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.

Hims and Hers Stops Offering Semaglutide Drugs Following FDA Scrutiny

Telehealth business Hims and Hers will stop offering customers pills made of compounded semaglutide, which is used for weight loss and diabetes control, the company said in a Feb. 7 post on X.

Compounded drugs are medications created by licensed pharmacists or physicians by mixing and combining the various ingredients of a drug. These are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as a result of which their safety, quality, and effectiveness remain suspect. Semaglutide is the active ingredient of medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which are GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and weight loss.

On Feb. 5, Hims and Hers announced it was offering compounded semaglutide to customers.

“This new option features a specialized formulation that is engineered to protect the active ingredient through digestion and support absorption,” it said.

The company offered introductory plans beginning at $49 from the first month, with a 5-month plan. Hims and Hers claimed it adhered to “all federal and state standards for compounding.” Moreover, all active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the compounded drugs are exclusively sourced from facilities registered with the FDA, according to the company.

In a Feb. 5 post on X, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency would take “swift action” against companies that mass-market copycat drugs with a claim that they are similar to FDA-approved products.

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Not Just the Somalis: Nigerian Honored by Gretchen Whitmer Exposed as Massive Day Care Fraudster – Stole While Trashing America’s ‘Structural Racism’

Michigan might have its own fraud scandal brewing.

After widespread fraud was uncovered in Minnesota’s day care and other government-funded social service programs, most of them run by people linked to the immigrant Somali community, the public’s crosshairs turned to state officials, particularly Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. Surely these people were not stealing billions from hardworking Americans without having help from public officials?

Similar questions may soon be asked in Michigan of its own programs and its Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

A former professor, Nigerian immigrant Nkechy Ezeh, pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud and tax evasion in a scheme that defrauded Michigan taxpayers out of over $1 million, according to news site MLive.

The misappropriated money had been intended for Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, an early childhood education program for disadvantaged children. Ezeh was the founder and CEO of ELNC.

“The nonprofit closed in 2023 after Ezeh and former Director of Finance and Administration Sharon Killebrew were accused of embezzling more than $2.5 million combined over several years,” WZZM-TV reported.

Killebrew, 70, was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud a federally funded program, according to MLive.

Ezeh faces 20 years for wire fraud. The charge of tax evasion could carry an additional five years in prison.

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Massive TikTok Fine Threat Advances Europe’s Digital ID Agenda

A familiar storyline is hardening into regulatory doctrine across Europe: frame social media use as addiction, then require platforms to reengineer themselves around age segregation and digital ID.

The European Commission’s preliminary case against TikTok, announced today, shows how that narrative is now being operationalized in policy, with consequences that reach well beyond one app.

European regulators have accused TikTok of breaching the Digital Services Act by relying on what they describe as “addictive design” features, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalized recommendations.

Officials argue these systems drive compulsive behavior among children and vulnerable adults and must be structurally altered.

What sits beneath that argument is a quieter requirement. To deliver different “safe” experiences to minors and adults, platforms must first determine who is a minor and who is not. Any mandate to offer different experiences to minors and adults depends on a reliable method of telling those groups apart.

Platforms cannot apply separate algorithms, screen-time limits, or nighttime restrictions without determining a user’s age with a level of confidence regulators will accept.

Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier described the mechanics bluntly, saying TikTok’s design choices “lead to the compulsive use of the app, especially for our kids, and this poses major risks to their mental health and wellbeing.” He added: “The measures that TikTok has in place are simply not enough.”

The enforcement tool behind those statements is the Digital Services Act, the EU’s platform rulebook that authorizes Brussels to demand redesigns and impose fines of up to 6% of global annual revenue.

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544 Mentions, Zero Accountability: The Dark Ties Between Tom Barrack and Jeffrey Epstein

What does it mean when a man entrusted to represent the United States abroad appears 544 times in the files of the most notorious child sex trafficker of the modern era? What does it say about American power when a sitting U.S. ambassador and presidential envoy exchanged affectionate messages, coordinated media silence, attended elite off-the-record dinners, and remained in sustained private contact with Jeffrey Epstein years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes against minors?

