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.

Doctor suspended over ivermectin importation, Medsafe threats and vaccine claims

A doctor who tried to import 2000 unapproved Covid-19 treatment tablets, threatened health officials, and sent alarmist vaccine claims to a media executive has been suspended from practice.

Timaru general practitioner Dr Tracy Anne Chandler was suspended for three months by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal after it found her guilty of professional misconduct across nine allegations.

The Tribunal found Chandler committed malpractice and negligence during the Covid-19 pandemic between August 2021 and August 2022.

Her conduct included attempting to bulk-import 2000 tablets of unapproved ivermectin from India without specific patients in mind, while telling Medsafe she needed them for “an epidemic of patients with parasites unresponsive to usual treatments”.

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FCC Chairman Carr scolds Democrats for opposing transgender ‘warning’ label in kids’ TV ratings

When a novel flu epidemic hit Springfield on a 1993 episode of The Simpsons, devout Christian neighbor Ned Flanders feared that his chuckling at a suggestive joke on Married … with Children might have prompted divine wrath.

“Oh, the network slogan is true!” Flanders wailed, referring to the home of The Simpsons and Married … with Children. “Watch Fox and be damned for all eternity!”

Thirty-three years later, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr aims to mitigate another epidemic spreading under the radar in children’s TV programming, lest it widely infect impressionable eyes and ears: gender ideology.

He has thrice publicly excoriated congressional Democrats in the past two weeks for opposing the shorthanded commission’s work to “ensure that parents have the information necessary to decide what is appropriate for their own kids and families to watch,” as Carr posted Monday afternoon on X and had reposted by Tuesday morning in case anyone missed it.

Carr first blasted “nearly 70” Democratic lawmakers Sept. 28 for “pushing to prevent parents from having any say over their children being exposed to controversial gender identity ideologies” on TV, referring to a June 5 letter from Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and a June 22 letter led by California Rep. Mark Takano, signed by 68 House Democrats in all.

He pointed to Disney Jr.’s 2018 reboot of the 1980s cartoon Muppet Babies, which in the episode “Gonzo-rella” has male Gonzo wearing a “princess dress to a royal ball,” passing as a girl and going by plural pronouns. Netflix’s Strawberry Short Cake reboot “promotes a trans character that wears clothing that matches the transgender pride flag,” Carr said.

Contrary to these brands promoting themselves as “family friendly […] the FCC’s record is now replete with all sorts of examples of Hollywood and New York programmers going around parents to promote their gender ideologies,” he said.

In both posts, Carr shared Takano-specific images of his Sept. 22 response letter to apparently every Democrat who signed the congressman’s letter. He does not appear to have shared the original 204-page PDF beyond page 14 of the commission’s document feed as of Tuesday night; the most recent letters posted to Carr’s own commission page are from 2025.

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The Donald’s Quixote Is Tilting at Iranian Windmills

Treasury Secy Scott Bessent clearly endeavors to be the second Pete Hegseth of Trump World, albeit via packing heat in the form of economic missiles rather than the kinetic kind.

In fact, however, his ballyhooed Operation Economic Outcast actually amounts to the greatest windmill tilting operations since Don Quixote himself.

So let’s cut to the chase right up front. To wit, Bessent’s premise that he can switch-off Iran’s military payroll and bring the regime to its knees by driving its oil exports to zero is wholly delusionary. The former (regime collapse) does not remotely follow from the latter (oil exports at zero), which for all practical purposes has already happened.

So herein we endeavor to explain why cutting off Iran’s oil exports isn’t any kind of war-winning silver bullet at all.

Nevertheless, on October 3rd the Treasury Secretary claimed that—

“They are isolating them economically like this never happened before. You know, right now, the score: barrels out of the Strait: U.S. about 1.1 billion, Iran zero,” Bessent told Allen.

Bessent continued, “For the first time in history, they, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week. They will have no revenue.”

This bombast, of course, was just a continuation of the claim he made a six weeks earlier upon the launch of Operation Economic Outcast:

Beginning today, the actions of Treasury and other agencies will tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and the Iranian regime… to the ordinary soldiers supporting this regime: as more and more of your paychecks stop or are supposedly “just delayed,” ask whether your commanders are leading your country to triumph or to ruin.

In short, the Bessent plan purports to “defund” the IRGC by closing the black market space where enablers buy the purportedly “illegal” Iranian oil. Thereafter per the Bessent formula, the Iranian regime’s military will be left financially high and dry as:

  • oil loadings go to zero,
  • export FX earnings go to zero,
  • the Iranian war machine stops getting paid,
  • the regime is forced to surrender or flee.

