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.

UK Police Arrest 15-Year-Old Over Posts Mocking Politician

Good news for those in the UK who were worried that their country’s police might have been getting a little too comfortable with the idea of going after people for what they say online.

No such luck.

We now learn that four officers, from the West Midlands force, were dispatched to the home of a 15-year-old, to arrest him. And this was no dawn raid to take in some dangerous terrorist suspect – it was a 15-year-old boy who had been making fun of a local councillor’s attire.

And the police seized his phone and laptop.

The whole thing started when the teenager, a Reform UK party activist, posted on Facebook about Conservative councillor Simon Bennett’s conduct and dress at council meetings in Wolverhampton.

Bennett reported the teenager to the police, saying that the posts were “quite personal about my appearance.”

One of the posts compared Bennett’s appearance to that of a “rent boy.” Another one said, “Why do some councillors rock up at a scrutiny committee in shorts and t-shirt in trainers? So unprofessional.”

And then there was one where the teenager Photoshopped rabbit ears onto a picture of Bennett, with the comment, “Nibble… nibble… crunch… crunch Can you hear it? That’s the sound of a rabbit devouring the last remaining shreds of Wolverhampton Conservatives’ credibility.”

Half asleep when the police came for him, the boy recalls the officers telling him that the arrest was for harassment, malicious communications, or a hate crime – or some mix of these. One officer said it was “to do with social media.”

The teenager, who has only been identified as Fraser, was taken in for questioning, and after that, he was bailed and banned from attending council meetings in Wolverhampton.

The police have not explained why four officers were needed to make the arrest.

“The police have not arrested for no reason,” he said. “There were a number of posts that targeted me…It was unpleasant and I was targeted by a child I had no way of dealing with.”

And the councillor also revealed that he had asked the council for advice on what to do, “and they thought it best to report it to the police.”

The police, in turn, “thought it merited arresting him,” Bennett said.

The Free Speech Union has taken up the case and intends to sue the police for “wrongful arrest” and “false imprisonment.”

Meanwhile, the group’s lawyers have written to the police to say that “plainly there has been no offence and the arrest and investigation represent an egregious interference with his rights.”

Fraser, who says he was more active online in criticizing the local Labour Party (which runs the council) than the Conservatives, is still waiting to learn if he will be charged.

This latest incident may just take the cake. Four officers, a laptop seized, and a teenager hauled off – for making fun of a councillor’s outfit. And the police wonder why they are losing the trust of the public.

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George Stephanopoulos’s Actress Wife Once Had Some Creepy Parenting Advice

Democrats have spent a lot of time during President Trump’s second term falsely accusing him and Republicans of being “pedophiles” and “pedophile protectors.” That’s all projection, of course, as Democrats have gone to the mattresses time and again for abusers, with Michigan recently removing 20,000 sex offenders from its registry and Tim Walz pardoning an illegal alien who sexually abused a girl to try to protect that monster from deportation.

But every accusation is a confession, and it turns out George Stephanopoulos’s wife, actress Ali Wentworth, was telling parents years ago they should watch pornography with their children, arguing that “you can’t stop them.”

Here’s more:

Ali Wentworth “would” watch porn with her teenage daughters Elliott, 17, and Harper, 15, for a very specific reason.

The “Night Cap” actress shares her two children with her husband, ABC News’ “Good Morning America” co-host, George Stephanopoulos.

“In porn, women have been conditioned to look and act a certain way,” Wentworth, 55, told Debra Messing and Mandana Dayani on the latest “The Dissenters” podcast episode (via Us Weekly).

She added: “They are performing and it’s dangerous to have boys see this as something women want.”

“You can’t stop them, so I would watch it with them,” the “Go Ask Ali” author explained. “I would look at the porn with them that one time, like, ‘They’re performing.’”

Wentworth also said she tries to sneak in lessons with her daughters when they’re scrolling through social media. “I say,  ‘Do you see this girl? There is a hole she is trying to fill,’” the actress recalled.

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Abdul El-Sayed Is Either Lying or Very Stupid

“If you think health care is expensive now, wait till you see how much it costs when it’s free!” said PJ O’Roarke, famously. 

If there’s one thing government is horrible at it is estimating how much things will cost. I don’t recall a single incidence where the official estimates were well under what a program actually cost, though it has to have happened in the thousands of government programs that exist. 

