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 Defense Contractors Raise Forecasts After Zelensky Meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with several US defense contractors this week, including Raytheon, GE, and Lockheed Martin. A few days later, major defense companies raised their full-year profit estimates significantly.

Spokespeople say that tariffs have no impact on demand for the defense industry. Naturally, Ukraine is seeking duty-free defense imports on defense products paid for by other countries.

Lockheed raised its profit forecast from $22.15–$22.35 per share, up from $21.70–$22.00. The revenue forecast increased to $74.25–$74.75 billion from the previous range of $73.75–$74.75 billion. CEO Jim Taiclet noted there is “unprecedented demand” for Lockheed’s F-35 fighters, CH-53K helicopters, and of course, the highly desired patriot missiles.

“We are investing aggressively in both new digital technologies and physical production capacity needed to meet the top defense priorities of the United States and its allies — and we are doing so in partnership with a number of leading technology partners, large and small,” Taiclet said in a statement.

“In Washington, I spoke with defense companies that produce Patriots and other weapons we need. The willingness to work with Ukraine is fully sufficient — Ukraine is trusted,” Zelensky said on Monday. “It is important that there be enough support for this at the political level in Washington.”

General Electric Aerospace (GE) increased revenue guidance from “mid-teens” to “high teens” in terms of percentage growth. Free cash flow is predicted to be $7.1 billion to $7.3 billion, which is around $1 billion higher than before the meeting with Zelensky. GE stock is already up over 80% YoY, with an 83% increase in deliveries of defense equipment.

Raytheon did not publicly comment on its specific EPS ranges but had a strong Q3. RTX adjusted its full-year earnings to $6.10 to $6.20 from $5.80 to $5.95 and also tacked on an additional ~$1 billion for its sales forecast.

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USDA to Resume Farmer Aid Distribution Halted During Govt Shutdown

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on Oct. 21 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will resume distributing aid for farmers frozen by the government shutdown.

In a statement on X, Rollins said the USDA will resume operations at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) on Oct. 23, which includes processing farm loans and managing federal aid programs for farmers across the country.

“President Trump will not let the radical left Democrat shutdown impact critical USDA services while harvest is underway across the country,” the secretary stated.

Rollins said in a subsequent post that financial aid for farmers totals more than $3 billion.

In an interview with Fox News that aired Oct. 21, Rollins said that President Donald Trump has directed the USDA to reopen FSA offices nationwide to allow farmers to access and cash their aid payments.

The secretary also revealed that the Trump administration was preparing an aid package for farmers affected by China’s refusal to buy soybeans from the United States amid trade negotiations.

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Democrats Dominate the Strawman King in Their Mind

Democrats had their party Saturday and…it doesn’t matter. Nothing came of it because nothing was supposed to come from it, the event was simply to make sure the left’s radical muscles don’t atrophy and the Brownshirts don’t turn on them. They need to keep their fringe simmering, events like that help them not boil over as quickly. Most importantly, they need to keep them from thinking, and there’s nothing like a good day of chanting a body odor to keep original thought at bay. 

I managed to avoid all coverage of it, and all news, until Sunday morning. “This Week” loved it like George Stephanopoulos loved Jeffrey Epstein (there’s something about those Clinton people and perverts, isn’t there?), but “Meet the Press” barely touched on it, instead opting for news. Granted, it was poorly done and biased, but it was at least relevant to an audience who wasn’t showerly challenged. 

Personally, I thought of the whole thing as how Democrats are now: the racist, segregationist trash they are – calling for an end to Martin Luther King they way they were. Well, there weren’t any exceptions, not even for MLK, so they must hate him, right? 

Actually, they do – they have rejected pretty much everything related to judging a person by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, haven’t they? That, to me, is more of a rejection of anything “King” related than what they claimed to be upset Donald Trump has done. 

Did you notice how the media cropped the pictures and video? It was either aerial shots or closely cropped pictures with very little activity in the background visible. MSNBC interviewed a lot of their own employees, aka “contributors,” on the streets marching around. This allowed them to give the impression they were covering the event, rather than covering for it. 

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Japan rejects US call to halt Russian energy imports

Japan’s Trade Minister Yoji Muto announced on 21 October that Tokyo will base its energy import decisions on national interests, resisting pressure from the US to stop purchasing Russian oil and gas.

While Muto stressed Japan’s autonomy, he also noted that “since the invasion of Ukraine, Japan has been steadily reducing its dependence on Russian energy,” according to Reuters.