But that purported mechanism is but an illusory windmill. That’s because a regime that can still collect domestic taxes, pursue essential trade via overland routes, and, most importantly, print Iranian rials at will can keep a military payroll running long after the oil account has been bled dry.

That is to say, the military payroll does not remotely depend upon the oil export account. It is a small, prioritized claim on overall domestic product (GDP), and the arithmetic below is why zero oil export loadings do not zero it out.

We therefore start with a tally of Iran’s standing military force and the resulting payroll cost at current rates. It consists of about 880,000 active full-time soldiers, in four blocks.

These include the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) proper at about 170,000, including the ultra vicious Quds Force that sits inside that total at 5,000 to 15,000. The internal paramilitary force known as the Basij adds another 90,000.

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Caretakers or Conquerers?

When President Trump’s Republican acolytes primaried long-time US Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and defeated him in the most expensive Congressional primary race in history (about $30 million) in May, pundits offered their assumptions and agendas.

The Trumpites said he wasn’t nice playing their ball game (I’m being diplomatic) and therefore deserved to be sidelined. They couldn’t abide a rogue Republican, even if he did vote with the president 92 percent of the time. Opposing the war in Iran was over the top.

Massie matched the Trumpites dollar for dollar in the campaign because as heir to the Ron Paul movement, he has many friends beyond his rural Congressional district. They supported him in this toe-to-toe duel, grateful for a champion who dared to question mainstream narratives.

These narratives, as it turns out, are many and his district has supported him on maverick positions in the past. He opposed virtually everything Dr. Anthony Fauci said. He opposed lockdowns. He opposed mandatory mRNA jabs. He opposed the inflationary Covid relief bill. All of this was tolerated and applauded by the majority of his constituents.

But daring to question obliterating the Persians (Iran) without constitutionally-mandated Congressional approval was too much and his country boys and girls turned him out. Why was the anti-war position intolerable?

For the answer, I’ll go back 30 years when organic farming was in its infancy. As a nonchemical farmer, I was in the vanguard of this movement and privy to the early arguments pitting compost against chemicals. As a country boy farmer myself, I have many friends and relatives in the chemicals-will-save-us camp.

As the arguments between the compost-vs-chemical camps became more defined, I noticed a profound philosophical difference. As with most altercations, it takes awhile for the two sides to get to the nub of their disagreement. Over time, ancillary things give way to the core issue.

In the compost-vs-chemical debate, the core issue was nurturing versus conquering. The chemical folks argued that they needed to conquer the weeds, weather, and worms. My compost-loving group diametrically opposed the Conquistador approach and argued that the goal was nurturing, promoting plant diversity, appreciating weather limitations, and loving earthworms.

The difference in approach moved me to develop a five-minute theatrical gig titled “Organic Farmers are Sissies.” I riffed on this masculine, macho mentality to conquer with chemicals rather than coming alongside natural patterns as a masseuse. It generated a lot of laughs in the organic farming community while pinpointing the nub of the philosophical difference.

“Men want to feel pig iron under their thighs. They want to come into the house smelling like diesel and grease so their wives can swoon ‘what a man.’ It’s just not manly to come in and explain to your beloved ‘I’ve made the cows happy. That’s just not manly.” This was all part of my act.

What made it funny was the truth underlying it. What does that have to do with Massie’s rejection? I believe the American country-boy mystique is wrapped up in conquering things. Trump enjoys overwhelming support in rural America. Country folks like to fight. Hatfields and McCoys. 

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New Report Confirms Biden’s DOJ Did Target Parents Who Spoke Out At School Board Meetings

The Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group released a report Monday concluding that former Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Oct. 4, 2021 school board memo grew out of pressure from the Biden White House and turned the department’s law enforcement powers on parents.

The report describes how DOJ officials under President Joe Biden looked for ways to bring federal cases against parents and protesters who addressed school boards and school officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also contains the Working Group’s formal acknowledgment that the prior administration’s actions “chilled the exercise of parental and free speech rights, parents who lawfully exercised their parental rights and freedom of speech were often targeted by members of the educational establishment.”

Garland addressed the memo to the FBI director, the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, the director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and U.S. attorneys nationwide. The memo told its recipients that “in recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence,” even though, according to the report, he had seen very little evidence of actual violence or violent threats against school administrators or at school board meetings when he signed it.

The Working Group traces the memo’s ideological origin to a letter the National School Boards Association sent to Biden on Sept. 29, 2021, five days before Garland acted. That letter asked the federal government to consider that “these heinous actions” “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Records cited in the report show that leadership at the Biden White House and the DOJ pressed for a memo that would locate a federal “hook” for prosecuting parents and charging protesters with federal crimes.

“Among the most egregious findings, exhibits show that individuals in the Biden White House and Attorney General Garland’s advisors wanted to involve federal law enforcement and prosecutors in matters involving parents and school boards,” a DOJ press release explains.

