’s shady election rules, highlighting the law that a poll worker can be thrown in jail for a voting rights violation if they ask a voter to see their ID. And a voter’s identification “does not have to contain the voter’s address or be issued by a government agency,” according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

“How dare you ask me for my citizenship? Do you know in California, if you ask that question to a voter, you are criminally liable. In other words, they can put you in jail if you say, ‘Sir, you have proof of citizenship?’ They put you in jail if they ask that question. You’re not allowed to ask that,” Trump told the crowd. “Did you know that? It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen going on.”

Trump then went off on how they “screwed” Pratt. “It looked like he was going to win, or certainly be in the runoff, and then I started hearing rumors as the days went by, days and days went by, that Pratt is fading, he’s fading, I said they rigged the election,” Trump said. “And then lo and behold, he didn’t qualify, even though he was so far up.”

Trump further revealed that Trump-Endorsed California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton “was definitely going to lose” until the US Attorney called the election offices and opened an investigation into the fraud. “About an hour after the call,” Trump said, they announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hilton has won!”

“The election is totally rigged. California is totally rigged, all mail-in ballots, it’s a disgrace. We got to pass the Save America Act, okay?” Trump told the crowd.

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Trump Admin Kicks Off American Nuclear Renaissance With $17.5 Billion Loan Program For Reactor Projects

With hyperscalers set to spend roughly $800 billion on data-center capex this year alone, alongside reshoring and broader grid electrification, baseload power demand is poised to surge.

We have made the case that intermittent solar and wind are no match for the scale and reliability requirements of the modern economy, and that nuclear power is emerging as the clean, always-on power source needed to power the AI era.

The Wall Street Journal reports Tuesday morning that the Trump administration plans to supercharge the deployment of nuclear power with a $17.5 billion low-interest loan program to help utilities finance orders for Westinghouse Electric Co.’s AP1000 reactors.

The Energy Department, under Secretary Chris Wright, plans to make five loans available for two-reactor projects, with the goal of expediting equipment orders and cutting up to three years from construction timelines.

More from the report:

Seven utilities have already signed formal letters of intent for the five available project loans, according to the Energy Department, which didn’t name the utilities.

Wright said the plan to accelerate the deployment timeline of ten reactors will “unleash the next American nuclear renaissance.”

Those reactors “will also help accelerate the timeline of building those large-scale reactors by up to three years, lowering construction costs and ensuring the United States is able to deliver on President Trump’s bold and ambitious energy addition agenda,” Wright said.

The AP1000 reactors, which produce about 1,100 megawatts of power, are slated to come online in 2035 and will generate enough electricity to power a midsize city or a large data center.

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Antifa Terrorists Sentenced to 50 to 100 Years in Prison for Attack on Texas ICE Detention Center

Eight of the ten Antifa members convicted of terrorism charges for an attack on a Texas ICE detention center were sentenced to at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday.

The Antifa ringleader Benjamin Song was sentenced to 100 years in prison.

CBS News reported:

Eight people who were found guilty of terrorism-related charges earlier this year for a 2025 attack on an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, learned their punishments on Tuesday. One member of the group, identified as the group’s leader, was sentenced to a century in prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said on Monday that sentencing for the defendants would happen Tuesday morning. The verdicts, handed down in March, came as the defendants stood accused in the July 4, 2025, plot targeting the Prairieland ICE detention center following weeks of testimony from investigators, law enforcement and cooperating witnesses.

Benjamin Song was hit with the longest prison sentence: 100 years behind bars. Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Autumn Hill was sentenced to 50 years, along with Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris, and Elizabeth Soto. Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors said that the group launched a premeditated terror attack on the detention facility inspired by antifa ideology, by setting off fireworks, vandalizing property, and shooting at police officers who responded. One officer was struck in the neck with a bullet and survived.

In March, a jury found nine Antifa members guilty of terrorism charges in an attack on an ICE detention center in Texas.

The nine indicted defendants: Cameron Arnold, a/k/a Autunm Hill, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Song, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris, a/k/a Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada.

Last 4th of July, nearly a dozen Antifa members dressed in black bloc and body armor descended on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.

The terrorists fired off explosives, vandalized federal vehicles, and fired shots at police officers.

A police officer was shot in the neck.

The defendants were found guilty on riot charges, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive, three counts of attempted murder of an officer, three counts of discharging a firearm during a violent crime, corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents.

