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.

Russiagate’s Architects Suppressed Doubts To Peddle False Claims

Although Robert Mueller failed to find an election conspiracy between Donald Trump and Moscow, the former Special Counsel threw a lifeline to the Russiagate narrative by alleging that the Kremlin had engaged in a “sweeping and systematic” effort to get Trump elected and “sow discord” among Americans. 

Six years later, that questionable but enduring claim continues to unravel.

According to newly declassified documents, U.S. intelligence leaders concealed high-level doubts about one of Russiagate’s foundational allegations: that Russia stole and leaked Democratic Party material to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. In a September 2016 report that was never made public until now, the NSA and the FBI broke with their intelligence counterparts and expressed “low confidence” in the attribution to Russia.

The previously undisclosed dissent about Russia’s alleged hacking activities in the 2016 election is among several revelations released last week by Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. According to Gabbard, President Obama and senior members of his cabinet “manufactured and politicized intelligence” in its waning months to wage “a years-long coup against President Trump.”

Gabbard’s material adds to a body of evidence previously reported by RealClearInvestigations that challenges the widely parroted claim about the quality of evidence and the extent of Russian “interference operations” in the 2016 election. These conclusions – based on questionable assertions presented as hard facts – have been falsely portrayed as an intelligence consensus. When Trump, the nation’s commander-in-chief, cast doubt on the Russian interference allegations in a July 2018 news conference, former CIA chief John Brennan denounced him as “nothing short of treasonous.”

It turns out that Trump was not out of sync with the U.S. intelligence community he was accused of betraying. 

“Low Confidence” in Core Allegation

Until now, the purported U.S. intelligence consensus on Russian meddling has been conveyed to the public in three seminal reports. 

The first was a January 2017 intelligence community assessment (ICA) released in the final days of the Obama administration under the direction of Brennan and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The ICA accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering an “influence campaign” to “denigrate” Democratic candidate Clinton and “help” Trump win the 2016 election. Some of this effort involved propaganda on Russian media outlets and messaging on social media. 

The larger component hinged on the allegation that the GRU, Russia’s main intelligence agency, stole emails and documents from the Democratic Party and released that material principally via two online entities, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, as well as the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has long denied that Russia or any other state actor was his source. Nevertheless, the January 2017 ICA stated that U.S. intelligence had  “high confidence” that Russia engineered the hack. 

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Everyone Should Be Closely Watching This VAERS Whistleblower Case

A significant COVID-19 accountability case is heading to discovery, establishing critical legal precedents regarding the requirement to report adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) while receiving federal funding. The COVID jabs have caused harm, including death, to millions, making this a crucial case to watch. Whistleblower Deborah Conrad, a dedicated Physician Assistant, was fired in 2021 by her employer, United Memorial Medical Center (Rochester Regional Health), for purportedly spreading “vaccine misinformation” and “over-reporting” of adverse events following the experimental mRNA COVID-19 injections. But hold on a second—upon examining the entire situation, it appears evident that Deb was, quite simply, “doing the right thing” and reporting adverse events to VAERS.

Nonetheless, Deb was fired in October 2021. She was unexpectedly chaperoned into a conference room, where she was interrogated and then escorted out without due process. Deb and her attorney, Warner Mendenhall, are currently suing Rochester Regional Health for damages, including back pay and civil penalties in violation of the False Claims Act. On June 11, 2025, in a triumph for those who have fought hard throughout the COVID-19 tyranny to protect their patients, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York issued a landmark ruling in favor of Deb, denying the hospital’s motion to dismiss the core claims in Deb’s False Claims lawsuit. This move opens the door for Deb’s case to proceed to discovery.

As highlighted by Mendenhall, the court determined that Rochester Regional Health had a significant obligation under its CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement to report serious adverse events to VAERS (never mind that the CDC itself looked the other way regarding injuries reported in its V-safe app). Indeed, the hospital’s failure to comply with this requirement—instead literally blocking Deb from reporting serious adverse events after the COVID-19 jab—while continuing to seek federal reimbursement constituted potential fraud against the government. Additionally, the court agreed that the detailed allegations provided by Deb sufficiently met the stringent legal standards for fraud claims, despite her lacking access to internal billing records. Furthermore, the court found that her retaliation claim could proceed, as it was likely she was terminated for attempting to expose the hospital’s non-compliance with adverse event reporting. Mendenhall wrote:

“This ruling is significant beyond just Deborah’s case. It establishes that 1) healthcare providers cannot ignore federal safety reporting requirements while continuing to collect taxpayer money; 2) the False Claims Act can be used to hold institutions accountable for COVID-related misconduct; and 3) whistleblowers who expose these practices have legal protection.

