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 National Security Probe Targets Wind Industry

The Commerce Department just opened a Section 232 “national security” probe into imported wind turbines and parts—quietly on Aug. 13, publicly today. That matters because 232 isn’t a press release; it’s a legal on-ramp to more tariffs on top of the new 50% duty already applied to the steel and aluminum content in turbines and components.

Here’s the operational read: the U.S. wind build is heavily import-dependent for blades, drivetrains, and electrical systems. In 2023, the U.S. brought in about $1.7B of wind equipment, with roughly 41% from Mexico, Canada, and China. If you tax the metal inside the machine—and potentially layer more 232 duties later—you squeeze project profit margins, renegotiate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs—long-term contracts to sell the power), or delay FIDs. None of those outcomes lowers your Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE—think of it as the average lifetime price per unit of electricity once you add up all the costs).

Wood Mackenzie pegs the tariff bite at +7% for turbine costs (+5% total project costs) under the earlier tariff proposals; in a universal 25% tariff scenario, turbine costs could rise ~10% and LCOE up ~7%. And that was before Commerce slapped a 50% surcharge on the steel/aluminum content—so the floor just moved higher. Expect original equipment manufacturers to reroute supply chains, localize sub-assemblies, and raise prices anyway. Vestas has already said the quiet part out loud: these costs flow straight through to electricity prices.

Don’t confuse this with an offshore-only story. Onshore wind is where the bulk of U.S. volume lives, and it’s far more sensitive to every $/kW swing, gearbox delivery delay, and tower steel price jump. Section 232 is also being deployed against other “critical” imports (planes, chips, pharma), so wind isn’t a one-off carve-out—it’s part of a broader, durable trade posture that project finance now has to underwrite.

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Another Mexican Politician Facing U.S. Federal Fraud Charges

A Mexican politician is out on bond as he faces federal fraud charges in Texas for allegations that he used COVID-era loans to buy cryptocurrency. The politician, his wife, and various other South Texas business owners are accused of obtaining fraudulent loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were intended to support failing businesses, but were instead used for personal gain.

Court records revealed that 46-year-old Bernando Gomez Jr. and his wife, 42-year-old Lesley Chavez, allegedly took out nearly $200,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic and then used them for personal expenses, including buying cryptocurrency. Gomez, who lives in Edinburg, Texas, is a sitting city councilman in the Mexican City of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, where he serves as a close advisor to local Mayor Miguel Angel Almaraz.

Court documents indicate that Gomez and Chavez own several entertainment and service businesses, including a wedding planning service, a rental company, and a print shop.

Federal prosecutors allege that in June 2020 and May 2020, they obtained a series of government loans through the Small Business Administration aimed at helping businesses survive the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government then forgave those loans after the business owners allegedly filed documents claiming that the money had been used for legitimate purposes such as paying employees and other similar expenses. After receiving those three loans, totaling $150,000, $40,800, and $20,800, they transferred the funds to different accounts, which they then used for personal expenses and, in the case of Gomez, to purchase cryptocurrency.

After their arrests, both Gomez and Chavez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker, who set their bonds at $100,000. Both have been released as they await trial.

Gomez is currently a member of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN), one of the major opposition parties in Mexico that has been at odds with the current ruling party, MORENA.

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Admin To Revoke DEI-Related NIH Grants

The Supreme Court voted 5–4 on Aug. 21 to allow the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The new ruling clears the way for the funding reductions while litigation over the grants continues in the lower courts.

The justices filed five separate opinions explaining their votes.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted to allow the grants to be cut.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Chief Justice John Roberts voted to deny the government’s request to rescind the funding.

The high court said it acted because the federal government faces the possibility that the grant monies, once paid out, may not be recovered.

Moreover, “the plaintiffs do not state that they will repay grant money if the Government ultimately prevails.”

The case is known as National Institutes of Health v. American Public Health Association.

The Department of Justice filed an emergency application with the nation’s highest court late last month, asking the justices to block a ruling by Boston-based U.S. District Judge William Young, who found the cancellation was unlawful and ordered the government to restore the funding.

NIH began taking steps in February to end the grants that conflict with President Donald Trump’s policy priorities.

The NIH is the world’s largest government funder of biomedical research.