But healthcare is something they are especially awful at estimating. When Medicare was originally passed, the official government estimates of costs had the entire program costing $12 billion a year by 1990. It cost that much in 5 years, in 1990 the program cost about $100 billion. That’s quite a big miss, don’t you think?

That miss, however, did not give the federal government pause or even have them thinking about repeal, “reform” or really changing the program to cut costs at all. It was only 5 years old, it would have been fairly easy to do, or at least much easier. Yet, they did nothing – and by “they” I mean politicians. 

What Abdul El-Sayed is promising is nothing new, Democrats have been pushing for one degree or another of socialized medicine for decades, and every little step they’ve taken – every time they’ve messed with the system to “improve” it has been designed for that very purpose. 

Obamacare was not only destined to fail; it was designed to. The only problem Democrats had was it failed too soon – right from the start – allowing voters to notice their lies and associate the cost increases with the Democrats directly responsible for them. They also noticed the lack of being able to keep their plan and the doctor they liked, not to mention the fact that the $2,500 in premium savings didn’t materialize, it just went in the other direction. 

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Trump Wants to Give $90 to Seniors and $76 Billion to Health Insurers

With less than a month from the midterm elections, President Trump announced that more than 20 million seniors would get a payment of “nearly $100” to help with their Medicare Part B premiums. The White House later said the actual amount of the one-time payment is $90 and will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund which was created in 2008 to improve traditional Medicare. The White House says it holds about $2 billion.

Congress had been planning to tap the fund later this year to help finance a modest Medicare pay increase for doctors and extend several health programs, including funding for community health centers and bonuses for doctors participating in certain alternative payment models. With the fund now being used for the $90 payments, lawmakers will have to find the money elsewhere or put those plans on hold.

Money is money and I am all for helping American seniors with their medical bills, but $90 won’t cover even half of one month’s premium. After a record increase this year, the standard Part B premium is $202.90

But what’s not in the announcement is far more important than what’s in it: Neither Trump nor CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz has said a word about clawing back the tens of billions of dollars Medicare overpays private insurers every year. Neither did any administration before them, at least not in a way that stuck. In 2026 alone, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) estimates Medicare will pay Medicare Advantage plans $76 billion more than it would spend on the same people in traditional Medicare.

So the $2 billion Trump plans to hand out is less than 3% of what insurers will collect in excess payments this year.

If the $76 billion troubles you then the bigger picture is going to be truly startling. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects that if nothing changes, overpayments will total about $1.2 trillion through 2035. That is all money that big insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Humana get to keep. And it’s money that they don’t want to give up – again with taxpayers being stuck with the bill.

And seniors themselves pay part of that bill. CRFB estimates Medicare Advantage overpayments will add $230 billion to Part B premiums over the next decade. Those higher premiums are paid by everyone enrolled in Part B, including seniors in traditional Medicare who never signed up for a private Medicare Advantage plan.

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British Home Secretary: Nearly All Women Trying to Reach the UK by Boat Are Raped on the Journey

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has made an extraordinary admission about Britain’s Channel migration system, saying “you can almost guarantee that every woman” waiting in northern France has “probably been raped along the journey,” according to reports from the British press.

Mahmood then delivered the line that will reverberate through Britain’s immigration debate: “We’re not in control of this border.” The Home Secretary admitted that criminal trafficking organizations effectively determine which migrants reach northern France and ultimately board dinghies for Britain.

“The sifting of the people that end up in the north of France and are about to get on a dinghy is done by criminal gangs who are also, by the way, people traffickers,” she said. Mahmood added that male migrants are also subjected to abuse, intimidation and threats along the journey.

Her description presents a brutal contradiction at the heart of the Channel system: Britain says it controls immigration, yet organized smugglers can still decide who boards boats and reaches British waters. For immigration restrictionists and sovereigntists, Mahmood’s own language amounts to unusually direct confirmation of their argument that border sovereignty remains compromised.

Mahmood herself argued that such a system cannot determine who eventually settles in Britain. “That is not the model that should decide whether somebody gets to come to the UK, make this their place of sanctuary and ultimately become one of us,” she said.

Her comments came as another large migrant boat reached British waters off Hampshire, bringing the border crisis to Gosport rather than the usual landing points farther east. French rescue vessels shadowed the dinghy before two RNLI boats met it in British waters and brought 149 migrants ashore.