These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are unavoidable questions raised by the Department of Justice’s Epstein files. Those records place Tom Barrack at the centre of Epstein’s world, not its edges. Barrack is no minor figure. He is a billionaire financier, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump, a major campaign fundraiser, the chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee, and later the U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye. He is also Trump Special Envoy to Lebanon and Syria.

Barrack does not surface in the files as a distant acquaintance who brushed past Epstein before the scandal broke. He emerges instead as a trusted, repeatedly activated figure within Epstein’s private ecosystem—a man comfortable enough to exchange family photographs, discuss press strategy, attend private dinners with intelligence-linked figures, and maintain casual intimacy with a convicted sexual predator whose entire social universe revolved around secrecy, leverage, and control.

The Epstein files do not simply stain Barrack’s reputation. They force a reckoning with how American diplomacy actually functions when stripped of ceremony and rhetoric. They expose a system where power flows through private inboxes, encrypted apps, and shared silences, and where proximity to a known sex offender is not disqualifying so long as the individual remains useful.

As the reader absorbs this, it becomes evident that Barrack’s presence in Epstein’s orbit was not incidental. To understand why, we must examine the utility he represented—not just as a friend or ally, but as a gatekeeper, a man whose personal and professional capacities made him invaluable to Epstein’s network of influence and secrecy.

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Zelensky tries to kill the chance for Russia-Ukraine peace, again

The assassination attempt on Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, first deputy chief of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is clearly the Zelensky regime’s latest desperate bid to sabotage the emerging Russia-Ukraine-US negotiations channel in Abu Dhabi and prolong the war.

When negotiations gain traction, spoilers surface. That’s Negotiations 101. And this week’s second round in Abu Dhabi was precisely the kind of movement that unnerves actors who fear ballots, reforms, and accountability more than inevitable defeat on the battlefield.

The target choice reinforces the point. Alekseyev is the second-in-command of GRU chief Igor Kostyukov – who sits on the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi. Striking the No. 2 as the No. 1 shuttles between sessions is both a very deliberate message and an attempt to rattle Russia’s delegation, inject chaos into its decision loop, force security overdrive, and ultimately, provoke Moscow’s withdrawal from the talks.

Nor is this the first time kinetic theater has tracked with diplomatic motion. Recall the attempted drone strike on President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai residence in late 2025, which coincided with particularly intense US-Russia exchanges. You don’t have to be a cynic to see a pattern: whenever the diplomatic door cracks open, someone try to slam it shut with explosives, drones, or bullets – then retreats behind a smokescreen of denials and proxies. Call it plausible deniability as policy.

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Israel to expand its control in West Bank, make settlers’ land seizures easier, media say

Israel’s security Cabinet approved a series of steps on Feb 8 that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting the Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians, Israeli media reported.

The West Bank is among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Citing statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, Israeli news sites Ynet and Haaretz said the measures included scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank.

They were also reported to include allowing the Israeli authorities to administer some religious sites, and expand supervision and enforcement in areas under PA administration in matters of environmental hazards, water offences and damage to archaeological sites.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the new measures were dangerous, illegal and tantamount to de-facto annexation.

The Israeli ministers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new measures come three days before Prime Minister 

Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet in Washington with US President Donald Trump.

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David Sacks Exposes New York Times For Shielding Reid Hoffman In Epstein Files

Venture capitalist David Sacks has slammed The New York Times for its glaring failure to scrutinize Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder emerging as the top Silicon Valley figure in the explosive Jeffrey Epstein files.

In a scathing segment on the All-In Podcast, Sacks highlighted how the establishment media targets right-leaning tech moguls while giving a free pass to left-wing donors deeply entangled with Epstein.

“Brad, you speak about the corruption of power centers. I think a major one has to be The New York Times,” Sacks urged.

“The number-one person in the Epstein files from Silicon Valley which is Reid Hoffman mentioned 2,600 times had a multiyear relationship with Epstein and they call each other very good friends. They did deals together,” Sacks explained.

He continued, “Reid stayed at the trifecta which is not just the island but the townhouse and the New Mexico ranch. And if you’re gonna write about Mark Zuckerberg organize that famous dinner how can you not mention that as the root of Epstein’s involvement in Silicon Valley?”

