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.

Huge Win for Second Amendment — Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down New Jersey’s Unconstitutional Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban and Magazine Limit

The anti-gun agenda suffered a major legal defeat on Friday after the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that New Jersey’s ban on semi-automatic rifles and its prohibition on magazines holding more than 10 rounds violate the Second Amendment.

In a sweeping 10-5 en banc decision, the Third Circuit held that New Jersey’s so-called “assault firearm” ban cannot survive the constitutional test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision. The court also struck down the state’s 10-round magazine limit.

The 192-page opinion concluded that New Jersey’s prohibition on semi-automatic rifles, including the popular AR-15 platform, and its restrictions on so-called “large-capacity magazines” infringe on the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Writing for the majority, the court declared:

“Applying the framework announced in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), we agree with the District Court that New Jersey’s ban on Colt AR-15s violates the Second Amendment. However, because the record supports the same result for all semi-automatic rifles—not only Colt AR-15s—we will MODIFY the District Court’s order so that it deems the Assault Firearm Provisions unconstitutional with respect to the full class of semi-automatic rifles.

We will AFFIRM that part of the order as modified. The LCM Provisions also violate the Second Amendment, so we will REVERSE the District Court’s order with respect to those. Because the LCM Provisions violate the Second Amendment, we need not address the Takings Clause challenge.”

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Calif.: Bass faces mockery after arguing L.A.’s homeless population uses illicit drugs ‘to stay awake for protection’

Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Karen Bass is facing public backlash following controversial remarks regarding methamphetamine (meth) and drug use among the city’s homeless population.

Critics have quickly labeled the comments as an avoidance of the severe substance abuse epidemic fueling the local homelessness crisis. In a recent public discussion regarding the ongoing street crisis, Bass (D-Calif.) bizarrely argued that individuals sleeping on the L.A. streets do not initially use substances out of pure addiction, but rather, turn to illegal stimulants out of “fear” for their personal safety.

During the remarks, Mayor Bass claimed further that a large portion of street-level drug use stems from a survival mechanism rather than standard recreational abuse. Speaking on the city’s encampments, Bass declared that homeless individuals often “use drugs to stay awake for protection” on the city’s streets.

According to Bass’s representatives, who have since come out in support of her message, the mayor’s statement was meant to “highlight the high rates of violence and victimization” experienced by people living in outdoor encampments.

Nonetheless, the framing immediately prompted sharp rebukes from political opponents, community groups and local business owners who argue that the Democrat administration is heavily downplaying the destructive grip of heavy narcotics like fentanyl and methamphetamine.

The political fallout also comes amid a highly contentious mayoral race, where candidates are clashing over the visible reality of open-air drug markets and encampments across “the City of Angels.” Opponents have seized on the mayor’s rhetoric, pointing out that such explanations clearly ignore the criminal infrastructure behind the city’s meth epidemic.

During a recent primary debate, then-mayoral challenger Spencer Pratt directly challenged the city’s current approach to street outreach and voluntary services. Expressing deep skepticism over the concept that those living on streets are simply seeking safety, Pratt asserted, “These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or supermeth.”

While the mayor’s administration frequently champions initiatives like Inside Safe — which focuses on moving individuals from street encampments into temporary hotel rooms — many residents argue that the underlying crises of mental illness and severe drug addiction remain largely unaddressed on the ground.

As the city continues to navigate record expenditures, Bass’s comments have amplified demands for a major policy shift that prioritizes strict law enforcement alongside medical detoxification rather than a permissive view of illicit drug consumption.

Meanwhile, many volunteers and outreach workers on the ground argue that a substantial segment of the street population has abandoned traditional societal expectations entirely.

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Missouri Age Verification Law Signed by Governor Mike Kehoe

Missouri wants to see your ID before you can look at legal content, and it is selling that demand as child protection. Governor Mike Kehoe signed House Bill 1839 on July 9, turning an attorney general rule into hard law and dropping the state deeper into the widening group of governments that treat online anonymity as a loophole to close.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

The statute goes after websites where more than a third of the content qualifies as “sexual material harmful to minors.” Cross that line and you have to route every visitor through a third-party age check before they reach anything. Social media platforms answer to the same requirement once enough of what they host trips the threshold.

The check collects far more than a birthday. A visitor can hand over a government-issued ID, a form of digital identification tied to their legal name, or submit to what the bill calls “a commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an individual.”

That transactional data, the text spells out, can be pulled from mortgage, education, and employment records. Confirming that someone has cleared 18 now means surfacing where they went to school, who holds their loan, and where they work.