Further, the Memo established a task force to find federal enforcement options for investigating and prosecuting parents, and the FBI opened 25 “Guardian assessments” on parents. One FBI whistleblower disclosed that a mother was investigated because she “is a gun owner” and belonged to a “right-wing mom’s group.”

Internal communications and investigative records show that more than a dozen DOJ and FBI personnel raised concerns about the memo and its directive. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” one employee wrote. Another wrote that “they might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force.” Several of the objections centered on the law. One staffer warned that the directive was “challenging from a First Amendment perspective,” and another said it placed the department on “potentially dangerous ground.” Other employees focused on how the directive would reflect on the department. One wrote that the memo “look[s] political.” Another called it “a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration,” and a third cautioned that it would “tarnish reputation as an apolitical law enforcer.” One described the effort as “very messy and political.” Shorter reactions in the record include “ridiculous,” “horrible,” and “confusing.”

Emails cited in the report show that Garland issued the memo over those objections and that White House officials influenced his decision.

The department announced a series of remedial steps alongside the findings. Parents and other school board meeting participants who became subjects or targets of a Guardian assessment because of the memo will have the opportunity to review their assessment. The FBI has closed or discontinued most of those files, and each one will now carry a disclaimer stating that the memo raised serious constitutional concerns and that readers should treat the assessment with caution.

The DOJ will also review the file of every person investigated under the memo. Where reviewers identify a constitutional violation, the department will issue a formal apology and adopt internal controls intended to prevent a recurrence.

Leaders of the DOJ and the Department of Education sent letters on parental rights to the attorneys general of all 50 states. The department said Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Trump administration have made securing parental and First Amendment rights a top priority.

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Karen Bass: Trump ‘Invaded’ L.A. to Intimidate Latino Immigrants

Tuesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said President Donald Trump “invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

Bass said, “Well, first of all, I was horrified that the president would basically say that another country is perfectly fine to take out or to attack our city and our sister city two hours away. The role of the president is to protect and defend the American people. He went to war with Iran, and he basically said, it‘s okay, that it‘s a small price to pay to attack 3.8 million people in the nation‘s second largest city. I was horrified by those comments. But then again, we are the city that he invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

She added, “I think that when our city was invaded by the Marines and and 4000 National Guard troops for no reason at all, that that’s all part of the plan to get the U.S. public to acclimate to military intervention in our cities. I said from day one, I thought L.A. was an experiment and this was going to spread around the country. We saw that that was the case. Now, maybe the next time it happens, Americans won’t be so outraged because they’ve seen so many cities have federal intervention from the military. It’s a misuse of the military and irresponsible words.”

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Zohran Mamdani Administration Signs Multimillion Dollar Contracts With Vendors for ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care for Minors

The administration of Zohran Mamdani in New York City has just signed contracts worth upwards of $9 million with vendors who will provide ‘gender-affirming care’ to minors, including puberty-blocking drugs.

This issue seriously hurt Democrats in 2024, and they clearly do not care. They simply refuse to let go of it, no matter what the public thinks.

Their activist base won’t allow them to move on.

The New York Post reports:

The Mamdani administration is entering into two contracts totaling $8.9 million to provide “gender-affirming” sex reassignment care to transgender patients under the age of 18.

The move backs a policy the federal Department of Justice has challenged as medically dangerous and illegal.

The city Department of Health identified two vendors — Callen-Lorde and Nonprofit Organization for Philanthropic Initiatives — to provide the services in contracts that run from 2027-29.

“This includes the prescription and administration of puberty-blockers and hormone replacement therapy to all minor patients for whom such services are medically necessary based on the prevailing standards of care,” the DOH said in a public notice.

“Services will be performed by qualified medical providers with current New York State licensure, and will be provided consistent with state laws governing parental consent.”

Critics blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team, claiming they are trying to circumvent the federal ban on gender care services for minors.

“They’re making an ideological decision instead of a medical decision,” said state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar.

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To Limit Immigration, Japan Hikes Residency App Fee 20-Fold, Requires Incomes Higher Than National Average

Japan has raised the fee for permanent residency applications twentyfold and imposed stricter income, pension and language requirements on foreigners seeking to settle long-term, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government moves to curb growth in the foreign resident population.

The move is being presented as a tool to protect public finances and social cohesion.

The fee for permanent residency rose from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen (about $1,270) on Oct. 1, the Immigration Services Agency reported. Charges to change or extend other residence statuses, long fixed at 6,000 yen, now scale with the length of stay and reach 75,000 yen for permits of five years or more. Reduced rates remain available for applicants facing severe hardship who also qualify for humanitarian consideration.