The Home Office confirmed that those aboard would be transported to Kent for processing and undergo health, biometric and security checks. Government officials said contingency arrangements had been activated so the arrivals could be “securely disembarked, checked and processed.”

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Trump’s Repeal of Roadless Rule Would Declare Open Season on Protected Forests

n August 18, Donald Trump’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officially proposed eliminating the national Roadless Rule. If finalized, the repeal would strip protections from 44.7 million acres of wild intact forest.

The rule, passed in 2001, protects in total 58 million acres of forest from road building, logging, fossil fuel extraction, and other development. Forests in Idaho and Colorado, which have their own state roadless laws, would be exempt, at least for now.

The USDA, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, initially gave the public only 30 days to comment on the plan. They were forced after public pressure to allow 15 additional days, until October 6. Opponents are aiming to mobilize 1 million public comments during this short period, as well as sponsoring public events speaking out against the repeal.

One hundred and eighty environmental, conservation, and citizen’s groups have been joined by tribes, sportsmen, wildland firefighters, and businesses dedicated to tourism, in submitting a joint public comment or otherwise speaking out against this decision. A letter in support of the Roadless Rule and opposing recission has been signed by 164 congressional representatives.

The recission is “the largest evisceration of public lands protection in American history,” according to Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Spivak told Truthout the Roadless Rule shelters “hundreds of threatened and endangered species. It provides incredible recreation opportunities — hunting, fishing, hiking. These were really the last of the forests outside of wilderness that had not been opened up to industrial development.”

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Privacy concerns put smart glasses under scrutiny as Norway seeks temporary ban

A trip to the park. A day at the beach. A workout session at the gym. All in public spaces where smart glasses can snap photos, record conversations or stream video online — without people in the line of their lenses and microphones knowing about it.

Norway’s government wants to get a handle on both the promise and peril of AI glasses and is proposing that parliament enact a temporary ban on them in some places.

It’s the latest sign of growing concern in many countries about new technologies that are fundamentally changing the way people live. Some governments have banned the use of social media by children and young teens.

Norway’s government said the proposal for the temporary ban will be made to parliament, the Storting, “as soon as possible.”

AI glasses fan concerns — from showers to seashores and beyond

A key question is where to draw the line.

Norwegian authorities say a ban on the use of smart glasses could apply to places where “privacy is particularly important,” like healthcare facilities, or fitness centers with changing rooms and showers. A major focus is spaces where children congregate, such as schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and youth clubs.

But it could extend to public concerts and sports events, plus parks, beaches, museums and shopping centers.

A temporary ban would give authorities time to decide what types of devices might be affected, and debate whether permanent regulation is needed. The government was quick to note that it was not proposing a total ban and said such devices should still be allowed in some places and for private use.

The government also said it was considering exceptions to a ban for vulnerable groups, so that “socially beneficial uses” of smart glasses could be permitted in some circumstances.

Privacy advocates hail Norway’s move

Adam Smith, a technology advocacy officer at Britain-based Privacy International, said Norway’s move was “a welcome protection against big tech’s greedy attempts to extract ever more data, often in absence of any thought for the privacy or rights of others.”

“No reality exists in which people expect to be secretly surveilled going about their daily lives,” he said.

One effort to rein in the use of AI glasses has run aground — in the home of Silicon Valley.

California’s governor last week vetoed legislation that would have penalized the use of smart glasses to record people without their permission in places like changing rooms, doctor’s offices and other spaces people generally consider private.

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West Virginia Wants Nuclear’s Benefits, Somebody Else Can Handle The Waste

When West Virginia first announced that they had joined the race to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses (NLICs), the central bargain was already clear: nuclear investment comes with responsibility for used fuel. 

We’ve covered this concept a couple times now, highlighting states like Texas and New Mexico that back nuclear investment while fighting storage of out-of-state spent fuel.

Now, West Virginia has joined the club of pro-nuclear pretenders.

Governor Patrick Morrisey signed an exploratory agreement with DOE and announced West Virginia’s entry as the sixth contender in the first week of September. The governor claimed he and his staff went above and beyond to be considered for an NLIC.

It’s not surprising, considering over half the states in the country applied for the program with the knowledge that the campuses could attract up to $50 billion in investment and create nearly 25,000 jobs, each.

