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.

Social media posts could lead to gun confiscation under proposed Red Flag laws, PA Gov Tom Wolf suggests

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has shared an infographic showing how US citizens posting photos of guns on social media, along with “cryptic messages,” could lead to a court confiscating their guns under proposed legislation that he supports.

“Red flag laws allow us to take action when someone who has a gun begins to act erratically,” Governor Wolf posted. In the social media age, this could include in online posts. “Red flag laws still require due process, and any removal of weapons is temporary,” Governor Wolf continued.

Governor Wolf rebuked Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee for refusing to approve what he called “commonsense” bills addressing gun violence in the state. 

Instead of voting to move the four bills to the House for debate, Republicans on the Judiciary committee forced a vote to refer the bills to another committee. 

“Shameful. That’s what I’d call today’s action – or, rather, inaction,” Governor Wolf said. “Lawmakers have an opportunity to take commonsense steps, which the majority of Pennsylvanians support. Instead of taking a vote to advance these bills, they are just delaying debate on this legislation. Gun violence won’t delay. Every day the Republicans stall, more people are at risk.

“This isn’t just a ‘Philadelphia’ issue. This is a statewide and national issue that must be addressed. It’s reprehensible that Republicans continue to stall when our own constituents want this addressed right now,” Governor Wolf said. “I urge Republicans to stop these tactics and take action.”

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He publishes books on satanism and torture to inspire neo-Nazis. The FBI has paid him $140,000

For years, Joshua Caleb Sutter, an avowed white supremacist from South Carolina, has published and sold books glorifying torture, child abuse, rape, terrorism, mass murder and more – all in the name of his racist and satanic beliefs.

His self-published books have become go-to texts for some of the most extreme and violent white supremacists across the world. They have become required reading in a sinister satanist cult that has spread to several countries and has already inspired several known terrorists and would-be mass killers.

The ideas Sutter pushes are so vile they have proven too much even for some of the country’s most dangerous and violent neo-Nazis. In 2018 several people left the white supremacist domestic terrorism group Atomwaffen Division, citing Sutter’s books – and his growing influence in the organization – as too radical even for them.

Since 2004, while his publishing business and his influence over radical white supremacists have swelled, Sutter has had another benefactor: the American taxpayer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has paid him at least $140,000 over the past 18 years to provide information about the extremist groups he associates with, according to court records.

How useful that information has been in fighting extremism is impossible to tell. The FBI won’t talk about Sutter and has yet to provide USA TODAY with any documents about the payments to him, or the intelligence he provided, in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

But the relationship between the federal government and one of the chief propagandists of the most radical wing of white supremacy, experts say, raises profound concerns, including whether the agency actually directs public money to help fund the very same extremist movements and hateful propaganda it is supposed to be clamping down on.

“He’s in a win-win situation,” said Ariel Koch, a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Israel’s Reichman University who studies extremist movements. “He gets money from the government and he can continue doing what he likes to do, which is to publish literature that is distributed by neo-Nazis.”

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Blogger claims she is being probed in Germany over Donbass coverage

A blogger with tens of thousands of subscribers has said she is being probed in Germany over her coverage of the Ukraine conflict. German media confirmed the activist is the subject of an investigation by a local prosecutor’s office.

In an interview aired on Friday on Russia’s Channel One, Alina Lipp said she was being “persecuted” in particular for a post from February 24, the day when Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine. Back then she wrote that “denazification” had started, while also accusing Ukraine of killing civilians for years.

“Secondly, I am being prosecuted for the fact that on March 12 I published a video on my Telegram channel where I said that Ukraine is carrying out genocide in the Donbass,” Lipp revealed.

According to the German news website t-online, law enforcement suspects Lipp of “constantly showing her solidarity with Russia’s war against Ukraine,” of fomenting a split in German society and of spreading hatred through “distorted, partially false” reporting.

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Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records

The City of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private law firm to prevent the release of nearly any record related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died, according to a letter obtained by Motherboard in response to a series of public information requests we made. The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.

“The City has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” the city’s lawyer, Cynthia Trevino, who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The city wrote the letter asking Paxton for a determination about what information it is required to release to the public, which is standard practice in Texas. Paxton’s office will eventually rule which of the city’s arguments have merit and will determine which, if any, public records it is required to release.

The letter makes clear, however, that the city and its police department want to be exempted from releasing a wide variety of records in part because it is being sued, in part because some of the records could include “highly embarrassing information,” in part because some of the information is “not of legitimate concern to the public,” in part because the information could reveal “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime,” in part because some of the information may cause or may “regard … emotional/mental distress,” and in part because its response to the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the Uvalde County District Attorney. 

The letter explains that Uvalde has at least one in-house attorney (whose communications it is trying to prevent from public release), and yet, it is using outside private counsel to deal with a matter of extreme  importance and public interest. Uvalde’s city government and its police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.

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Brave Search challenges DuckDuckGo on trackers controversy

Brave CEO Brendan Eich blasted rival privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo for its Bing and LinkedIn trackers exemption in its Android, macOS, and iOS apps. DuckDuckGo has a contract with Microsoft that exempts the Big Tech from the privacy defenses.

“For non-search tracker blocking (e.g. in our browser), we block most third-party trackers,” DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg explained in May. “Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties. However, we have been continually pushing and expect to be doing more soon.”

Eich said the explanation was not genuine because DuckDuckGo also has exceptions that allow Microsoft trackers despite the use of third-party cookie blockers.

“Trackers try to get around cookie blocking by appending identifiers to URL query parameters, to ID you across sites,” Eich explained, adding that DuckDuckGo knows that because it blocks advertisers such as Facebook and Google from circumventing third-party cookie blockers.