We estimate over 500,000 were killed by the shots, millions lost their jobs for refusing them, and Big Pharma received billions for dangerous and experimental treatments. This case reveals a legal pathway to begin holding the system accountable.

The case now moves to discovery, where we will seek the hospital’s internal “vaccination,” treatment, and billing records to uncover the full scope of unreported adverse events, which we believe are in the 1000s in this hospital system alone.”

Incredibly, while successfully managing to submit 160 VAERS reports, Deb’s case involves a shocking 170 serious adverse events that the hospital allegedly stopped her from reporting. Again, under the terms of their vaccine provider agreement and the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §3729, all COVID-19 vaccine providers were legally bound to report adverse events related to the jabs to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Thus, when Deborah observed several adverse events, including fatalities, following COVID-19 injections in both her own patients and in the patients of her peers, she took the initiative to compile and submit patient reports to VAERS in her spare time.

However, she soon faced pressure from Rochester Regional Health to “dial it back” and was advised to limit her reporting to only her own patients, excluding those treated by other providers. But the hospital didn’t stop there. It further urged her to “toe the company line” by supporting the experimental vaccine to minimize vaccine hesitancy, despite the hospital’s legal duty, again, under its agreement with the CDC in order to receive federal funding during the pandemic, to report vaccine-related injuries.

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Report: California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Led to 18,000 Fewer Jobs

California’s new $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast food workers has resulted in a significant decline in employment in that sector, leading to 18,000 fewer jobs than would have been the case otherwise.

That’s according to a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) this month, which said:

We analyze the effect of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage, which was enacted in September 2023 and went into effect in April 2024, on employment in the fast food sector. In unadjusted data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, we find that employment in California’s fast food sector declined by 2.7 percent relative to employment in the fast food sector elsewhere in the United States from September 2023 through September 2024. Adjusting for pre-AB 1228 trends increases this differential decline to 3.2 percent, while netting out the equivalent employment changes in non-minimum-wage-intensive industries further increases the decline. Our median estimate translates into a loss of 18,000 jobs in California’s fast food sector relative to the counterfactual.

HR Grapevine added:

The Employment Policies Institute estimated that “non-tipped restaurant workers [lost] 250 hours of work annually,” translating into up to $4,000 in lost income. That drop equates to seven weeks of work each year per employee.

The California Globe reported that “thousands of fast food jobs were shed by companies in anticipation for the higher costs,” including 1,200 drivers at Pizza Hut. Once the law took effect on April 1, 2024, “restaurants automated what they could to avoid the higher wages,” and “some fast food restaurants also closed.”

By June 2024, Stanford University data indicated “over 10,000 fast food jobs were already lost.” While the Governor’s office disputed the figure, saying fast food jobs had increased, it “stopped by the fall when it became apparent that federal data wasn’t on their side.”

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Ron DeSantis’ Superior Speaks Out Amid Guantanamo Torture Accusations

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ former boss weighed in on the accusations that DeSantis oversaw the torture of prisoners during his tenure at Guantanamo Bay.

DeSantis, a Republican who has become a leading conservative figure in the United States, was accused of overseeing torture at the prison where the Untied States detained suspected terrorists, despite concerns over detainees being held without criminal charges being filed.

Mansoor Adayfi, former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who was held for 14 years without being charged with a crime, made the accusation during a November 2022 interview on the Eyes Left podcast, in which he said DeSantis observed guards force-feed him amid a hunger strike, laughing during the procedure. DeSantis, however, has not been accused of torturing inmates.

These accusations reemerged on Tuesday following a report from McClatchy/The Miami Herald that shined a light on the governor’s time at Guantanamo Bay, a topic on which he has offered little public comment. He joined the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in 2006, four years after the facility opened.

