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.

Britain had meltdown when China hacked voter files, but U.S. intel kept it secret in America

The United States expressed outrage when Great Britain revealed two years ago that its voter registration databases were hacked by China in what became a global scandal. But it turns out the U.S. intelligence harbored its own secret at the time, knowing since 2020 that Beijing also gained access to American voter registration data, according to documents reviewed by Just the News and interviews with officials with direct knowledge.

“[Redacted] Chinese intelligence officials analyzed multiple U.S. states’ [Redacted] election voter registration data, [Redacted] to conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election,” stated a once highly classified April 2020 National Intelligence Council memo entitled “Cyber Operations Enabling Expansive Authoritarianism.” 

You can read that document here.

NICM-Declassified-Cyber-Operations-Enabling-Expansive-Digital-Authoritarianism-20200407–2022.pdf

That memo, heavily redacted and quietly declassified by the Biden administration two years after it was written, has escaped most public notice.

That means six years later that the U.S. intelligence community has yet to fully inform the American people or the Congress on the breadth of evidence it possesses of China’s actions, how Beijing got the data, and what operations it has taken or contemplated. 

The gap in public knowledge is particularly politically sensitive as the Senate this week debates a new election security bill that is a top priority for President Donald Trump. Officials told Just the News that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are working to declassify a potentially explosive tranche of documents showing what China did, and who in U.S. government knew and when.

The secrecy surrounding China’s access to voter registration has been so persistent that even Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, President Donald Trump’s point man for the 2026 mid-term elections, said he was unaware of the intelligence. “What’s crazy is the fact that China has access to these voter rolls, but we don’t,” Gruters told John Solomon Reports podcast in an episode set to air Tuesday.

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Did Zohran Mamdani Lie About His Wife’s Connections to Antisemitic Author? It Sure Looks Like He Did.

Late last week, we learned that Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, illustrated a book for Palestinian-American author and journalist Susan Abulhawa, who has a troubling history of antisemitism, including calling Jews “cockroaches,” “rootless parasites,” and “rabid demons.” 

That revelation came on the heels of the news that Duwaji liked dozens of social media posts celebrating the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Mamdani once again ran interference for his wife, claiming she got the freelance illustrating gig through a third party and didn’t know it was for Abulhawa. He called Abulhawa’s remarks “rephrensible,” which tracks with Mamdani’s habit of throwing friends and allies under the bus, it seems.

And we say “friends and allies” because it turns out Mamdani’s family has ties to Abulhawa, and many of them.

The New York Post has details:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s family has crossed paths with the anti-Israel activist who called Jews “cockroaches” and “vampires,” despite his attempts to distance himself from her.

Susan Abulhawa, 55, is a member of the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal along with Mamdani’s Columbia University professor father, Mahmood Mamdani.

The group, which features just 29 members, was established in London in 2024 and describes itself as an independent “people’s tribunal” that collects evidence against Israel in Gaza. British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn is another prominent figure within it.

…

But Abulhawa was a featured speaker at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies which Mamdani Sr. — a professor in the school’s Department of Anthropology — has long been associated with, appearing in a bio on their website.

Abulhawa was also among the prominent signatories to a 2018 open letter to members of the Saudi royal family to urge them to release professor and women’s rights activist Hatoon al-Fassi. Mamdani’s filmmaker mother, Mira Nair, as well as his father were also among the signatories.

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The War Without an Exit: Why Quick Victories in Iran Are Illusions

The notion of a short and decisive war has always been a temptation for politicians. This notion holds a promise of quick victories, low costs, and clear triumphs. However, the course of history over the last few decades has indicated that wars do not always follow this pattern. The current conflict between the United States and Iran seems to be a clear manifestation of this reality, as the early indications of a quick victory are not supported by the fundamental realities of the conflict.

The fundamental reason why a quick victory might not be possible in this conflict is not related to military capabilities. The military capabilities of the United States are overwhelming, as they are far ahead of Iran in terms of technology, logistics, and global reach. In the early phases of this conflict, the U.S. forces, along with the Israeli military, struck thousands of targets in Iran, targeting its missile capabilities, naval forces, and military installations. According to experts, the initial objective of this campaign was to destroy the Iranian naval capabilities, missile systems, and nuclear facilities, as well as weakening Iranian influence in the region.

However, military success does not automatically translate into a corresponding level of political achievement. As many a strategic analyst has noted, “destroying capabilities does not necessarily translate into regime collapse, political transformation, or stability.” While military instruments are effective at destroying capabilities, they are not as effective at creating alternatives.

