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.

A $120 Can of Spam Busts Open Seattle’s Food Stamp Fraud

Look in the mirror: You’re looking at an attractive, smart, hardworking taxpayer. 

And here’s where hundreds of millions of your food stamp tax dollars are going: straight into the hands of addicts, the pockets of pimps, and the funds of charlatans. 

It wasn’t bad enough that California hospice owners were driving Ferraris bought with stolen tax money, and that FireAID donations were given to nonprofits that had nothing to do with actual, you know, fire aid. Now we discover that food stamp fraud is taking place in the open on the streets of America, and nobody’s doing anything about it, apparently.

Independent reporter Nick Shirley, with a group of other indy reporters, revealed the open-air federal food stamp fraud taking place on the streets of Seattle. 

Shirley, San Francisco-based street reporter Darren Stallcup, Seattle’s Jonathan Choe, and other intrepid indy reporters followed the money. 

Choe tells Shirley that EBT cards litter homeless encampments, where they receive so many of them that they begin to throw them away. Many of those “homeless” drug zombies use their food stamp cards to buy drugs. 

Choe and Shirley found EBT cards and sought to follow the lucrative scam from beginning to end. Shirley lays out how simple this is in a new video displaying how one abandoned EBT card can buy drugs, sex, and a $120 can of Spam.

Keep reading

Liberals accused of feeding bill details to CBC and Globe before MPs

Conservative and NDP MPs are accusing the Liberal government of giving journalists advance details of legislation before parliamentarians could examine it, alleging the leaks undermine parliamentary scrutiny.

As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, NDP MP Don Davies joined Conservative Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer in condemning disclosures about Bill C-40, which would make the Defence Investment Agency a Crown corporation.

The government tabled the bill Tuesday. A day earlier, the Globe and Mail reported the planned change, citing three unnamed sources. CBC published a similar report that evening, citing two federal sources.

Both outlets said their sources were not authorized to speak publicly. The Prime Minister’s Office told the Globe it would not comment on legislation before it was tabled.

Davies, who represents Vancouver Kingsway, argued that the reports contained substantive details unavailable to MPs and beyond what the bill’s title disclosed on the order paper.

He accused the government of repeatedly using unauthorized disclosures to influence public debate, saying leaks become a parliamentary privilege issue when legislation is already on notice, but MPs have yet to see it.

Davies said parliamentarians must defend their right to receive legislative details before journalists do.

Scheer also raised the matter in the Commons, arguing that leaking provisions of Bill C-40 showed contempt for Parliament.

“The House must stand up for its rights,” Scheer said, criticizing a government he accused of treating Parliament as “a mere speed bump.”

The objections concern opposition allegations of a breach of parliamentary privilege. The supplied report does not identify a Speaker’s ruling on the matter.

Keep reading

Saudi Arabia and Israel’s Secret Working Relationship

Saudi Arabia has never signed the Abraham Accords, which means its relationship with Israel can still be discussed as a deal waiting to happen. But long before anyone agrees on what a public deal should contain, Israeli-made spyware has reached a Saudi dissident, Saudi sovereign wealth has backed investments in Israeli companies, and the two countries have been drawn into discussions about intelligence cooperation against Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement.

In a new Double Down News investigation, Lowkey traces a shadow network linking senior Israeli intelligence figures, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli cyber-warfare technology exported to Saudi Arabia with state approval. Jeffrey Epstein appears in that story seeking a place close to the Saudi leadership. In correspondence examined by The New Arab, he offered advice on the planned sale of Saudi oil company Aramco and helped draft a letter addressed to the crown prince. The question becomes more urgent in Yemen, where reports describe talks mediated by US Central Command, or CENTCOM, over Israeli intelligence assistance to Riyadh against Ansar Allah.

Omar Abdulaziz was living in Canada in 2018 and working with journalist Jamal Khashoggi when a message about a package arrived on his phone. The link inside led to Pegasus, spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group. Citizen Lab found that Abdulaziz’s phone had been infected by a Saudi-linked operator. Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents later that year inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi was also the subject of conflicting accounts inside Wikistrat, a private intelligence firm founded in Israel whose founder, Joel Zamel, met senior Saudi officials. Before the murder, a Wikistrat executive told a colleague that the company had recruited  Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi for a Saudi-focused project. Afterwards, he said Khashoggi had only been considered, although the firm later told Forensic News that he had been part of its analyst community for some time. One of the Saudi officials Zamel met was Ahmed al-Asiri, the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency and a former close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who was later accused of overseeing the operation against Khashoggi.

