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.

Biden’s pick for US spy chief played a central role in Obama’s secretive drone war that resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths

President-elect Joe Biden has received applause across the political spectrum over his picks for top foreign policy and national security roles in his incoming administration. But human rights groups and progressives have expressed concern about his choice for director of national intelligence (DNI), Avril Haines. 

Haines, a former deputy CIA director who would be the first woman to serve as the top US spy chief if confirmed, played a central role in crafting the legal framework surrounding the Obama administration’s controversial, secretive drone war.

As a widely-cited 2013 Newsweek profile put it: “Haines was sometimes summoned in the middle of the night to weigh in on whether a suspected terrorist could be lawfully incinerated by a drone strike.”

“My concerns about her are more my concerns about the Obama administration,” Andrea J. Prasow, the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch, told the New York Times. “With these cabinet picks, we are returning to the previous administration instead of making bold and forward-leaning picks.”

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Denver Mayor Said ‘Avoid Travel’ 30 Minutes Before He Boarded Plane To Visit Family

The Denver mayor’s Twitter account told citizens to “avoid travel” 30 minutes before he boarded a flight to travel to his family for Thanksgiving.

“Pass the potatoes, not COVID,” the account for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock tweeted 30 minutes before he boarded the plane, according to 9News. “Stay home as much as you can, especially if you’re sick. Host virtual gatherings instead of in-person dinners.”

“Avoid travel, if you can,” the tweet continued. “Order your holiday meal from a local eatery. Shop online with a small business for Black Friday.” 

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Republican Gov. Phil Scott says Vermont schools will question kids about Thanksgiving plans

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday that school officials will question returning students about whether they attended gatherings with people outside their household during Thanksgiving to determine if they need to quarantine over coronavirus concerns.

“Unfortunately, we know some will still get together and schools have asked for help,” the Republican governor tweeted Tuesday. “[The Vermont Agency of Education] will direct schools to ask students or parents if they were part of multi-family gatherings and if the answer is yes, they’ll need to go remote for 14 days or 7 days and a test.”

“Maybe you just aren’t worried about getting the virus,” he wrote. “You’re young/healthy, you can work remotely or you just don’t think it’s a big deal. But you never know if you’re going to be the domino that leads to a nursing home outbreak or pushes an entire school to remote learning. Enough of these dominoes put our health care facilities at risk. Protecting our family and friends is in our hands and we all have a role to play. So I’m asking you to help by avoiding getting together with people outside your households and not travel this week.”

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How Universities Cover Up Scientific Fraud

One in fifty scientists fakes research by fabricating or falsifying data. They make off with government grant money, which they share with their universities, and their made-up findings guide medical practice, public policy and ordinary people’s decisions about things like whether or not to vaccinate their children. The fraudulent science we know about has caused thousands of deaths and wasted millions in taxpayer dollars. That is only scratching the surface, however—because most fraudsters are never caught. As Ivan Oransky notes in Gaming the Metrics, “the most common outcome for those who commit fraud is: a long career.”

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Will Obama Torture Apologists Make a Triumphant Return to Joe Biden’s White House?

President-elect Joe Biden is being warned not to bring torture apologists who served under President Barack Obama into his administration.

The Daily Beast reported this week that Biden was considering Michael Morell as a potential CIA director, but Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) had objections. Wyden publicly warned that Morell, who served as deputy director of the CIA under Obama, shouldn’t be considered due to his past ties in obscuring CIA torture. CNN subsequently interviewed Wyden:

“No torture apologist can be confirmed as CIA director. It’s a nonstarter,” Wyden told CNN, referring to Morell’s previous suggestions that the agency’s so-called “enhanced interrogation” of terrorists was both effective and moral—claims that go further than those made by other officials who have faced scrutiny over the agency’s handling of detainees at black sites, including former Director John Brennan and current Director Gina Haspel.

Wyden isn’t the only person trying to raise alarms about Morell. Over at Just Security, Scott Roehm, along with Daniel Jones (who investigated the CIA torture and wrote the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on it),also warned against Morell. They note Morell’s role in essentially absolving CIA staff (including current CIA Director Gina Haspel) of responsibility for destroying tapes of CIA torture of suspected terrorists during the Iraq War. He was also responsible for the CIA’s response to the Senate’s torture report, insistingthat the CIA’s methods had resulted in actionable intelligence.

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Watch as NY Business Owners Stand Up to Cuomo’s COVID Restrictions, Chase Agents Out of Building

New York business owners protesting COVID-19 restrictions put in place by Governor Andrew Cuomo confronted and chased away county health department agents after compassionately asking the bureaucrats to leave them alone.

About 100 business owners gathered inside the Athletes Unleashed gym in Orchard Park on Friday night to organize against the new “orange zone” regulations that requires businesses deemed unessential by the state to shut down and limits indoor gatherings to 10 people.

Video from the gathering shows the moment the business owners confronted two officials from the Erie County Department of Health, escorted by sheriff’s deputies, who were attempting to shut down the meeting.

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