This tension represents the heart of the strategic problem facing the United States.

As a matter of fact, even before the war began, American intelligence assessments reportedly indicated that military intervention was not likely to result in a change of regime in Iran because the Iranian system was so resilient, and there was no opposition to replace it.

Such intelligence assessments are part of a larger trend in modern warfare, wherein systems under military pressure tend to become more, not less, cohesive. Leadership changes occur rapidly without necessarily altering the fundamental structures of power. In this current conflict, the speed with which a new leader was installed into the Iranian leadership structure was a manifestation of this trend.

For the strategist who hopes to achieve a rapid level of regime collapse, this level of resilience represents a formidable obstacle.

Another factor affecting the prospects of a swift victory is the symmetry of the strategic goals and objectives. While the US might hope for a decisive victory in the form of destroying the military capability of the adversary or changing its politics, the same is not necessarily true for Iran. In fact, it is possible that the Iranian strategy is simply to survive.

In an asymmetric war, survival is victory.

The Iranian strategy seems to be one of survival and waiting it out, and analysts are observing how the escalation of the war is less dependent on the ability of the two adversaries to match each other in conventional warfare and more dependent on the ability of one of the adversaries to make the conflict unsustainable for the other. This means the war is now one of endurance rather than one of firepower.

A prime example of this is the energy sector and how it can be considered a part of the strategic environment. The current situation with the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s total oil supply is shipped, has already caused economic concerns for the world as a whole. Analysts predict that if the current situation is not rectified, the price of oil could rise significantly, causing economic consequences for the world as a whole.

Similar concerns are now coming from financial institutions as well, with some predictions indicating that the conflict could have significant effects on the world’s markets and economic growth, thus showing the economic consequences of the escalation of the conflict.

The economic consequences of the conflict create a whole new aspect of the strategic environment of the war. The conflict is no longer limited to military facilities and vessels; it is now affecting global trade routes and economic growth, as well as the politics of nations.

History has shown that conflicts of such nature are rarely brief.

The United States has faced similar strategic conundrums in the past. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan both began with rapid military successes that destroyed pre-existing governments within a matter of weeks. However, the political and security aftermaths took years to resolve. The conclusion should not be drawn that military force is ineffectual in these situations but rather that military victories do not necessarily equate to political success.

The case in Iran is more complex.

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Report: NAFTA Cut Lifespans for American Factory Workers

The economic impact of the 1994 free trade deal with Mexico chopped a year off many Americans’ lives, according to a report in the New York Times.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) boosted Wall Street by sending millions of U.S. jobs to lower-wage workers in Mexico. The civic cost is described in a new study titled ‘Trading Goods for Lives: NAFTA’s Mortality Impacts and Implications.”

“In the first 15 years of NAFTA, about 3 percent of 45-year-old men lost a year of their remaining life expectancy as a result of the trade deal,” hte newspaper reported, adding:

The researchers saw increases in mortality across most major causes of death, including illness, drug overdoses and suicides. The overall trends particularly affected working-age men, and were more pronounced in the Southeast and parts of the Midwest, like Michigan.

Matthew Notowidigdo, one of the report’s authors, said in an interview that the work highlighted an “underappreciated cost of globalization.” In the cities and towns facing new competition from Mexican factories, “life expectancy falls, and it hits really hard on men,” he said.

“We’re talking about a lot of life years lost,” he added.

The study concluded:

In the 15 years post-NAFTA, an area with average NAFTA exposure experienced an increase in annual, age-adjusted mortality of 0.68 percent … an increase that more than erases prior estimates of the welfare gains from NAFTA’s nationwide economic benefits. Mortality increases appear across all broad age by sex groups, but are particularly pronounced among working-age men, a demographic that also experienced disproportionate NAFTA-induced declines in (primarily manufacturing) employment

President Donald Trump renegotiated the three-nation NAFTA deal in 2018 to help Americans. This year, he is expected to review the replacement treaty, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), with Mexico and Canada.

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Dept. of Education Says Colorado School District’s ‘Gender Identity’ Policies Violate Federal Law

The Department of Education on Friday announced that a Colorado school district is violating federal law with its broad-sweeping “gender identity” policies that disenfranchise female students.

The Department of Education said its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concluded its investigation into Jefferson County Public Schools and found that it violated Title IX by allowing male students to access female bathrooms, locker rooms, overnight accommodations, and to play on female sports teams. 

