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.

LONG OVERDUE: State Department to Crack Down on Universities That Take Money From Foreign Entities on Government Watch Lists

The State Department and a handful of other government agencies are going to start cracking down on colleges and universities that take money from foreign entities that are on government watch lists.

This is something we should have been doing for years, but better late than never.

Higher education is always looking for new forms of revenue and will take cash from pretty much anywhere. It’s a significant threat to national security.

CBS News reports:

Universities receive millions in funding from foreign entities on U.S. government watch lists, records show

Major U.S. universities have received millions of dollars in funding from foreign entities that are on U.S. government watch lists, according to a CBS News review of university funding records submitted to the Department of Education.

State Department and Education Department officials say the disclosure forms, which have not been previously reported, show a combined $27.6 million received in roughly the second half of last year by dozens of top American research institutions that originated from entities appearing on at least one federal government watch list. There are 10 cautionary and restricted watch lists overseen by the departments of Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Defense and State, which flag companies and organizations that should be subject to extra scrutiny due to their ties to foreign government interests.

The two agencies are working together to crack down on academic partnerships with foreign companies and organizations that the Trump administration says could threaten national security.

In one example from the disclosure forms, a company in China that develops state-of-the-art aeronautics for the People’s Liberation Army gave more than $7 million total to three American universities considered top-tier research institutions. In another instance, the largest amount in the documents, disclosed in 2020, was $22.6 million for a 50-year contract from the Beijing Institute of Technology to Bryant University in Rhode Island.

On Wednesday, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah B. Rogers sent a letter to the governing boards of major research universities alerting them that future grant-making agencies will be checking if institutions take money from foreign entities on U.S. watch lists — and could pull federal funding for those that do.

At the end of Trump’s first term, Senate Republicans were aggressively pursuing action against China and the huge influence they wield on American college campuses.

It’s good to see the second Trump administration revisiting the topic with an even broader view.

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The Maine Senate Debate Was Pure Dumpster Fire — Even The New York Times Admits It

When Graham Platner dropped out of Maine’s Senate race, Democrats figured they’d dodged a bullet. All they had to do was find a competent replacement to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and the seat was theirs for the taking. That was the narrative, anyway.

Then their candidates took the stage Thursday night for the first primary debate, and the bullet found them anyway.

The debate, hosted by News Center Maine on July 16, featured four candidates in the first hour: former State Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former congressional aide Jordan Wood, and Dr. Nirav Shah, all of whom lost separate Democrat primaries for higher office in Maine earlier this year. This is the B team.

Don’t take my word for it.

The New York Times, which would love nothing more than to watch Collins lose, reviewed the performance. “Halting answers. Convoluted responses and stilted deliveries,” was its verdict. “Former State Senator Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide, all struggled to match the forceful message and rhetorical prowess of Mr. Platner, whose rallies electrified voters over the last year.”

When even the New York Times can’t spin a Democrat debate into a triumph, you know it was ugly.

The low point belonged to Bellows. The candidates spent the night attacking Collins for supposedly rubber-stamping President Donald Trump’s agenda, and her actual voting record kept getting in the way. Discussing the military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Bellows claimed, “What Susan Collins has failed to stop is a completely unstable foreign policy.”

“Collins did vote for a war powers resolution to limit what Trump could do in Venezuela in January, right?” moderator Phil Hirschkorn asked.

“Forgive me,” Bellows said. She explained that she had been on vacation a week earlier and hadn’t expected to run for Senate at all after losing her bid for governor. “When I need to know the facts, I will,” she added. “I’ll do my homework.”

Think about that for a second. A sitting secretary of state, running for the United States Senate, promised voters she would get around to learning the facts at some point down the road.

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California Grocery Stores Use Facial Recognition Technology To Combat Theft

Faced with a shoplifting epidemic that has battered California retailers for years, Grocery Outlet is fighting back with technology.

Customers are not thrilled about it.

The Emeryville-based discount grocery chain has begun installing facial recognition software called SAFR at a handful of Bay Area stores, including its Pleasant Hill “Bargain Market” location, CBS News San Francisco reported.

Customers walking through the doors will find signs warning them the system is in use, a disclosure the company says is meant to keep shoppers informed.

The rollout comes as California tries to combat a shoplifting problem that has spiraled out of control.

FBI data cited by CBS shows theft in the state has jumped 50 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic, a surge that has forced retailers from big-box chains to neighborhood grocers to spend millions on security measures, or in some cases, shutter stores altogether.

For June Guerrero, who spent years managing a retail store, the new technology is a welcome and overdue response to a problem she saw firsthand.

“I worked for years as a manager of a store and the theft was just unbelievable,” Guerrero told CBS News. “I agree with it.”

Not every customer sees it that way. Barbara Jackson told the outlet she’s uneasy about having her face scanned every time she shops for groceries.

“I do understand, but invading my privacy with my picture, I don’t agree on that,” Jackson said. “You gotta find a better way.”

Shopper Steve Burdette raised a different concern: the risk of the system misidentifying innocent customers as thieves.

“It could lead to a lot of problems, I think for companies and businesses and people,” he said.

SAFR president Charisse Jacques pushed back on the notion that the technology amounts to mass surveillance. She said the company does not maintain a database of every customer who walks through the door, retains information on suspected shoplifters only for a limited window, and does not share data with outside agencies — including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the New York Post.

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DSA Official Shows He Doesn’t Even Understand the Difference Between the Senate and the House of Representatives

Gustavo Gordillo is the co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in New York City. Today, he appeared on FOX News and showed that he does not even understand the difference between the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Host Martha MacCallum was trying to clarify his position and the DSA’s position on the Senate because their official platform says that they want to abolish the body.

Gordillo says: “The United States Senate is an undemocratic institution. It gives more representation to people in smaller states than to the 30 million people in California.”

First of all, we are not a democracy and that was a choice the founders made on purpose. They did not want America to be a democracy.

More importantly, the Senate doesn’t represent the people, that’s what the House of Representatives is for. That’s why a large state like California has 52 House members and Wyoming has only one.

The Senate represents the states. Each state gets two senators to represent them in the Senate so that all the states have equal representation.

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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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