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.

The Fourth Turning Global War Has Already Bankrupted America — And Nobody’s Counting the Bodies

The numbers came in just after dawn on the East Coast, and they told a story that no amount of White House spin could obscure. Oil futures had stabilized at $86 per barrel overnight—a figure that would have seemed catastrophic eighteen months ago but now represented a temporary reprieve from the $119 spike that had crippled global markets in April. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that emergency backstop established after the 1973 crisis, had fallen to 305 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983. The Congressional Budget Office quietly released its revised deficit projections: $2.3 trillion for fiscal year 2026, with another $1.8 trillion locked in for 2027 before accounting for the war’s accelerating costs, currently running at $1 billion per day with no exit strategy visible on any horizon.

This is not a recession. This is not a “period of heightened geopolitical tension.” This is the systematic dismantling of the global economic architecture that has sustained Western prosperity for eighty years, compressed into a timeframe too brief for institutional adaptation. We are witnessing, in real-time, the transition from a unipolar American-led order to a fragmented multipolar system, and the violence of that transition is being measured not just in body counts—though those are mounting in ways the Pentagon refuses to fully disclose—but in the erosion of strategic leverage that cannot be recovered once spent.

The Fourth Turning Global War has entered its terminal phase, and the metrics suggest we are only beginning to comprehend the depth of the strategic trap into which American policy has walked.

To understand the present crisis, one must first abandon the comforting narrative of accidental drift—the notion that policy errors and miscalculation have led to the current impasse. The data suggests something more troubling: a decoupling of strategic decision-making from national interest calculation, producing outcomes that serve no identifiable American objective while advancing the interests of regional actors with disproportionate influence over U.S. policy formation.

Consider the timeline with the precision of a military after-action report. On February 27, 2026, the United States initiated a surprise decapitation strike against Iranian leadership while Israeli envoys maintained ostensible negotiations in Geneva. The strike eliminated Iran’s military command structure and political leadership in a forty-eight-hour bombardment that the White House initially projected would conclude within “four to five weeks.” That projection, made on March 1, has now stretched to month five with no conclusion visible. The Strait of Hormuz, through which twenty percent of global petroleum flows, has been effectively closed since mid-March. Iranian ballistic missile strikes, utilizing Chinese targeting data and Russian satellite intelligence, have damaged or destroyed every major U.S. installation in the Persian Gulf, including Al Udeid in Qatar, Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia, and the naval facilities at Bahrain.

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James Talarico Refuses Questions After Report Finds He Voted Five Times Using Parents’ Address

Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico is refusing to answer questions about his residency and voting history after publicly demanding that Republican opponent Ken Paxton answer questions about allegations concerning his conduct.

Talarico’s campaign promoted an ad on X writing,

“Ken Paxton is refusing to answer basic questions about his corruption and criminal record.

Texans are demanding answers. What are you hiding, @KenPaxtonTX?” 

The challenge comes as The Texas Tribune and ProPublica reported that Talarico voted in five elections using his parents’ address after buying a home about six miles away in June 2022, and did not update his voter registration until September 2024. His campaign declined to answer questions about when he began living at the home he owns, instead citing “credible threats” from “right-wing actors” trying to locate Talarico and his family. The outlets noted that Texas law requires residents to register to vote where they live, but Texas ethics attorney Andrew Cates described the residency provisions as “broad and vague,” stating that prosecuting such cases would require proof that a voter knowingly or intentionally broke the law.

Breitbart News reported July 28 that Paxton said Talarico committed election fraud after reports raised questions about whether he had satisfied residency requirements before running for his Texas House seat. “James Talarico has proven he has zero regard for Texans and the rule of law,” Paxton said. “He’s been lying to voters and shamelessly committing election fraud to hold onto power.” Talarico’s campaign maintained that he lives and is registered at the north Austin home he purchased in 2022.

The issue followed Talarico to Arlington this week.

After delivering a policy speech there, Talarico did not take questions from reporters, according to CBS News Texas.

A separate video posted by RNC Research shows a man approaching Talarico and asking, “Why did you commit voter fraud?” A Talarico staffer then takes the man’s phone and turns it off.

Paxton’s campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy told Breitbart News exclusively, “Talarico has been spoon-fed easy questions by the media throughout his entire time in office and is now refusing to answer credible questions about how he committed voter fraud. Talarico has spent his campaign flip-flopping and lying to Texans with zero accountability. Talarico must answer for defrauding his constituents by falsely claiming to live at his mother’s house.”

Paxton, meanwhile, shared a photograph showing him taking questions from a crowd of reporters during the announcement of his “Protecting the Texas Promise” agenda.