The adjustments arrive after the foreign resident population reached a record 4.12 million at the end of 2025, up 9.5% in a single year. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has framed the tighter rules as a way to keep acceptance orderly.

“The government acknowledges that some citizens feel anxious or a sense of unfairness due to the rising number of foreign residents,” Takaichi wrote on X. The changes, she said, are meant to “ensure order” and allow “both citizens and foreign nationals to live safely and securely.”

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Trump’s Other War

As the midterm election draws near, a number of Republicans in tough races are distancing themselves from President Trump’s war. The war is unpopular because it has inflicted economic pain on the already-suffering American people.

No, I am not talking about the Iran War. I am talking about President Trump’s tariff war.

The Tax Foundation estimates that, since he returned to the White House, President Trump has imposed tariffs on about 54 percent of imported goods.

Contrary to the claims of power-hungry politicians and corporatists seeking protection from overseas competitors, the financial burden of tariffs falls on American businesses and consumers, not foreign exporters. Tariffs are a tax on Americans.

President Trump’s tariffs have been estimated to impose an over 800 dollars tax on the average American household this year.

Tariff defenders claim tariffs boost domestic industries, thus strengthening the US economy. The truth is, while tariffs may benefit some industries that have major competition from abroad, tariffs harm American businesses, like farms, that rely on exports for a substantial share of revenue. Additionally, countries often respond to increased tariffs on goods exported to the US by raising tariffs on imports from the US.

High tariffs also hurt businesses that rely on importing raw materials and parts necessary to make their products.

According to a survey of 4,150 registered voters conducted by the Cato Institute and Morning Consult, 74 percent of Americans view tariffs as a factor in the price increases that continue to bedevil American families, while 53 percent of Americans understand that tariffs weaken the US economy.

The survey’s most disheartening result — at least for President Trump and Republicans preparing to face the voters in less than a month — is that 49 percent of Americans say President Trump’s tariffs have made their lives worse.

President Trump launched his tariff war without receiving approval from Congress, even though Article One of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power “to lay and collect” taxes. In order to get around the Constitution, President Trump claimed that federal laws giving the president emergency powers give him the authority to impose tariffs and thus increase taxes on the American people.

President Trump’s claim regarding his authority to impose tariffs without authorization from Congress was struck down by the Supreme Court. Then, instead of taking the opportunity the court gave him to end his tariff war, President Trump simply found new justifications to impose tariffs.

One of President Trump’s latest tariff targets is Canada. The Canadian government responded to President Trump’s tariffs by imposing tariffs on US goods. President Trump then responded by forbidding the importation of a long list of Canadian goods. Once again President Trump acted without getting authorization from Congress.

President Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for American consumers, increased production costs for many American businesses that rely on imported materials and goods, and hurt farmers and other export-reliant business.

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Putin’s Winter Strategy: Destroy Ukraine’s Infrastructure, Intimidate Berlin

Russia’s drone and missile campaign against Ukraine has entered a new phase, aimed at the infrastructure that keeps Ukraine’s cities functioning and at the countries that keep its military supplied. In Kyiv, Russian drone strikes have closed or restricted three of six road bridges linking the capital’s two banks.

In Germany, Ukraine’s largest European provider of military aid, the government has blamed Moscow for an explosive-laden drone found at Leipzig airport and says it expects more hybrid attacks. With ceasefire talks unlikely to produce results before spring 2027, Putin appears to be using the winter to raise the cost of the war for Ukrainians and for Berlin.

The bridge strikes on October 1 and 2 targeted a pressure point in how Kyiv is laid out. The South Bridge, which carries both road traffic and metro trains, was hit three times in 24 hours, and the city has no vehicle tunnel under the Dnipro.

Before the 2022 invasion, more than a third of the city’s roughly 3 million residents lived on the eastern, or left, bank. Most government institutions and companies sit on the western bank. After the October 2 strikes, the Paton Bridge was closed in both directions, restrictions were placed on the Metro Bridge, and public transport was rerouted.

The Kyiv Defense Council called an emergency meeting on cross-river traffic. Traffic was restored by midday, but the attacks showed that Russia can disrupt movement between the city’s two banks within hours. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck an automobile-railway bridge because it was being used to move troops and military supplies.

Ukrainian officials link the bridge strikes to a decision made in Moscow. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that Putin ordered his military leadership in September to abandon previous restraints on drone and missile strikes, citing intercepted Kremlin communications. “He said there are no rules now,” Zelenskyy said. Since then, Russian strikes have hit schools, hospitals, and data centers in Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the newspaper that Russian forces do not strike civilian infrastructure. The escalation followed a pause in strikes against Kyiv that Putin ordered during a visit by U.S. negotiators in September.

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