Specifically, OCR found that the district has policies allowing students to access facilities and participate on sports teams that match their self-proclaimed “gender identity,” rather than their biological reality. OCR said it received athletic rosters from the district showing that male students may take up to 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams in the district. 

“Today’s findings reveal sweeping Title IX violations by Jefferson County Public Schools—denying fairness and equality to female students by allowing males into their private facilities, overnight accommodations, and athletics. The District’s decision to prioritize ‘gender identity’ over ensuring equal access for its female students is unconscionable,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement. 

OCR opened an investigation into the school district in June 2025 over allegations the district removed single-sex overnight accommodations from school trips. 

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Now They Are Actually Admitting That There Is A Massive “Gravity Hole” Underneath Antarctica?

For decades, we were told to ignore any of the strange reports that we were hearing about Antarctica. Experts assured us that nothing unusual was going on and that there wasn’t anything to be concerned about. Of course we couldn’t go investigate for ourselves, because as you will see below, there are 72 areas of Antarctica that only those with a special permit are allowed to enter. And if you try to fly to Antarctica without authorization, you will get into all sorts of trouble.

So why all the secrecy?

What are they trying to hide from all the rest of us?

One thing that scientists are admitting about Antarctica is that it sits directly above the strongest “gravity hole” on the entire planet…

Earth may look like a smooth “blue marble” from space, but it’s better to imagine it as a slightly gnarled orange, with an inside that’s firm in parts, but squishier in others. Since the planet isn’t a perfect sphere and its internal density varies across the globe, gravitational pull changes from place to place. Where there’s less mass in the underlying geology, gravity is weaker, and vice versa.

These dips in the gravitational field are formally known as gravity anomalies, but they’re more commonly called “gravity holes”. The largest is found in the middle of the Indian Ocean, spanning over 3 million square kilometers (roughly 1,100,000 square miles), while the strongest is found in Antarctica.

Isn’t that interesting?

It turns out that there is a gigantic “hole” under Antarctica after all.

But the experts are insisting that there really isn’t anything particularly special about it.  In fact, they try to make it sound as boring as possible…

A “gravity hole” beneath Antarctica sounds like the plot to a bad sci-fi movie, but it’s a very real situation deep beneath the Earth’s surface stretching back tens of millions of years. The phenomenon thankfully isn’t as apocalyptic as it sounds, either. In fact, researchers say these complex interactions between rock densities, gravitational pull, and sea levels are actually helping them understand how the southernmost continent’s ice sheets evolved, and what their influences mean for the planet’s climate.

Yawn.

That does sound pretty boring.

But could it be possible that there is a lot more to this than we are being told?

It is being reported that the team of researchers that mapped the colossal gravity hole directly under Antarctica was able to use a combination of methods to actually “reconstruct the three-dimensional structure” that exists underneath the continent…

In the study, published recently in Scientific Reports, Forte and Petar Glišović, Ph.D., of the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, mapped the Antarctic gravity hole and revealed how it developed over millions of years. They relied on an Earth-spanning scientific project that combined global earthquake recordings with physics-based modeling to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure inside Earth.

“Imagine doing a CT scan of the whole Earth, but we don’t have X-rays like we do in a medical office. We have earthquakes. Earthquake waves provide the ‘light’ that illuminates the interior of the planet,” Forte said.

It certainly appears that something is down there.

Could some of the reports that we have heard over the years actually be true?

I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for the truth to come out.

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Comey Releases Bizarre Video Message Revealing He Started Singing a Beyoncé Song to a Table Full of Agents During an Important Briefing

This guy ran the US’s premier federal law enforcement agency…

Fired FBI Director James Comey released a bizarre video message on his Substack on Sunday, recalling the good old days at the bureau.

Comey recounted a time in which he sang a Beyoncé song to a table full of agents during an important briefing.

“The briefer started by saying the operation was codenamed Sandcastles…” Comey said.

“So I said, ‘Oh, like the Beyoncé song.’ Blank stares all around the FBI conference room. So I did the natural thing, I sang,” Comey said.

Comey actually began singing a Beyoncé song in his Substack video message.

A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted former FBI Director James Comey in September. He was indicted on two counts – false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The charges were related to Comey’s testimony to Senate investigators in September 2020 about whether he authorized leaks to the media.

Newly released November 2016 emails revealed that James Comey was guiding his media mole, Daniel Richman, and authorized leaks to the media.

Comey’s case was thrown out after a Clinton judge dismissed the case based on the Appointments Clause.