Talarico’s campaign has previously invoked “right-wing operatives” while responding to scrutiny involving the candidate. The New York Times reported that Talarico is dating health care lobbyist Brianna Menard, his former chief of staff, and that the relationship began while she worked as a top aide to him. “Four years ago, after he and his then-chief of staff developed feelings for each other and started dating, she left the office to pursue other opportunities,” Ennis said. “As right-wing operatives continue to attack James’s loved ones, the campaign is asking the public to respect Brianna’s privacy as a private citizen.” Texas House rules do not prohibit lawmakers from having relationships with lobbyists or staff members, according to the Times.

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The Countries That Will Pay for the UN Tax Experiment

A United Nations proposal would replace the current system of taxing each multinational subsidiary separately with a global unitary tax system. A corporation’s worldwide profits would first be combined into one total and then divided among countries according to a formula measuring where it employs workers and where its customers purchase goods and services. Each country would apply its own corporate tax rate to the portion assigned to it, regardless of where the company legally reported the profit.

Tax Justice Network estimates that this reallocation would produce an additional $500 billion in annual corporate tax revenue worldwide. It would be redistributed among governments, creating major winners while stripping revenue from countries whose economies currently benefit from corporate headquarters, intellectual property, financial services, or low-tax structures.

Ireland would suffer one of the largest losses, surrendering an estimated $11.15 billion annually, or 81.9% of the multinational corporate tax revenue measured by the study. Hong Kong would lose $9.37 billion, or 75.7%; Singapore $8 billion, or 69.2%; Switzerland $5.43 billion, or 42%; the Netherlands $3.16 billion, or 28.4%; and Malta $3.04 billion. Bermuda would lose $489 million, the British Virgin Islands $496 million, Puerto Rico $547 million, Jersey $510 million, and Mauritius $152 million.

These jurisdictions currently tax profits that multinational corporations book within their borders despite having relatively little employment or customer activity there. The UN formula would disregard where those profits are legally reported and redistribute them toward countries where the company’s workers and customers are located.

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University of Michigan to Bury Grades for First Year Students Starting in 2027 to ‘Curb the Mental Health Crisis’

Starting in 2027, the University of Michigan is changing from letter grades to system of pass or incomplete for first year students, claiming that they are doing it to ‘curb’ the mental health crisis.

If you can’t handle getting a letter grade that you don’t like, maybe you are the problem. Maybe you’re just not ready for college.

This is just more coddling, safe space nonsense that higher education has become known for in recent years.

Campus Reform reported on this:

UMich to bury first-semester grades in bid to ‘curb the mental health crisis’

The University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) will stop reporting traditional letter grades on first-semester transcripts for incoming freshmen beginning in Fall 2027, replacing them with “pass” or “no credit” designations as part of a pilot program aimed at reducing student stress and curbing a “mental health crisis”.

Students will still earn letter grades and receive instructor feedback in every course. However, those grades will remain internal, will not appear on official transcripts, and will not affect first-semester GPAs.

University officials say the policy is intended to help freshmen transition to college, support student well-being, and encourage students to take academically challenging courses without worrying that one difficult semester could permanently affect their records.

”We believe that covering grades will help students start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the policy page states.

The school argues the program will shift students’ focus from grades to learning by promoting collaboration over competition and allowing freshmen to explore unfamiliar subjects without fear of damaging their GPAs.

America desperately needs more young people to go to trade schools and learn to fix things. Mike Rowe has been sounding the alarm about that for years.

If college students want less stress, they should consider learning to weld or becoming a plumber. The income will be better and there will be less student loan debt involved.

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The Old Are Volunteering the Young for War

According to the European Council on Foreign Relations, support for mandatory military service reached 62% in France, 53% in Germany, and 51% in Poland. Yet the most revealing numbers appear when the German results are divided by age, because net opposition among those aged 18 to 29 reached 46%, while net support among respondents over 70 stood at 49%.

The people safely beyond military age are volunteering the young for war. They will not receive the draft notice, undergo the medical examination, surrender their careers, or be ordered into a trench. They will watch the war on television while congratulating themselves for supporting “national service,” as if clicking yes in a poll were an act of personal courage.

There is something profoundly immoral about demanding a sacrifice that you will never be required to make. If those over 70 believe so passionately in military service, governments can create senior battalions and hand them the rifles first. Let the politicians, retired bureaucrats, television commentators, and comfortable academics who preach war demonstrate their convictions personally before they conscript an 18-year-old who wants nothing to do with their geopolitical fantasies.

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Chris Cuomo Tries to Play Dumb on DSA Radicals: ‘Who’s a Communist?’