“And yet Reid just gets a mentioned in one sentence of article along with several other people,” Sacks stressed.

He accused the Times of selective outrage, noting “It is crazy. I mean The New York Times clearly has a list people they consider approved targets. They are all right coded people like Elon or Peter Thiel.”

“And they become targets but the people who have donated hundreds millions dollars to the Democrat Party and have paid for dirty tricks against Trump, they basically are spared. Honestly this is just emblematic of the whole institutional rot in a distrust in the country right there,” Sacks explained.

“Part of the cabal, it’s part of the institutions that people are losing faith in, and you know Epstein was a scumbag and the fact of matter is we’re not seeing equal play on both sides,” Sacks further urged.

The remarks come amid fresh revelations from the Justice Department’s massive Epstein document dump, which includes emails showing Hoffman’s ongoing interactions with the convicted sex offender long after his 2008 plea deal.

Newly unsealed emails reveal Hoffman discussing visits to Epstein’s notorious private island, his New Mexico ranch, and his New York apartment. One 2015 message has Epstein boasting about a “wild dinner” with Hoffman, Mark Zuckerberg, and others.

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Andrew ‘shared confidential information with Epstein as trade envoy’

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor knowingly shared confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein from his official work as trade envoy in Asia, according to information in the latest release of the Epstein files.

Emails in the files show the former prince passing on secret details of investment opportunities to the convicted paedophile following his visits to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam in 2010 and 2011.

This was after Epstein was first convicted for soliciting a prostitute and procuring a child for prostitution in 2008, for which he was jailed for 18 months.

Trade envoys are legally bound to confidentiality over sensitive, commercial or political information from their visits abroad.

Emails suggest Andrew had told Epstein of his official upcoming trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Shenzhen in China and Hong Kong on October 7, 2010. He was then accompanied by business associates of Epstein on these visits, the BBC reported.

After the trip, he forwarded official reports of the visits to Epstein on November 30, five minutes after he had been sent them by his then special adviser Amit Patel.

In further emails from the files dated Christmas Eve 2010, it appears he sent Epstein a confidential briefing on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, which was being managed by the British armed forces and funded by UK government money.

The messages contradict Andrew’s claim that he broke off his friendship with the paedophile in December 2010, which he asserted in his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019.

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Threats on VP Vance Expose a Sick Secret As Feds Close In

Unfortunately, Vice President JD Vance is no stranger to threats. Vance and his family have endured multiple threats since he became the 50th Vice President of the United States. 

One of the most recent instances has resulted in federal charges against an Ohio man, and there’s an added dark twist involved here. 

On Friday, the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury had returned an indictment against a 33-year-old Ohio man who threatened to kill Vance during his January visit to Ohio.

TOLEDO, Ohio – A federal grand jury returned an indictment earlier this week charging a 33-year-old man with threatening to kill the Vice President of the United States during his visit to the Northwest Ohio region in January.

Shannon Mathre, of Toledo, is accused of making a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, a successor to the presidency, in violation of Title 18 U.S. Code Section 871(a). In the indictment, he allegedly stated, “I am going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him.” Mathre was arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents Feb. 6.

But it isn’t just threats against Vance for which Mathre is facing charges. 

The grand jury further charges that from about Dec. 31, 2025, to Jan. 21, 2026, Mathre was also engaged in the receipt and distribution of images that visually depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of Title 18 U.S. Code Section 2252(a)(2). While investigating the threats allegedly made against the vice president, federal agents discovered multiple digital files of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in Mathre’s possession.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had this to say about the matter: 

“Our attorneys are vigorously prosecuting this disgusting threat against Vice President Vance. You can hide behind a screen, but you cannot hide from this Department of Justice.”

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Arizona AG suggests state’s self-defense laws allow residents to shoot masked ICE agents

Arizona Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said during an interview that residents could fire upon ICE agents who are masked if they feel they are in danger due to the state’s laws on self-defense.

Mayes explained that Arizona has a “Stand Your Ground” law that allows people to use lethal force if they believe their life is in danger.

“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks,” Mayes said during an interview with 12News.

She said that the “Stand Your Ground” law in Arizona allows residents to use lethal force if they feel like their life is in jeopardy.

“And we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” Mayes said.

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