Missouri could have asked for a birth year. It chose instead to build a system that welds a person’s real identity to the specific sites they visit, about the most sensitive browsing there is.

The law tells the companies running these checks that they cannot keep what they gather. A third party “shall not retain any identifying information of the individual,” the bill reads, and the attorney general can charge $10,000 for every instance a company hangs onto that data.

The promise reads well on the page. It also rests on trusting that a verification vendor, sitting on a database of IDs matched to porn habits, never gets breached. Age-check providers have leaked this exact kind of information before, and a no-retention clause cannot un-leak a database that has already spilled.

Catherine Hanaway, the state attorney general, enforces the rule and can stack penalties fast. A site faces $10,000 for each day it operates out of compliance, plus an added sum of up to $250,000 if a minor reaches restricted content. Hanaway, who inherited the rule from her predecessor Andrew Bailey, framed the signing as a landmark.

“Our office is proud to have promulgated and enforced Missouri’s age-verification rule, which prompted Pornhub to stop operating in Missouri- delivering one of the most significant online child-protection victories in our state’s history. House Bill 1839 builds on that success, and Missouri will continue leading the nation in standing with parents, protecting children, and holding pornography websites accountable,” she said in a statement.

Representative Sherri Gallick, who sponsored the bill, leaned on exposure figures. “The average age of first exposure is around 11. Early exposure shapes unrealistic expectations with pornography portraying sometimes violent and degrading sexual behavior. Much of the content is violent and demeaning, especially toward women and children,” Gallick wrote.

The bill does carve out news. Bona fide news and public interest content stay exempt, and the text says it cannot be read to touch the work of a news-gathering organization. Internet providers, search engines, and cloud services get their own shield, safe from liability for content they neither create nor control.

Aylo, the company that owns Pornhub, shows how compliance plays out. The site cut off Missouri users in December when the rule first landed, then reappeared as the signing drew near, now serving the state an age-verification prompt where it had gone dark. One version of that gate asked visitors to click “I am 18 or older – Enter” or “I am under 18 – Exit,” a reminder that the heaviest verification machinery tends to fall on the ordinary user while the theater of protection stays cheap.

The requirements take effect August 28.

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Gavin Newsom’s Wife Turns Into a Stuttering Mess When Asked if the Investigation of Her Husband Actually Started Under Biden 

Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom recently appeared on MSNOW and things got a little tricky for her when the host asked her if the federal investigation of her husband actually began under President Joe Biden, which it did.

Suddenly, there was a lot of uh… uhh… uhh… happening on the screen.

She quickly tried to pivot to Trump, but it just didn’t work. It came off as rather awkward.

The New York Post reported:

Jennifer Siebel Newsom calls DOJ probe ‘fishing expedition’ in awkward interview

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, called the investigation targeting the couple a “fishing expedition” in an awkward interview Friday — her first extended comments on the subject since the Democratic governor dropped news in June of a bombshell federal probe.

At one point, the feminist filmmaker seemed flustered when asked directly by MS Now anchor Stephanie Ruhle if the investigation actually started under former Democratic President Joe Biden, as some sources have alleged.

Both the governor, who is considering a run for president in 2028, and wife have stuck to their claims the probe is politically motivated by Republican President Donald Trump.

“I don’t know the details,” Siebel Newsom said after a pause.

She then tried to explain the timeline.

“I do know that Trump was coming after my husband when…back when Biden was president and Biden was running for the presidency.”

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US Embassy Offers Large Cash Sums For Groups In Lebanon To Promote America’s Image

The US Embassy in Lebanon announced that the State Department is offering grants of up to $250,000 to groups that help promote American propaganda. 

“The US Embassy in Beirut is opening a new Notice of Funding Opportunity for 2026,” a statement published this week explained. “We’re looking for partners to implement programs that strengthen ties between the US and Lebanon, with a focus on highlighting US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and advancing digital literacy to help people identify and push back on false, adversarial narratives.“

The State Department website says the program is expected to award $500,000 to at least two groups to promote US propaganda in Lebanon.

It adds that the program’s goal is to “strengthen local public understanding of US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and its role as a partner committed to security, economic opportunity, and responsible regional leadership.”

Washington is attempting to broker a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut. However, Israel is at war with Hezbollah, a non-state military that operates outside of the control of the Lebanese government. 

While Beirut and Tel Aviv inked a deal last month, Hezbollah rejected the agreement because it allowed the IDF to occupy Lebanon until the militia is dismantled. 