By the time Jared Kushner left the White House, Saudi Arabia still had not recognised Israel, though Kushner had helped other Arab governments do so through the Abraham Accords. His new firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and went on to buy 15% of an Israeli vehicle and credit business, while also becoming the largest single shareholder in Israeli insurer Phoenix Financial. Research by AFSC Investigate documents Phoenix’s insurance services to West Bank settlement councils and its investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Saudi money could reach those businesses through the fund Kushner controlled, even as recognition remained off the table.

The Saudi-led war had already helped push millions in Yemen towards hunger when seven-year-old Amal Hussain died of malnutrition in October 2018. In November 2025, Sana’a’s Interior Ministry alleged that a joint Saudi, American and Israeli operations room in Riyadh had recruited Yemenis to collect coordinates inside the country. It released video confessions from detainees and described equipment supplied to the alleged network. The Long War Journal reported the allegations, but did not independently establish the claimed command structure. Then, this month, separate reporting described talks through CENTCOM over potential Israeli intelligence assistance to Riyadh against Ansar Allah.

Keep reading

Carney’s little conflict of interest

Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing conflict-of-interest allegations over his $2-billion heat pump rebate program, following revelations about past investments in manufacturers that could benefit from the subsidies.

Conservative MPs have questioned whether his former ties to Brookfield and related businesses create a conflict, much like other government initiatives launched since Carney took office. The available disclosures on the matter do not technically establish that Carney designed the program to benefit those companies, but the connection seems obvious to critics.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing conflict-of-interest allegations over his $2-billion heat pump rebate program after ethics filings revealed past investments in manufacturers that could benefit from the taxpayer-funded subsidies.

“How is that not corrupt?” Conservative MP John Brassard, chair of the Commons ethics committee, demanded in the House of Commons on Thursday.

“The conflict of interest is so blatantly obvious, but what’s surprising is the Prime Minister’s not even hiding it anymore,” Brassard said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also accused Carney of directing taxpayer money toward Brookfield-connected businesses while speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill before question period.

“The Prime Minister just finished announcing he’s going to take $2 billion out of the pockets of Canadians and give it to companies like those owned by Brookfield,” Poilievre said.

He argued Canadians should decide for themselves whether to purchase heat pumps rather than have Ottawa redistribute their money.

The rebates, however, are intended for homeowners rather than direct corporate grants, although manufacturers and installers could benefit from increased demand.

Keep reading

The EU thinks it “won” in Beijing trade talks. It couldn’t be more wrong.

Big news out of Beijing! On Friday, the EU’s trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, announced a deal that could cut China’s exports of hybrids and plug-in hybrids to Europe by more than half. That’s several million fewer cars over four years. Diplomacy works!*

Here’s some context:

In October 2024, the EU put tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese battery EVs because of the CCP’s massive subsidies. Hybrids, though, still paid only the standard 10%. So what did Chinese automakers do? They switched to hybrids. Chinese hybrid imports went from 3,800 cars in October 2024 to about 50,000 in July 2026.

So the CCP increased its hybrid exports more than tenfold to get around the EU’s rules. Now it’s “agreeing” to cut them in half. And Brussels is calling that a win. Because the EU is run by a clumsy bureaucracy—and that’s me describing them generously.

Read the fine print, too. It’s a “shared understanding,” and Šefčovič didn’t say how it will actually be enforced. Meanwhile, the CCP got the EU to keep talking about price undertakings on the EV tariffs, which would mean China agrees to raise its own prices, and then the EU would remove the tariffs.

But the whole thing just shows how absolutely useless Europe’s bureaucracy is when it comes to countering the economic threat of the CCP.

The CCP agreed to back off partway on what it got by exploiting a loophole—the hybrids. And in return the CCP gets a shot at undoing the original EV tariffs that started all this.

See you in 2027, Europe, when the CCP finds the next loophole.

And by the way, Europe is wrong about why they should stop Chinese EVs. Bureaucrats think it’s about protecting local industry and manufacturing jobs. But everyone I know who has worked in intelligence agrees: Chinese cars are spy machines. So the optimal number of Chinese cars to have in Europe is zero.

Keep reading

Canada bleeds 110,000 jobs in two months as unemployment hits 6.5%—Alberta spared

Canada shed 68,000 jobs in September, bringing losses over the past two months to 110,000 as unemployment climbed to 6.5 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

The latest Labour Force Survey, released Friday, showed the second consecutive month of employment declines, following 42,000 jobs lost in August.

The September figures were far worse than economists expected. Forecasters had anticipated 9,200 new jobs, missing the actual result by more than 77,000 positions.

Full-time employment fell by 35,000 positions, while part-time employment declined by 33,000.

Public sector employment dropped by 70,000 positions, its fourth consecutive monthly decline, while self-employment fell by 23,000. Private sector employment was little changed.