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Journalist defends an illegal immigrant accused of child sexual assault

David Pérez-Teofani, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, was arrested on August 20, 2025, near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., after attempting to flee from federal agents. The arrest was captured in a viral video and took place shortly after President Trump declared a public emergency due to rising crime in the capital, which resulted in a massive deployment of federal agents and the National Guard throughout the city.

Pérez-Teofani had previously been charged in January 2024 in Fairfax County, Virginia, with aggravated sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl, among other related charges. However, the charges were dismissed when the victim and her mother stopped cooperating with authorities. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Pérez-Teofani had entered the United States illegally on three occasions and defied a final deportation order, despite having voluntarily returned to Mexico twice before.

The case has drawn criticism toward local prosecutors for their handling of serious accusations involving illegal immigrants. The Fairfax County prosecutor’s office emphasized the difficulty of prosecuting such cases without the cooperation of the victim, noting that the charges could be reinstated if the victim decides to proceed in the future.

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Ghislaine Maxwell Says She Does NOT Believe Epstein Committed Suicide in DOJ Interview

In newly released transcripts from Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell was revealed to not believe the narrative that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.

Still, she stated that she doesn’t believe somebody “murdered to keep him quiet or because he had information on rich and powerful people.”

“I also think it’s ludicrous, because… they would’ve had of opportunity when he wasn’t in jail,” She said. “And if they were worried about blackmail or anything from him, he would’ve been a very easy target.”

However, when asked, “if you don’t believe that there’s any truth to the allegations of blackmail or that he had kind of a list, or that he had reasons to have people hate him, why would somebody kill him in prison?” Maxwell initially avoided the question. “In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay — somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That’s about the going rate for a hit with a lock today,” she said.

She later stated, “of course it’s possible” that somebody outside of the prison ordered his murder, “but I don’t know of any reason why.”

The official government line is that Epstein killed himself in a facility known for its stringent security measures, while the guards failed to do mandatory checks on Epstein. The guards were also asleep, falsified records to cover their negligence, and the cameras were reportedly not working.

The New York City medical examiner concluded that Epstein died by suicide via hanging. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, however, Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist hired by Epstein’s family, observed the autopsy and noted injuries more consistent with homicidal strangulation, including fractures of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage. Patel also dismissed this evidence, saying he’d never seen it!

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The Number of Housing Units Under Construction Continues to Crash

What’s the impact on rent?

Decline from Post-Covid Peak

  • Total Units: 20.7 percent
  • Single-Family: 25.2 percent
  • Multi-Family: 27.3 percent

The decline puts the number of single-family units under construction near the middle of a very wide range of 236,000 on the low end and 990,000 on the high end.

However, the number of multi-family units under construction is still enormous historically speaking.

Impact on Rent

For three years, the consensus opinion (not mine) was that rent prices would collapse.

That didn’t happen although the rate of increase in the price of rent has slowed dramatically.

However, Trump sealing off the Southern border from immigration, could soon start having a positive impact (lower rents) if builders started too much immigration-based construction.

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“Chicago Will be Our Next” – Trump Says Chicago, New York, San Francisco Crime Crackdown Incoming and Democrats are Calling Him for Help

President Trump on Friday signaled that he is not stopping his crackdown on crime in Washington, DC, and told reporters that he plans to clean up Chicago, San Francisco, and potentially more Democratic cities across the country.  

President Trump has declared a “public safety emergency” in the nation’s capital, citing high crime and unsafe streets, and he federalized the DC police force last week. He further authorized the use of National Guard troops and deployed federal agents across the city to tackle the rampant crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration crises.

Hundreds of criminals have been removed from the streets, and crime has significantly reduced in the city.

Law-abiding citizens can now walk around freely without fear of being attacked, robbed, or harassed by drugged-out bums.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump fired off a warning shot to Mayor Muriel Bowser during his Oval Office press conference on Friday, apparently threatening her removal.

“Mayor Bowser better get her act straight, or she won’t be mayor very long because we’re taking over with the federal government, running it like it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said.

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600b tons of carbon emissions and Arctic sea ice stays the same for 20 years

One third of all human emissions has had no effect on the Arctic

Since 2005, humans have emitted one third of all the emissions we’ve ever put out — some 600 billion tons of CO2. Yet the Arctic sea ice is the same as it was twenty years ago. And even though the modelers cling to the excuse that this is “consistent with simulated internal variability” there was not one model that forecast this would happen.