According to some of the latest from The Associated Press:

After two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Rome, Lebanon and Israel took steps toward implementing “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces would withdraw and turn over control to the Lebanese army, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into Israel days after Israel and the U.S. launched their war on Iran on Feb. 28. Israel invaded Lebanon and has since occupied a large swathe of the country’s south. Hezbollah has been vehemently opposed to the direct Lebanon-Israel talks.

The attempt to negotiate a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut is making it more difficult for President Donald Trump to end the war against Iran.

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National Public Radio Suggests Banning Trans Surgery for Minors Sets a ‘Dangerous Precedent’

National Public Radio (NPR) recently did a story about how the Trump administration is cracking down on the use of Medicaid and Medicare for so-called ‘gender affirming care’ especially with regards to children.

This is another 80/20 issue that the vast majority of the public supports, it might even be 90/10. Most people do not believe that children should be involved in any of this. We don’t allow children to get tattoos, why would we allow them to get irreversible (and unnecessary) surgery that will affect them for the rest of their lives?

Despite public outcry, Democrats and the left in general, have made it clear that they simply will not let go of this issue.

The language in the NPR story shows that.

NewsBusters reports:

Touted as an exclusive story on National Public Radio from health reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin, “Trump’s HHS abandons threat to withhold Medicare and Medicaid funding over trans care” dutifully repeated the “gender-affirming care for youth” misnomer in the lead while providing only trans-supportive sources.

The Trump administration is abandoning its most aggressive attempt to end gender-affirming care for youth nationally, according to an official document obtained by NPR.

The document shows that the Department of Health and Human Services will not be finalizing a proposed rule that would have blocked all Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care…

The broadcast version that aired on NPR’s All Things Considered Monday added a “dangerous” adjective to the mix.

Simmons-Duffin: ….The American Medical Association and the Children’s Hospital Association both urged the government to withdraw it. They said it violated several laws and set a dangerous precedent….

This is exactly why for years now, conservatives have been calling for the defunding of NPR.

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Lawmakers Urge CDC to Track Vitamin K Shot Refusals as More Parents Say No

Two Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to begin tracking how often parents decline vitamin K injections for newborns, saying the absence of national data is hindering efforts to prevent a rare but potentially fatal bleeding disorder.

In a letter sent to CDC Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) urged the agency to establish surveillance for vitamin K shot refusals, cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) and related infant deaths.

The request follows a ProPublica investigation that raised concerns about increasing refusal rates and gaps in public health monitoring.

“The CDC has the tools to better understand the burden of vitamin K shot refusal, VKDB and VKDB-related deaths,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to use them, and to share that data with the public, so that we can prevent tragic illness and death in infants.”

Though a database would compile patient information, experts suggest that federal and state privacy laws prohibit the disclosure of any personal details.

Deven McGraw, chief regulatory and privacy officer at Citizen Health, said routine data collection is used to monitor tracking and deployment of recommended public health interventions.

“Typically data like this are reported in a de-identified way, or with identifiers removed, as the purpose is for surveillance and to inform policy and not for punishment,” McGraw told The Defender.

‘There is no such thing as zero risk’

Vitamin K injections have been recommended for newborns in the U.S. for decades to help prevent dangerous bleeding during the first months of life.

The shot is not a vaccine, but it has increasingly become caught up in broader debates surrounding childhood immunizations and medical misinformation, according to pediatricians and public health experts.

Physician and researcher Dr. Suzanne Humphries recently told CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD” that media coverage of the issue relies more heavily on fearmongering than empirical data.

Citing figures extrapolated from European populations, Humphries stated that if babies were not given the vitamin K shot, their death from brain bleeding would occur at a rate of approximately 0.26 to 0.9 per 100,000 births.

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Massive Security Blunder Exposes San Francisco Police’s Expanding Drone Surveillance

A major security lapse has exposed hours of live surveillance footage from the San Francisco Police Department’s drone program.

The footage offers a rare glimpse into the scale of aerial policing now taking place over one of America’s largest cities.

According to WIRED, two cybersecurity researchers discovered that live feeds from five SFPD drones had been publicly accessible through a web link generated by drone manufacturer Skydio.

The stream reportedly remained exposed for months before it was taken offline.

The leaked footage showed drones tracking suspects through city streets, monitoring apartment buildings, following vehicles, and assisting officers during arrests and investigations.

In one example, multiple drones tracked a suspect across San Francisco before officers surrounded and arrested him following what police described as an alleged vehicle theft-related incident.