His remarks followed a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, during which Bessent urged Japan to end all Russian oil and gas imports.

Muto stressed that Tokyo’s approach would balance energy security and diplomatic considerations. 

“We recognise that LNG from Sakhalin-2 plays an extremely important role in Japan’s energy security,” he said, noting that the Russian project supplies roughly three percent of Japan’s electricity generation.

Despite formally joining the G7’s price-cap scheme – which limits how much countries can pay for Russian oil – Japan has kept exemptions in place due to its reliance on Sakhalin-2 for energy security.

In September, Tokyo lowered its price ceiling on Russian crude from $60 to $47.60 a barrel – a symbolic step to match Europe’s tighter cap, despite Japan’s exemption.

The US has intensified its campaign to cut Russian energy revenues by pressing top buyers, namely Japan, India, and China, to scale back purchases. 

Washington argues that such steps would weaken Moscow’s ability to sustain its military operation in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, India also pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s claims that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to halt Russian oil imports. 

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India’s “import policies are guided entirely by the need to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer,” emphasizing that diversification and stable pricing remain central to New Delhi’s strategy.

Beijing similarly dismissed the US demands, calling them “a typical example of unilateral bullying and economic coercion.” 

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It’s now a crime in Switzerland to say skeletons can’t be trans

In December, Emanuel Brünisholz will begin a 10-day stint in a Swiss prison. His crime? Stating the scientific truth that skeletons cannot be transgender.

Brünisholz’s dystopian tale begins in December 2022. In response to a Facebook post by Swiss National Council member Andreas Glarner, Brünisholz, a wind-instrument repairman from Burgdorf, wrote: ‘If you dig up LGBTQI people after 200 years, you’ll only find men and women based on their skeletons. Everything else is a mental illness promoted through the curriculum.’

In August 2023, Brünisholz was interviewed by Burgdorf police, who interrogated him over the ‘intent’ of his comment. Then came a prosecutor’s letter, informing him that he had been charged with ‘hate speech’ against the relatively new category of sexual orientation in the Swiss Criminal Code. He was convicted and fined 500 Swiss Francs.

He appealed this conviction, but was unsuccessful. In December, a court reaffirmed the guilty verdict, and Brünisholz was ordered to pay an extra 600 Swiss Francs in court costs. Brünisholz, unwilling to throw more time and money at this ridiculous assault on his free speech, did not appeal further. He has since refused to pay his fines and court fees and, as a result, will go to prison.

The censorship of gender-critical speech and the accompanying assault on truth is bad enough. But the logical and linguistic contortions in the original judgement make matters even worse. In one passage, the judge wrote:

‘LGBTQI means lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, queer and intersex, and denotes therefore different sexual orientations. It’s a loose group of people who consider themselves a part of the aforementioned sexual orientations. Therefore, LGBTQI is a group of people with specific sexual orientations.’

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Radical Pennsylvania Bills Could Allow Public Funding Of Abortion Up To Birth

he Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee votes on a package of six bills Wednesday that will make it possible for pregnant Pennsylvania women to kill their unborn babies up to birth. It will also turn Pennsylvania into an abortion tourism destination, allowing women from states with stronger pro-life rules to kill their babies in Pennsylvania with no legal entanglements.   

Currently Pennsylvania bans abortion after 24 weeks (six months), though even then state law makes an exception “when the pregnancy poses a serious health risk or threatens the life” of the mother.

The main legislation is HB 1957, which aims to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution, making abortion a state constitutional right. HB 1957 would have to be approved by voters on a statewide ballot, and the committee hearing is the first step in that long process to amend the state constitution. First it must be approved in committee, then it moves to the House. The Pennsylvania House has a slight Democrat majority over Republicans, 102-101, so there is a good chance the constitutional amendment (and the entire six-bill package) will be approved by the committee and could pass the House.

The Republican-led Senate is less likely to approve the amendment, but if it did, the General Assembly would need to pass the proposed amendment again in the next legislative session, and it would then be placed on the ballot for statewide voter approval. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a strong and tacky proponent of abortion (often making cutesy posts about “protecting access”), would not be involved in the amendment process.