Amid these accusations of overseeing torture, DeSantis’ former supervisor, retired Navy Captain Patrick McCarthy, defended the governor, explaining that he was tasked “with detainees when there were any complaints to ensure they were lawfully addressed.”

“DeSantis served honorably and professionally in a very complex mission,” McCarthy told the Herald.

DeSantis has not publicly addressed Adayfi’s allegations, which could not be independently verified.

Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner told the Herald that DeSantis would have had “very, very intimate knowledge” about conditions at Guantanamo Bay, which have been long criticized by human rights advocates as violating detainees’ rights and due process.

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Space-Based Missile Interceptors For Golden Dome Being Tested By Northrop

Northrop Grumman is conducting ground-based testing related to space-based interceptors as part of a competition for that segment of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Interceptors deployed in orbit are currently billed as a critical component of the overall Golden Dome plan, but actually fielding this capability presents significant technical challenges.

Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s CEO, highlighted the company’s work on space-based interceptors, as well as broader business opportunities stemming from Golden Dome, during a quarterly earnings call today. Golden Dome is presently envisioned as a multi-part anti-missile architecture incorporating a swath of existing and future capabilities in space and within the Earth’s atmosphere, which will start entering into operational service by 2028. Golden Dome was originally dubbed Iron Dome before the name was changed earlier this year. It is also now being managed by an office that reports directly to the deputy secretary of defense.

“As we look to Golden Dome for America, we see Northrop Grumman playing a crucial role in supporting the administration’s goal to move with speed and have initial operating capability in place within the next few years,” Warden said today. “This includes current products that can be brought to bear, like IBCS [Integrated Battle Command System], G/ATOR [AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar], Triton [drones], and programs in our restricted portfolio, just to name a few. It will also include new innovation, like space-based interceptors, which we’re testing now.”

“These are ground-based tests today, and we are in competition, obviously, so not a lot of detail that I can provide here,” Warden added. “It is the capability that we believe can be accelerated and into the time frame that the administration is looking for.”

Warden declined to respond directly to a question about how the space-based interceptors Northrop Grumman is developing now will actually defeat their targets. TWZ has reached out to the company for additional information.

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Columbia University says it has suspended and expelled students who participated in protests

 Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

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World On Fire: While Americans Sleep, Here Are 15 Ways That World War III Has Progressed During The Past 7 Days

By the time we got to this stage, I always thought that far more people would be awake.  Perhaps the reason why so many Americans are still sleeping is because the major wars that are currently raging are happening on the other side of the planet.  It is easy to relax when nobody that you know personally is in the line of fire.  But the truth is that if World War III continues to escalate, it is just a matter of time before the whole world will experience a tremendous amount of pain.

It has now been about a week since President Trump issued an ominous ultimatum to the Russians, but instead of backing down the Russians have only intensified their efforts in Ukraine.  Meanwhile, fighting in the Middle East has flared up on several fronts.  The following are 15 ways that World War III has progressed during the past 7 days…

#1 Israel is warning more local residents to evacuate as the IDF pushes even deeper into Gaza…

On Sunday, the Israeli military (IDF) issued new evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, which even after years of war with Hamas is an area where Israeli ground forces have rarely operated, further restricting access between Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

This strongly suggests that indirect efforts to achieve another ceasefire are far from producing anything effective, and it points to Prime Minister Netanyahu pursuing his ultra-controversial plan for mass resettlement of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

Netanyahu has continued to assert that intensifying military pressure in Gaza could compel Hamas to negotiate on terms favorable to Israel and for the return of remaining hostages.

#2 A series of IDF airstrikes just caused a tremendous amount of damage to the port of Hodeida in Yemen…

Israel pounded Yemen’s Huthi-held port of Hodeida with air strikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran.

Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the Iran-backed rebels began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.

In its latest raids, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck “targets of the Huthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida” and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.

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Blake Lively Wants Names and IP Addresses

Blake Lively has decided that the best way to respond to online gossip and criticism is with subpoenas, lots of them. With a move that suggests her legal team spent a weekend watching “Enemy of the State,” Lively is now targeting 36 content creators, from high-profile commentators to pseudonymous hobbyists, all over rumors she says were part of a smear effort.

Some of the targets have large followings. Others barely register on the algorithm. One runs a YouTube astrology channel with fewer than 300 subscribers at the time of the subpoena. All are now being asked to turn over a wide array of personal and financial data, as if they were co-conspirators in a criminal probe instead of people who post opinions from their bedrooms.