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US Secretly Reviews & Approves Many Israeli Airstrikes In Syria

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Israel has been secretly coordinating with the US on many of its airstrikes in Syria, and senior officials at US Central Command have reviewed and approved many plans in recent years.

Israel frequently bombs Syria and frames the operations as strikes against Iran or Hezbollah, although the air raids often kill Syrian government troops and members of Iraq’s Shia militias. The latest Israeli airstrikes on Syria disabled the Damascus International Airport, marking a significant escalation in the air campaign.

Current and former officials told the Journal that the main focus of the coordination is on airstrikes that pass near al-Tanf garrison, a US military base in southern Syria near the border with Jordan. The officials said that the “vast majority” of the strikes passing through that area had been approved by the US.

The Israelis started flying airstrikes near al-Tanf in 2017 to avoid Syrian air defenses. The officials said that Israel notifies CENTCOM of its plans ahead of time. The command conducts a review of the operation and also notifies the secretary of defense and joint chiefs chairman. Israel has also notified Russian forces at the Khmeimim Air Base in western Syria of planned strikes.

The report said that the US doesn’t review all Israeli operations inside Syria, and doesn’t help Israel pick its targets. A significant number of Israeli airstrikes in the country don’t pass al-Tanf, including the strike on Damascus Airport.

The US has about 1,000 troops stationed in eastern Syria. On paper, the presence is about supporting the Kurdish-led SDF against ISIS, but the occupation is also about putting pressure on Damascus. The US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria, preventing the country from rebuilding after over 10 years of war.

The Journal report is the first time that the close US-Israeli coordination on airstrikes in Syria has been reported. But the US has always tacitly endorsed the operations as it never condemns them.

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Disney World employee among 12 alleged sexual predators busted in undercover operation

A Disney World employee was among 12 men nabbed by Florida law enforcement for allegedly soliciting children for sex online, officials said.

The suspects, between the ages of 20 and 67, are facing a total of 49 felony charges following a two-week-long undercover investigation dubbed “Operation Child Protector II,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday. 

Among those arrested is 30-year-old Zachary Hudson, who was employed as a bus driver at Disney World, cops said.

Between June 4 and 5, Hudson allegedly exchanged online messages with an undercover detective posing as a 15-year-old girl.

The detective asked Hudson if he had a problem with her only being 15, to which he replied as long as “my being older doesn’t bother you,” according to authorities. He later reportedly told her “age is just a number.”

The conversation moved to text messaging, where police say Hudson described the sexual acts he desired to do to her. He also sent a nude photo to the girl, cops said. 

“What would an operation be — either a pornography investigation or predator operation or human trafficking operation — without a Disney employee? We always have a Disney employee,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told WKMG-TV.

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Right to own a gun could hinge on definition of ‘boyfriend’ in ‘red flag’ laws

Talks in the Senate chamber regarding the sweeping gun legislation that was passed in the House last week has hit a snag: what is the definition of a boyfriend? It seems lawmakers cannot quite discern when a relationship becomes serious enough for the label, and to bypass the “loophole.”

The question comes in regards to a provision in the legislation that would close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” in laws that bar people convicted of domestic violence, or have been subjected to a domestic violence restraining order, from purchasing guns.

According to the New York Times, laws currently bar people who are issued these convictions from purchasing guns only if they were married to, lived with, or  had a child with the victim.

Lawmakers are attempting to close this “loophole” by including other intimate partners, but are now stuck in negotiations as to when someone becomes an intimate partner.

“Is it one date or several? Could an ex-boyfriend count?” the New York Times questioned. Perhaps Congress could take a cue from social media, and only use the term when it becomes Insta official.

With lawmakers attempting to pass this sweeping legislation before their Fourth of July recess, Senators have now honed in on this issue as part of their final negotiations.

Lawmakers have questioned the definition of a boyfriend or intimate partner, and whether those who are subject to this kind of gun ban should be able to appeal in the future.

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‘Sexualization of children’: Feminists join Christian conservatives to stop Biden LGBTQ order

President Biden has strengthened the growing coalition between social conservatives and gender-critical feminists against transgender ideology by issuing an executive order on “advancing equality” for people who are not heterosexual or don’t identify with their sex.

While they disagree on abortion rights and same-sex attraction, this ideological odd couple shares common ground on the primacy of sex-based rights, the harm of pornography and even the “sexualization of children” through exposure to adult themes such as drag. 

The executive order is specifically focused on “unrelenting political and legislative attacks” by unnamed states “on LGBTQI+ children and families in particular,” which endanger a half-century of “civil rights gains,” harm democracy and “threaten basic personal safety.” 

It implies that limiting women’s sports to biological females – as a third of states have done, most recently Louisiana – and keeping intimate facilities separated by sex is comparable to “the criminalization that LGBTQI+ people continue to face in some 70 countries around the world.” 

The order promises federal support for “LGBTQI+ students in our nation’s schools and other education and training programs,” including through guidance on “safe and inclusive learning environments” that “address bullying” of these students –without defining any of those terms.

It also mentions “mental health” a dozen times, with a focus on youth. The White House will “identify promising practices” to ensure schools provide “accessible and supportive” mental and other health services for LGBTQI+ students, likely meaning the gender-affirming care model that prioritizes drug therapy and even surgery.

The order lumps in talk therapy to address a child’s possibly transient gender confusion, a more cautious approach than starting puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, with active counseling to “suppress or change” sexual orientation.

Such “conversion therapy” is a “discredited practice that research indicates can cause significant harm, including higher rates of suicide-related thoughts and behaviors by LGBTQI+ youth.” 

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