“They have no restriction on abortion in the language,” Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Legislative Director Maria Gallagher told The Federalist, speaking of measures. “These bills are incredibly bad for women and babies in Pennsylvania; they would do everything from establish taxpayer funding of abortion to establishing late term abortions, to taking away the 24-hour waiting period for abortion, to taking away the counseling requirements for abortion. And what that would mean, is that women would not be told the risks of abortion or alternatives to abortion before an abortion takes place. This is really turning back the clock on protections for pregnant women and their babies.”

The bills would return Pennsylvania to the Kermit Gosnell era, providing legal protections for abortionists and late-term abortions without restrictions. Gosnell was an abortionist who killed babies after they were born in his filthy Philadelphia abortion mill.

The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on HB 1957, the constitutional change, at 10 a.m. Wednesday, then vote on the full package of bills at 11 a.m.

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UN records 71 settler attacks in one week across occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers carried out 71 attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank between 7 and 13 October, according to a UN report published on 16 October.

The attacks, many of them armed, resulted in the death of one man and the injury of 99 others, as documented by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Most of the settler assaults hit farming areas just as the olive harvest began, affecting 27 Palestinian villages, with nearly half of all reported attacks tied to the harvest that started on 9 October.

In the town of Deir Jarir in east Ramallah, Israeli settlers and military forces jointly opened fire on residents after settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones, resulting in a 26-year-old man being shot dead, and two others being injured. 

The assault followed months of settler expansion in the area, including a new outpost and road connecting an Israeli military base to the village’s western entrance.

Two days later, settlers armed with rifles and sticks raided the village of Atara, also in the Ramallah governorate, attacking residents and opening fire on Palestinian vehicles. 

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CIVIL WAR? Trump Administration to Establish “National Guard Response Force” to be Mobilized for Mass Civil Unrest by April 2026

A new memo has been unearthed, showing that the Trump Administration is preparing to mobilize National Guard troops across the nation by April 2026 to stop potential uprisings amid the nationwide No Kings protests and violent anti-ICE protests in cities like Chicago, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon. 

This comes after the Trump administration won a lawsuit over the President’s deployment of National Guard troops in Portland to quell riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Trump has activated hundreds of California and Texas National Guard troops in Portland and Chicago, but was recently blocked by a Trump-appointed District Court Judge.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, on Monday, the Ninth Circuit allowed President Trump to deploy Oregon National Guard troops to Portland and said he “lawfully exercised his statutory authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3), which authorizes the federalization of the National Guard when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.””

In a separate case, Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to intervene and allow National Guard troops to be deployed in Chicago.

The new memo, obtained exclusively by investigative reporter Anthony Cabassa, outlines the planned implementation of a “National Guard Response Force” (NGRF), which will be used for crowd control and civil disturbance operations in all states, territories, and the District of Columbia.

Units of up to 500 troops will be trained to fully deploy within 24 hours in the case of a violent uprising or riot.

Troops will also be trained and equipped to use non-lethal weapons, including TASER/Oleoresin and Capsicum Spray, according to the memo.

The memo reads in part, “states will train, equip and make NGRFs operational NLT 1 April 2026. NGRFs are required in all 53 States and Territories. The District of Columbia has a unique solution set directed by the Secretary of War. NGRFs will train in civil disturbance operations and prepared to deploy approximately 25% of the force in 8 hours, 50% of the force in 12 hours, and the full response requirement in 24 hours.”

This provides insight into what the Trump Administration expects by spring, given the ongoing uprisings and left-wing insurrection in states across the nation.

Cabassa reports on Substack that a source told him the move is “not normal,” and they “have never seen an order like this before.”

“Hoping this is only to be safe and a precaution, and none of this will be used in a real scenario,” the source said, according to Cabassa.

“It also feels like leadership has intelligence or indications that something more significant could happen between January and May [of 2026]. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be pulling specialized … forces into a role [they] were never meant to fill.”

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‘Massive legal siege’ against social media companies looms

Thousands of plaintiffs’ complaints, millions of pages of internal documents and transcripts of countless hours of depositions are about to land in U.S. courtrooms, threatening the future of the biggest social media companies.

The blizzard of paperwork is a byproduct of two consolidated lawsuits accusing Snap Inc.’s Snapchat; Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram; ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok; and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube of knowingly designing their platforms to addict users — allegedly resulting in youth depression, anxiety, insomnia, eating disorders, self-harm and even suicide.

The litigation, brewing for more than three years, has had to overcome numerous hurdles, including the liability shield that has protected social media platforms from facing user-harm lawsuits. The social media companies have filed multiple motions to dismiss the cases on the grounds that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prevents them from being held accountable for content posted on their sites.