James Comey also created a media firestorm last May after he posted a cryptic message to his Instagram account and spelled out in seashells: “86 47”

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in his caption.

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Will This Make Chicago Safe?

An ultimatum issued by the Trump administration has pushed the Chicago Transit Authority to unveil a beefed-up security plan, threatening to yank federal funding unless the agency tackles the rampant crime plaguing its trains and buses.

This move comes after a string of brutal attacks exposed the failures of soft-on-crime policies in the Windy City.

The CTA submitted its Revised Security Enhancement Plan to the Federal Transit Administration, detailing a “75 percent increase in monthly system policing hours, aggressive crime reduction targets, and expanded social service support,” according to an official agency statement.

Elements include more patrols from Chicago Police and Cook County Sheriff’s deputies, expanded mental health outreach to connect individuals with housing and services, and tighter collaboration with prosecutors for tougher handling of transit-related crimes.

“The plan is CTA’s formal response to an FTA Special Directive issued in December,” the agency noted, highlighting early signs that recent strategies are curbing crime.

This overhaul follows the FTA’s rejection of an earlier CTA submission, with the Trump administration giving the agency until March 19 to deliver or risk losing up to $50 million in funds.

The push stems from high-profile horrors like the November 18 attack where Lawrence Reed, a career criminal with 72 prior arrests, allegedly doused a young woman with gasoline and set her ablaze on a Blue Line train. 

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Rich Get Richer: Hollywood Elites Treat Themselves to Oscars Gift Bags Worth $350,000 in Luxury Swag

The 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night will be the usual explosion of a champagne-fueled, self-obsessed celebrity glory orgy — that comes, every year, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in free luxury gifts thrown in. This year’s swag bag price tag reached a value of nearly $350,000 for the select 25 Oscar nominees, given free for simply getting out of bed and attending.

Sunday night Academy Awards will be the 24th year some attendees receive an iconic collection of gifts held within aptly named “Everybody Wins” bags.

These include top-notch beauty products and treatments, luxury vacations, alongside innovative wellness products.

Gift-giving company Distinctive Assets delivers it all to the stars in suitcases in lieu of the Academy itself which stopped providing official six-figure gift bags in 2006.

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Companies Are Starting To Enforce AI Use. Is That A Good Or Bad Thing?

Years ago, I was working on the editorial side for what was then a hot new media company, and found myself spending more and more time with Johan, the lead programmer, and his team, asking them a lot of annoying questions as it was all so new – certainly to me. I was standing over Johan’s left shoulder, mesmerized by whatever new video game he was obsessing over that week…when suddenly, out of nowhere, a spreadsheet and a pie chart appeared on his screen.

“Whatcha got there, Johan?” asked Jim, Johan’s boss, peering over a sheaf of print-outs as he sharked past the cubicle.

“Hey, just looking at some numbers,” Johan replied. Johan had hit the “game key” in the nick of time – in those days, every video game had a game key – ALT-G if memory serves – calling up a slight variation of the same spreadsheet and pie chart.

This would never happen today. First, you’re probably not working in a cubicle, and if you are, it’s not the game key you’d hit to give your boss the impression that you’re actually doing productive work…it would be the “AI key.”

“Tech Firms Aren’t Just Encouraging Their Workers to Use AI. They’re Enforcing It.”

This article appeared in the February 24 edition of the Wall Street Journal. It includes the subtitle: From startups to giants, including Meta and Google, companies are factoring AI use into performance reviews and trying to track productivity gains

Across industries, companies are now enforcing AI use through performance reviews, dashboards that track adoption, and explicit mandates that tie it to compensation and promotion. What began in Silicon Valley has rapidly spread to consulting firms, banks, manufacturers, hospitals, and even government agencies.

As you’d expect, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft were the first to move from encouragement to enforcement. Employees at these firms now see AI usage metrics appear in quarterly reviews. Non-adopters have reported stalled promotions or explicit warnings that “AI fluency” is a core competency (The Wall Street Journal, Feb 2026, reporting on internal policies).

The trend has jumped sectors. PwC requires every consultant to complete an “AI + Human Skillset” curriculum and incorporates usage into evaluations (Business Insider, Feb 5, 2026). Colgate-Palmolive’s “AI evangelist” tracks adoption across global teams. Major banks have begun tying bonuses to the number of AI-assisted analyses completed. Even some hospitals now require doctors and nurses to use AI-assisted diagnostic tools for certain procedures.

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