Young Canadians were among the hardest hit, accounting for 48,000 job losses in September. Another 50,000 young people left the labour force, leaving the youth unemployment rate relatively unchanged at 13 per cent.

Women aged 25 to 54 also lost 28,000 jobs, pushing their unemployment rate to 5.3 per cent.

Quebec recorded the largest provincial decline, shedding 49,000 jobs, followed by British Columbia with 20,000. Alberta bucked the trend, adding 23,000 positions.

Canada’s labour force participation rate fell to 64.8 per cent, its lowest level since December 1997, excluding the pandemic. Statistics Canada attributed much of the longer-term decline to population aging.

Finding employment has also become more difficult. Just 30.6 per cent of Canadians unemployed in August found work in September, compared with 32.8 per cent a year earlier.

Keep reading

Fact Check: ICE DID NOT Arrest 500 U.S. Citizens for Immigration Violations

Claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 500 American citizens since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 misrepresent the findings of an October 6, 2026, ProPublica investigation.

The report identified 506 U.S. citizens detained by federal immigration agents between January 2025 and September 2026. It did not establish that ICE formally arrested 500 citizens, that all the detentions were immigration arrests, or that 500 Americans were mistakenly identified as illegal immigrants.

The ProPublica investigation counted anyone held against their will by immigration agents for any period of time. That included people who were temporarily prevented from leaving until they showed ID or proof of citizenship.

Under that definition, a citizen briefly detained during an immigration raid could be counted alongside someone formally arrested on suspicion of assaulting a federal officer. Although both encounters may constitute detention under the Fourth Amendment, they are not necessarily equivalent to a formal criminal arrest.

ProPublica’s own headline described more than 500 American citizens as having been detained, rather than arrested. Public and social media sources misquoting the original article have changed the terminology from detention to arrest, materially altering the meaning of the findings.

More than 100 Americans were detained after federal agents questioned their citizenship. A much larger category involved more than 300 Americans detained after allegations that they assaulted, obstructed, or interfered with federal immigration officers. These encounters frequently occurred during immigration raids, protests, or confrontations involving people inhibiting immigration enforcement activities.

Being an American citizen does not provide immunity from arrest for violating federal criminal law. Title 18, Section 111 of the United States Code makes it a federal offense to forcibly assault, resist, impede, intimidate, or interfere with designated federal officers performing their official duties. Therefore, an American citizen accused of assaulting an ICE officer may be arrested and prosecuted under federal criminal law.

Keep reading

Globalist Billionaire Bill Gates Lectures Americans on Chemtrails vs. Contrails — Says Contrails Are “Just Clouds” But a Contributor to Global Warming and Wants to Eliminate Them

Bill Gates, the same billionaire who has bankrolled research into dimming the sun, released a new “educational” video explaining the difference between so-called “chemtrails” and ordinary airplane condensation trails, or contrails.

The Microsoft co-founder posted the short film, titled “For an affordable climate win, look to the sky,” on his YouTube channel on October 7 and paired it with a Gates Notes essay.

“Some people refer to them as ‘chemtrails’ and believe they contain toxic chemicals,” Gates says. “The reality is much less dramatic: They’re just clouds.”

He then pivots. Contrails, he writes, “are also a significant contributor to climate change.” Persistent warming contrails, he claims, account for about half the temperature increase caused by aviation. “If we were to get rid of them, we would eliminate up to two percent of all global warming.”

Gates insists no one is spraying the sky on purpose. “Contrails are an unintentional byproduct of plane travel, and no one is putting lines in the sky on purpose.”

In his telling, water freezes around soot from jet engines when a plane hits the right pocket of cold, humid air. Some trails vanish. Others linger, spread, and act like cirrus clouds that trap heat at night.

Gates argues that preventing the formation of these warming contrails could offer a relatively inexpensive way to reduce aviation’s climate impact.

Keep reading

Delaware Crowned Top State for UFO Spotting

An update to a study looking at UFO sightings across America has determined that Delaware is the top state for spotting something anomalous in the sky. Produced by the online gambling hub casino.ca, the project compared population size with “data from the National UFO Reporting Center, alongside social media discussions” to come up with a per capita rate for encounters with the flying saucer phenomenon. Once the math had been complete, the study showed Delaware to be where one is most likely to spot a UFO, with one sighting for every 825 residents.

Rounding out the top five were New York, Oregon, Washington, and Florida. That fourth-place finish for Washington may raise some ire in the Pacific Northwest as the state had previously come out on top when the study was conducted by the same group last October. In both instances, the top five locations were the same, albeit in a different order. The 2025 project had Washington in first place, followed by Oregon, Florida, Delaware, and New York. Unfortunately for folks in Louisiana, the state was found to be the least likely spot for UFO spotting for the second year in a row.

Keep reading