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Automakers Race Into Humanoid Robots As Timeline For Blue-Collar Job Disruption Emerges

Bernstein analyst Eunice Lee is out with a fascinating note explaining why automakers are making a mad dash into the world of humanoid robotics, arguing that their manufacturing scale, supply-chain depth, and years of investment in autonomous driving give them a structural lead in the emerging physical-AI market.

Lee writes that automakers are also seeking new revenue streams beyond the core vehicle business, with humanoids poised to move from factory floors into the physical world across retail, security, public service, and eventually homes.

From Tesla and Hyundai to XPeng, Xiaomi, BYD, Geely, and Chery, automakers are quickly moving beyond EVs and into humanoids through in-house development, acquisitions, minority stakes, and strategic partnerships. Lee said this trend became visible in China, where multiple OEM-linked robots were showcased at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show.

“OEMs are entering humanoid robotics to boost productivity and unlock new revenue streams,” Lee wrote in the note.

She noted, “Automakers have several advantages across hardware, software, and scale. There is significant overlap between vehicle and humanoid components—motors, reducers, sensors —as well as manufacturing.”

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California-Based Biden Judge Issues Nationwide Block on ICE’s Policy of Arresting Illegals at Courthouses

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a nationwide block on ICE’s policy of arresting illegal aliens at courthouses.

California-based US District Judge Casey Pitts, a Biden appointee, ruled that ICE cannot detain illegal aliens at immigration courts.

The Supreme Court previously ruled that federal district courts lack the statutory authority to issue nationwide injunctions.

However, Judge Pitts says he was able to issue a nationwide injunction in this case because the plaintiffs satisfied the requirements for class certification.

In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

“It is the policy of the United States to faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens, particularly those aliens who threaten the safety or security of the American people. Further, it is the policy of the United States to achieve the total and efficient enforcement of those laws, including through lawful incentives and detention capabilities,” Trump said in his executive order.

Judge Pitts vacated the Trump Administration’s policy targeting illegal aliens at courthouses.

“For 80 years, Congress has commanded federal agencies to think before they act,” Judge Pitts wrote in a 70-page opinion. “That instruction—codified in the Administrative Procedures Act—does not require an agency to make the choice that a reviewing court might deem preferable.”

“Because the record before the Court demonstrates that ICE and EOIR failed to provide reasoned explanations for their actions, the Court concludes that each of the challenged policies is arbitrary and capricious in contravention of the APA,” the judge said.

This is the second time Judge Pitts has blocked the Trump Administration from making arrests at immigration courthouses.

Earlier this year, Judge Pitts blocked ICE from making arrests in his district in the Northern District of California.

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California Residents Sue Gas Stations Alleging AI Price Fixing

Three California residents are suing a fuel pricing company and several gas station operators, alleging that they use artificial intelligence-based pricing systems to raise gasoline prices in an uncompetitive manner.

“Californians are being forced to pay surcharges that cannot be explained by crude oil costs, refining costs, environmental regulation, or taxes,” said the June 22 class action lawsuit, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.

“Part of the cause of California’s astronomical fuel prices is an illegal algorithmic price-fixing scheme orchestrated by the algorithmic pricing company Kalibrate and some of the state’s largest fuel retailers.”

The company’s Kalibrate Fuel Pricing software, an algorithmic, AI-based pricing system, “connects directly to gas stations’ pumps and signs. Instead of lowering prices to attract drivers, Kalibrate Fuel Pricing relies on the data of competing gas stations to coordinate high prices and wring more money from the pockets of consumers throughout the state,” the lawsuit states.

This is contradictory to historical trends where gas stations have competed to secure customers by “aggressively undercutting” retail prices, the lawsuit said.

The “artificial surcharge” from the algorithmic pricing scheme inflicts a “severe, daily financial toll” on millions of Californians, the lawsuit said. For people whose livelihoods are tied to road transport, such as truck drivers, the higher gas prices eat into their incomes.

According to data from the American Automobile Association, a gallon of regular gasoline costs $5.56 on average in California as of June 23, the highest in the country.

A month ago, prices were at $6.11 per gallon amid US-Iran war tensions. A year ago, prices were still close to $5 at $4.66 per gallon.

California’s current gasoline price of $5.56 per gallon is more than $1.6 higher than the $3.92 national average.

In their lawsuit, the defendants said that Kalibrate Fuel Pricing even has a feature that enables almost all gas stations in a market to raise gasoline prices simultaneously.

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