During a conversation about the rise of the DSA on NewsNation, Chris Cuomo tried to play dumb, asking Bill O’Reilly, ‘Who’s a communist?’

O’Reilly schooled him and you can read and watch their exchange below.

This is an important moment to remember. From now until November, there will be numerous exchanges like this one, where a liberal media type will completely downplay the DSA, their goals, and their own words.

Multiple high ranking members of the DSA are on camera saying that communism is the ultimate goal of their movement.

Transcript via NewsBusters:

CHRIS CUOMO: Look, we see this all the time, which is: in the primary, we hate each other, but then when it’s against the other guys, especially in this toxic to some that are talk, party politics is we got to come together. Because the last thing we want is, you know, as Democrats would say, is another Trumper, especially in a blue seat. So, I don’t understand that motivation.

BILL O’REILLY: Then I will enlighten you.

CUOMO: Please.

O’REILLY: There’s hasn’t been, in my lifetime, a movement as radical as a Bernie-Sanders-led progressive movement. This took me by surprise on – Two years ago, if you were to say ‘Hey, there’s going to be a big communist element and it’s going to get traction.’ I would have went, ‘what are you talking about Albania?’

CUOMO (interrupting): But who’s a communist? Who’s a communist? Who? Who’s a columnist?

O’REILLY: The means of production is what people like Mamdani want to control. All you got to do is look it up. Okay, the means of production. They wants to control that

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Denmark Is Drafting Its Youth for Europe’s Manufactured War

Reuters reports that 1,600 Danish recruits began an expanded 11-month term of military service on August 3, up from only four months under the previous system. Denmark has extended conscription to women, plans to increase the annual intake from roughly 5,000 to 7,500 by 2033, and will send conscripts to Greenland for the first time. Europe is not preparing for peace. It is preparing an entire generation for a war its political class refuses to prevent.

The new Danish program requires five months of basic training followed by six months of operational service. New tracks include drone warfare, and more than 100 conscripts will be sent to Greenland to assume military duties previously performed by professional soldiers. The government calls this security. I call it the gradual conversion of ordinary citizens into military assets for politicians who have spent years escalating every dispute they could have negotiated.

Denmark still uses volunteers before filling vacancies through a lottery, but a lottery backed by state coercion is still conscription. Every healthy man and woman who turns 18 enters a system that can seize nearly one year of life because politicians in Copenhagen, Brussels, and NATO have decided that Russia represents a permanent threat. When voluntary recruitment no longer supplies enough bodies, the meaning of “service” will become much clearer.

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Public Restroom in Los Angeles That Cost $1 MILLION to Build, Still Not Open Six Months After Completion

The city of Los Angeles spent a million dollars building a public restroom and six months after its completion, it’s still not open to the public.

This is a perfect example of government mismanagement. It also explains why it has been so difficult to rebuild there after the wildfires that happened over a year and a half ago. The city and state are drowning in red tape that comes in the form of permits and inspections.

To add irony to the situation, this restroom is in the district of Nithya Raman, the DSA candidate running for mayor of the city.

The New York Post reports:

Six months after completion, $1M Runyon Canyon restroom in Nithya Raman’s district still closed

Los Angeles hikers are fuming over a nearly $1 million public restroom that remains locked and fenced off six months after it was installed at Runyon Canyon.

The two-stall prefabricated facility was delivered by crane in February near the popular park’s Fuller Avenue entrance following months of controversy over its eye-popping price tag.

But despite the stalls, sinks, sidewalks and lighting appearing to be in place, visitors still can’t use it.

“I’ve had some close calls. I had to improvise, but that’s all I’ll say. I don’t want to incriminate myself,” frequent Runyon Canyon visitor Josh told FOX 11.

Construction began in January and was expected to take about 15 weeks, according to the Council District 4 website, which would have put completion around April or May.

The city later said the restroom was expected to open sometime this summer.

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Conservative National Review Urges Trump Impeachment Over Latest Grift

On Wednesday, the National Review – the preeminent conservative magazine since 1955 — called it: President Donald Trump has done the “impeachable.”

“There is no plausible defense of Trump’s TruthSocial scheme,” declared National Review Senior Editor Charles Cooke. “It is flagrantly corrupt. It is impeachable. Congress should intervene. (It won’t, I know.)” He posted this assertion over his latest article, entitled “Truth Social’s Early-Access Scheme Is Indefensible.”

As he explains, over the weekend, the Trump Media & Technology Group announced the creation of a “real-time feed on the Truth Social website that will give paying institutions early access to certain high-profile posts for between $60,000 and $100,000 per month.” Cooke doesn’t hold back with his assessment of the scheme, writing, “There is no credible defense of this. The only reason that anyone would want priority access to Truth Social is to gain priority access to President Trump’s pronouncements on that platform. And the only reason that anyone would want priority access to President Trump’s pronouncements on that platform is to act on them for pecuniary gain.”