The frustrating part is that the expectation to take in used nuclear fuel wasn’t some secret buried in the fine print. West Virginia’s submitted NLIC proposal made temporary used fuel storage a top priority, alongside research into longer-term disposal. Its September agreement explicitly anticipated addressing out-of-state spent fuel and other radioactive waste.

This all only came to light on September 25th when the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported what the administration had actually proposed, using documents obtained through a public-records request. The sales pitch suddenly had an inconveniently readable paper trail.

Multiple lawmakers, even pro-nuclear Republicans, raised concerns about constituents being blindsided. Delegate Josh Holstein said Boone County’s elected representatives had not been informed that the former Hobet mine was among the proposed sites.

By September 27th, Morrisey put out a formal statement declaring a hard flip from his previous posturing: “West Virginia will not be a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Period.“

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Ukraine Claims Over Half of Russia’s Oil Refining Capacity Taken Out in Missile Strikes

Ukraine says its long-range strikes have neutralized more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces during its 4 1/2-year-old invasion.

The Defense Ministry said late Sunday that recent strikes on refineries in cities including Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ust-Luga, Perm, Saratov and Syzran had put 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity out of action. The claim could not be independently verified.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified their aerial assaults as progress along the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line has largely ground to a halt.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked refineries from Moscow to Siberia, sparking a widespread fuel crisis in Russia earlier this year that forced authorities to restrict gasoline sales.

Russian officials have not publicly revealed any data on damage caused to the country’s oil infrastructure. However, President Vladimir Putin said in a rare admission on Oct. 1 that the strikes had cost Russia roughly 1% of its gross domestic product.

“They started attacking oil refineries and openly declared the goal of damaging our economy. Did they achieve their goal? Partially,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Club forum of international foreign policy experts.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said analysts from Ukraine´s intelligence services, the General Staff and the Defense Ministry had assessed the strikes’ effects.

“Fifty-one percent of struck refining capacity is a significant blow to the enemy´s economy, to its ability to carry out aggression and supply its troop groupings. Our deep strikes continue to bring the war to Russian territory,” he said.

Russia has historically been the world’s third-largest producer of refined fuel products from crude after the U.S. and China.

Some of Russia’s 32 refineries have been hit as many as 15 times since the start of the war, and one refinery has been hit every three days in recent months, creating a cycle of damage and emergency repairs that could degrade units long term, according to the International Energy Agency.

Ukrainian strikes have also increasingly targeted the more complex equipment that removes impurities from fuel, which takes months to repair. The IEA says diesel output has fallen by about 30%, and drivers have had to wait up to 40 hours to fill up at gasoline stations.

Russian refiners have tried to compensate by delaying scheduled maintenance and bringing mothballed units back online. Another response has been to lower fuel quality standards to maintain gasoline supplies, which risks damage to engines and pollution control equipment.

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Turkish Cargo Ship Sunk By Drone Strike Off Romania, Two Sailors Killed

There’s no doubt that the tit-for-tat war on Black Sea shipping is getting nastier. For several months now, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have traded drone and missile attacks on ports and ships, disrupting vital Black Sea trade.

For Ukraine this national transit lifeline is even more important amid its war time economy. A major incident has unfolded Monday after an alleged direct hit by Russian drone on a Turkish cargo ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian port.

Two crew members died, while eleven others were rescued, and with another reported missing. Ukraine quickly blamed Russia for the attack.

Romanian vessels and helicopters conducted the large rescue operation off national waters, some 20 miles from the NATO member’s shore.

The Saint Kitts and Nevis flagged ship – identified as the Royad Mammadov – eventually sunk as a result of the attack after catching fire in the wake of the initial drone impact and blasts.

It had reportedly been headed out of the Ukrainian port of Ismail in the Odesa region navigating towards Ravenna, Italy when it came under assault.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky laid direct blame on Russia. “A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn and owned by Türkiye. Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were on board,” he wrote on X.

“As of now, unfortunately, we know that the ​ship’s captain was killed. My condolences. The fate of one other person is still being ‌established. Eleven ⁠crew members were rescued, one of them injured,” he added.

While Russian authorities did not comment or own up to the specific attack, the Russian Defense Ministry did announce hours earlier that its forces had struck two cargo vessels, according to Reuters.

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