For twenty years arctic sea ice was the Posterchild of Panic, and on the verge of disappearing forever, while Antarctic sea ice was invisible. Now the sea ice at the South Pole is at “a climate tipping point”, and the northern sea-ice is just a surprise.

Even when sea ice does nothing, it’s dramatic:

As long as the buzzwords are there in the headlines, The Guardian readers may  not even realize the scientists were completely, utterly wrong, and all the hand-wringing and tears about the polar bears was just a fundraising publicity stunt.

Remember, bad news is due to man-made climate change, but good news is a natural variation, and it’s only temporary. The Prophets of Climate say disaster is just around the corner still.

The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the past 20 years, scientists have reported, with no statistically significant decline in its extent since 2005.   …they said this was only a temporary reprieve and melting was highly likely to start again at about double the long-term rate at some point in the next five to 10 years.

It’s just how rampant Blob-media bias works, and the Blob-academics are fine with that.

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Inside The CIA’s Covert War To Topple The Syrian Government

For over a decade, the dominant Western narrative on the Syrian War has been simple: a peaceful uprising turned into a brutal civil war because of Bashar al-Assad’s ruthless crackdown on his own people. But in Creative Chaos: Inside the CIA’s Covert War to Topple the Syrian Government, the Libertarian Institute’s latest book, William Van Wagenen methodically dismantles this mainstream version of events, exposing it as a convenient fiction crafted to justify one of the most disastrous regime change wars of the modern era.

His central thesis is clear: the war in Syria was not an organic revolution but a deliberate effort by Washington, Israel, and their regional partners to weaken Iran by toppling Assad’s government. And when peaceful protests were hijacked by Islamist militants, instead of helping restore stability, the US and its allies deliberately prevented Assad from crushing the insurgency—even as it became dominated by al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated groups.

Now, years later, the result is a fractured Syria, ruled by jihadist warlords and occupied by foreign powers, with Israel consolidating its hold over strategic territory.

How and why did this disaster for Syria’s people come to pass? And why were the non-interventionists who called out Washington’s lies always right about the war and its likely outcome?

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The judge has a little explaining to do

It finally happened.  Sensible New Yorkers have come to terms with the damage that “getting Trump” has done to their image as a place to invest money.  After all, why would any investor or business owner want to operate in a state where a “fraud” case can be invented against you?  I have a feeling that a lot of people with wealth in New York started making plans to pack up to Florida or elsewhere.  You can’t blame them for saying:  “They ‘got’ Trump, I’m next.”  Last, but not least, who remembers Kevin O’Leary telling a CNN host:  “What fraud? This is not about Trump anymore”?

As always, we check with Professor Jonathan Turley for some perspective:

For some of us who covered that trial, the most vivid image of Engoron came at the start. He indicated that he did not want cameras in the courtroom, but when the networks showed up, Engoron took off his glasses and seemed to pose for the cameras.

It was a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ moment. We only need Gloria Swanson looking into the camera to speak to ‘those wonderful people out there in the dark!’ and announcing ‘all right, [Ms. James], I’m ready for my close-up.’

The close-up was not a good idea, and, on appeal, it was perfectly disastrous. The court found little legal or factual basis for his fine. The purported witnesses not only did not lose a dime, but they testified that they made money on the loans and wanted new loans with the Trump administration. That did not move Engoron. From the start, he was speaking to those ‘wonderful people out there.’

You did not have to go far. In both the civil and criminal trials of Trump in New York, there was a carnival atmosphere in the street outside the courthouse. It was really not derangement as much as delirium. Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James had injected lawfare directly into the veins of New Yorkers. Pledging in her campaign to bag Trump (without bothering to name any crime or violation), James was elected based on her recreational rather than legal appeal.

Yet, James could not have succeeded if she had not had a judge willing to ignore reality and cook the books on the fines. She needed a partner in lawfare. She needed Engoron.

Even for some anti-Trump commentators, the judgment was impossible to defend, and some acknowledged that they had never seen any case like this one brought in New York.

Yes, no one had seen justice like that before.  Why?  Because there was no justice here.  It was using the legal system to get Trump, or something that our judicial system was not supposed to do.

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