As Cooke elaborates, “Trump often uses Truth Social as the primary forum for his announcements — announcements that include changes to personnel, the imposition or rescission of tariffs, key foreign policy decisions, and more. These announcements are extremely useful to financial institutions, and, in the age of high-speed trading, the faster those financial institutions can obtain them, the more money those financial institutions can make. Facilitating this access is not a byproduct of Truth Social’s API offering; it is its core — perhaps its sole — purpose. Simply put: President Trump is charging Americans a fee — a fee that, in part, goes into his family’s pockets — for the privilege of receiving news about his official actions earlier than those who do not pay.”

According to Cooke, it is “obvious how unequivocally corrupt this setup is. Technically speaking, the beneficiaries will not gain the information they seek directly from Trump himself, but indirectly, via an API (Application Programming Interface) whose output will be processed by a bunch of semi-autonomous servers and acted upon according to a set of predetermined parameters. But the results will be the same as if Trump had personally picked up the phone.”

He continues, “Good traders do not react to the news on the fly; they have plans of action, which are to be implemented if a war starts or ends, if taxes are raised or cut, if the Federal Reserve’s next chairman is expected to be hawkish, dovish, or somewhere in between, and so on. If, instead of using Truth Social as the middleman, President Trump announced that, for a hefty annual charge, he would call a select group of brokers at the stock exchange to inform them of his important decisions, and thereby give them a head start in executing their plans, we would call that what it is: corruption. Why not here?”

Here Cooke concludes in rare agreement with Democratic lawmakers, writing, “Senators Warren and Schiff have described Trump’s plan as ‘an outrageous abuse of the President’s office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets, while enriching Wall Street and other wealthy insiders.’ They are correct… It is certainly a grave offense against honesty, transparency, and good government. If it has any self-respect, Congress will respond to the president’s brazen provocation by passing a law that renders his model flatly illegal. And, if that fails to persuade him, it will impeach and remove him from office, the better to drain the swamp.”

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The Normalcy of American Wars

The war in Iran is unlawful and unconstitutional, but in post-World War II America, it is normal. Here is the backstory.

When President Donald Trump decided to begin bombing Iran last June, he did not state a coherent or lawful reason for doing so. His director of national intelligence and his own CIA had publicly told him that Iran did not possess a nuclear weapon and had ceased building one in 2005.

His secretary of state told him that Iran and Israel had threatened each other, but he could not articulate how Iran imminently threatened the United States. Yet, since Israel planned to attack Iran, he wanted the U.S. to help Israel do so. This was not a lawful request as the U.S. has no treaty with Israel and, under treaties to which the U.S. is a party, the legal bases for all offensive wars can only be treaty compliance or prevention of an imminent attack.

When Trump addressed the nation, his helter-skelter rationale argued for replacing Iran’s government, destroying its civilian-use enriched uranium, destroying its ability to build a bomb it wasn’t building, and neutralizing its offensive and defensive weaponry. None of these goals was lawful; nor was attacking a Tehran girls school. There was no mention of an imminent attack on the U.S. or the economic effect of war on the vital international oil super-highway, the Strait of Hormuz.

No one in Trump’s inner circle registered disagreement, except his vice president and his director of counterterrorism. They told him there was no legal or constitutional basis for his war.

They were correct, but Trump had history on his side.

For much of American history, presidents have steadily accumulated the power to wage war while Congress has gradually surrendered the constitutional authority that the Framers explicitly entrusted to it. This transformation has weakened constitutional checks and balances, expanded executive power beyond its constitutional limits, claimed millions of lives, cost trillions of dollars, and repeatedly drawn the United States into conflicts that had little or nothing to do with defending America.

The Constitution is remarkably clear on the question of war. Article I grants Congress · not the president · the power to declare war. The president, under Article II, wages war, but only after Congress has authorized it.

James Madison argued that the executive branch is the branch “most interested in war, and most prone to it,” which is precisely why the Constitution deliberately divided the war power.

The Framers believed that no single individual should possess the authority to plunge the nation into armed conflict, yet over the past eight decades, presidents of both political parties have steadily ignored these constitutional limits.

President Harry Truman committed hundreds of thousands of American troops to combat in Korea without obtaining a declaration of war from Congress because he said U.S. troops there constituted a “police action.”

The pattern only intensified during the Vietnam War. Although Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, it was based on a fraud and effectively delegated its congressional constitutional responsibility to the president. The result was years of escalating conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese while achieving none of its stated objectives.

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