The case, Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, is already a headache in itself, but this new front seems designed less to resolve the actual lawsuit and more to comb through the internet for anything unflattering.

We obtained a copy of the Google subpoena for you here.

We obtained a copy of the TikTok subpoena for you here.

We obtained a copy of the X subpoena for you here.

If you’re out of the loop, Blake Lively is suing Wayfarer Studios, its co-founder Justin Baldoni, and several others, alleging sexual harassment, workplace misconduct, breach of contract, and a coordinated retaliation campaign designed to destroy her reputation.

According to the complaint, Lively raised concerns about repeated inappropriate behavior by Baldoni and Wayfarer executives during production of It Ends With Us. After the film was completed, she claims Baldoni and his team launched a covert “social manipulation” campaign to discredit her using fake grassroots content, crisis PR firms, and anonymous online posts, which she describes as a well-funded digital smear effort.

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The Conspiracy Theory of History

What is the conspiracy theory of history? Is it true? In this week’s column, I’m going to discuss the great Murray Rothbard’s analysis of the subject. As always, he is our best guide. Then, I’ll give examples of what Murray calls “good” conspiracy theories.

Murray begins his analysis by noting that the Establishment attacks the conspiracy theory: “Anytime that a hard-nosed analysis is put forth of who our rulers are, of how their political and economic interests interlock, it is invariably denounced by Establishment liberals and conservatives (and even by many libertarians) as a ‘conspiracy theory of history,’ ‘paranoid,’ ‘economic determinist,’ and even ‘Marxist.’ These smear labels are applied across the board, even though such realistic analyses can be, and have been, made from any and all parts of the economic spectrum, from the John Birch Society to the Communist Party. The most common label is ‘conspiracy theorist,’ almost always leveled as a hostile epithet rather than adopted by the ‘conspiracy theorist’ himself.”

Murray next points out that it is natural that the Establishment attack the conspiracy theory because it has an interest in saying that that the Deep State isn’t a plot to hold power but an inevitable development that it is futile to resist: “It is no wonder that usually these realistic analyses are spelled out by various ‘extremists’ who are outside the Establishment consensus. For it is vital to the continued rule of the State apparatus that it have legitimacy and even sanctity in the eyes of the public, and it is vital to that sanctity that our politicians and bureaucrats be deemed to be disembodied spirits solely devoted to the ‘public good.’ Once let the cat out of the bag that these spirits are all too often grounded in the solid earth of advancing a set of economic interests through use of the State, and the basic mystique of government begins to collapse.”

Murray was a great teacher, and he gives us some simple example to show how to use conspiracy theories: “Let us take an easy example. Suppose we find that Congress has passed a law raising the steel tariff or imposing import quotas on steel? Surely only a moron will fail to realize that the tariff or quota was passed at the behest of lobbyists from the domestic steel industry, anxious to keep out efficient foreign competitors. No one would level a charge of ‘conspiracy theorist’ against such a conclusion. But what the conspiracy theorist is doing is simply to extend his analysis to more complex measures of government: say, to public works projects, the establishment of the ICC, the creation of the Federal Reserve System, or the entry of the United States into a war. In each of these cases, the conspiracy theorist asks himself the question cui bono? Who benefits from this measure? If he finds that Measure A benefits X and Y, his next step is to investigate the hypothesis: did X and Y in fact lobby or exert pressure for the passage of Measure A? In short, did X and Y realize that they would benefit and act accordingly?”

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Microsoft ends use of China-based computer engineers for certain Defense Dept projects amid espionage fears

Microsoft said it will cease using China-based computer engineering teams for work on Pentagon cloud systems, after an investigation this week led to national security concerns at the highest levels over a program that Microsoft has used since 2016.

A ProPublica report released Tuesday accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business. 

The report got the attention of GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisting Friday that foreign engineers from “any country … should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems.” He added that the Defense Department would be “looking into this ASAP.”

After Hegseth’s indication that the Pentagon would be looking into the matter, Fox News Digital reached out to Microsoft, which responded that it would be ceasing its use of China-based computer engineers providing assistance to sensitive Defense Department cloud “and related” services.

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