Those motions have been largely unsuccessful, and courtrooms across the country are poised to open their doors for the first time to the alleged victims of social media. The vast majority of cases have been folded into two multijurisdictional proceedings, one in state and the other in federal court, to streamline the pretrial discovery process.

The first bellwether trial is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court in late January. It involves a 19-year-old woman from Chico, California, who says she’s been addicted to social media for more than a decade and that her nonstop use of the platforms has caused anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. Two other trials will follow soon after, with thousands more waiting in the wings. If successful, these cases could result in multibillion-dollar settlements — akin to tobacco and opioid litigation — and change the way minors interact with social media.

“This is going to be one of the most impactful litigations of our lifetime,” said Joseph VanZandt, an attorney at Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery, Alabama, and co-lead plaintiffs’ attorney for the coordinated state cases. “This is about large corporations targeting vulnerable populations — children — for profit. That’s what we saw with the tobacco companies; they were also targeting adolescents and trying to get them addicted while they were young.”

Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle, makes a similar comparison to tobacco litigation in the Bloomberg documentary Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media. “In the case of Facebook, you have internal documents saying ‘tweens are herd animals,’ ‘kids have an addict’s narrative’ and ‘our products make girls feel worse about themselves.’ You have the same kind of corporate misconduct,” Bergman says in the film, which will be available to view on Bloomberg’s platforms on October 30.

Bergman’s firm was the first to file user-harm cases against social media companies, in 2022, after Frances Haugen, a former Meta product manager-turned-whistleblower, released a trove of internal documents showing the company knew social media was negatively impacting youth mental health. The first case, which is part of the consolidated federal litigation, alleged that an 11-year-old Connecticut girl killed herself after suffering from extreme social media addiction and sexual exploitation by online predators.

What set that case apart was how it got around Section 230’s immunity blanket. Bergman argued that his case wasn’t about third-party content, which the federal law protects. Instead, he said it hinged on the way social media companies were intentionally designing their products to prioritize engagement and profit over safety.

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FEMA politically discriminated against Americans under Biden: Report

Reports of FEMA disaster assistance teams in 2024 bypassing homes displaying signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump were true and were indicative of a pattern tracing back to Hurricane Ida in 2021, says an internal probe by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In addition, the 22-page analysis made available Tuesday says the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated the Privacy Act of 1974, treated individuals unfairly based on political beliefs, and these actions stemmed from systemic issues in FEMA policies, processes and practices.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said evidence is clear of “textbook political discrimination against Americans in crisis.”

“The federal government,” Noem said, “was withholding aid against Americans in crisis based on their political beliefs – this should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion. For years, FEMA employees under the Biden administration intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds.

“They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors’ political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior. We will not let this stand.”

Matt Taibbi was first to report the investigation’s conclusion on Monday. The Center Square on Monday was unsuccessful in obtaining a copy of the report before the Tuesday morning national release.

Evidence examined by the Privacy Office of Homeland Security included screenshots of FEMA’s tool to collect and maintain information for the purpose of disaster survivor assistance. The report says, “The entries within the tool clearly showed that canvassers included information related to political party affiliation, campaign signs, and other information that may be considered First Amendment-protected freedom of expression within the free-text notes section.”

And, it said, “In several instances, canvassers’ records indicate that canvassers skipped homes and left no disaster assistance flyers, citing the First Amendment-protected activity.”

A map of the United States includes instances in eight states between 2021 and 2024, with the testimony to Congress quote of former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell above it. She said, “I do not believe that this employee’s actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA.”

Marn’i Washington, fired from her position as a disaster survivor assistance crew leader for FEMA, on the Nov. 11 edition of the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show had confirmed homes skipped. She said it happened at homes not only with signs for Trump but also for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

She said it happened in Florida and the Carolinas. Hurricane Milton was one of three hurricanes to hit Florida in 66 days, and another was Helene that ravaged Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee – the most deaths and mostly costly damage coming in North Carolina.

On the Homeland Security report’s map, two notations for North Carolina include instances in October and November last year. The first says, “The survivor had a sign that read NRA, we do our part,” and the second said, “Survivor stated that homes have been damaged, but there are Republicans on the grounds with guns, so please be careful.”

A dot for Florida from October says, “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.” Another dot for November said, “There was a political flyer so I didn’t leave a FEMA brochure.”

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