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Has Chuck Schummer Conspired with Netanyahu to Block Iran Peace before the Midterms?

I have received numerous emails asking if Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are attempting to frustrate Trump to prevent him from exiting the Iran War to influence the Midterms by refusing to sign the defense bill for the first time in history. The Democrats under Schummer are clearly trying to prolong the Iran war to discredit Trump for the Midterms. Politics has become simply a political war. This is no longer about what is good for the country including the troops. If one side says the sky is blue, the other must argue it is red even when it is yellow.

Some argue that the Democrats are actively trying to end the war, not prolong it. A “war powers resolution” was introduced by Democrats to force the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iran unless Congress approved further action. That has nothing to do with the actual war, it is simply to embarrass Trump. While this measure failed along party lines as they expected, it does not show that the Democratic party’s official position is against the conflict since they know that would help Trump. It was intended to show that Trump and the Republicans wanted this war.

Without question, this war is already unpopular and harming the administration. The Democrats smell blood. The conflict has been used to push for the “No Kings” rallies and is widely seen as a “political liability” for President Trump and the Republicans in the Midterms. They clearly are trying to prevent any quick and “honorable” way out of a conflict that they argue was initially based on a “misjudgment” with no exit strategy.

The administration’s reasons for the war are disputed by the Democrats. Multiple sources suggest the war’s origins were not tied to nuclear threats (which U.S. intelligence found no evidence of) but rather to a complex mix of factors. These include pressure from the Israeli lobby,  while Netanyahu was escorted into the Situation Room where no other foreign leader ever stepped foot selling the war as if it would be like Venezuela. The public’s lack of understanding of the war’s purpose is cited as a key reason for its unpopularity. This is why the Democrats are not interested in any quick or honorable solution before the Midterms. The Democrats have also put out there that Trump desires to seize Iran’s oil, and to distract from the Epstein scandal.

The Democrats are prolonging the war for political gain, as they paint a picture of a conflict that is hurting the American people, with Democrats actively opposing even funding the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The  NDAA is typically passed on a bipartisan basis each year. Not this time. This is typical Schummer.

Moreover, there is publicly documented meetings between Senator Chuck Schumer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Schumer has regularly participated in official delegations, leadership briefings, and diplomatic events where Israeli leaders are typically present. I have been unable to confirm a private sit-down meeting this year, the two have been mentioned in the same context recently. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress in July 2024 was notably boycotted by Senator Schumer for public a show ONLY, where he tried to pretend opposition to Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza.

Senator Chuck Schumer and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had interaction in February 2025 with an official meeting in Washington, D.C. The two were photographed together at the U.S. Capitol with other congressional leaders. However, on July 24th, 2024, Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress Senator Schumer attended the speech but had an “awkward” interaction with the prime minister, choosing not to shake his hand as a public statement of his opposition to his policies in Gaza.

To illustrate the political BS of Schummer, while he publicly refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand in the in front of the cameras, a photograph and video released by Netanyahu’s office showed them shaking hands during a private meeting held before the speech. This suggests the public refusal was a calculated political gesture to send a message to the American public that was false.

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Los Angeles Spent $60 Million on Nithya Raman Plan to Get Homeless People Off the Street – It Has Housed THREE UNITS

Nithya Raman, the Democratic Socialist (communist) running for mayor of Los Angeles, is also a member of the LA City Council, who chairs their special council on homelessness.

Last year, the city enacted a plan that was championed by Raman, which was intended to get homeless people off the streets and into apartments.

Despite carrying out the plan, which cost $60 million, only three units have been housed as a result.

Los Angeles residents can look forward to more of this kind of success in the future, no matter who wins the current race for mayor, Raman or incumbent Karen Bass.

The New York Post reports:

LA blew $60M on homeless ‘fix’ — it housed just three units

Just three out of a promised 2,000 apartments have been used to relocate the homeless in Nithya Raman’s failed $60 million project to get people off the streets.

Councilmember Raman, the chair of the Los Angeles City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, introduced the Time Limited Subsidy program back in September as a cheaper alternative to Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe Program — meant to get homeless people into an established residence.

Raman’s plan was to lease and move homeless people into 2,000 apartments and subsidize their rent, rather than pay for them to stay in motels or shelters.

However, nearly a year after that plan was launched — with $62.6 million in taxpayer funds behind it — only three apartments are occupied.

The City Council first approved investing in the subsidy model last September as part of its strategy for complying with a court settlement with the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights.

Four months later, on January 28, the council approved resources for a redesigned program targeting 2,000 households…

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