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.

Democrat Illinois Gov. Signs Bill Criminalizing Private Gun Sales

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) signed legislation Monday that makes it a crime to sell a gun privately without having the buyer pass a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports Gov. Pritzker described private gun sales as “deadly loophole” as he signed the legislation.

He added, “Prior to this change people with dangerous histories who shouldn’t possess a weapon — and the Illinois State Police denies firearm licenses to thousands of these individuals a year — could avoid detection through a private sale. That’s a deadly loophole, and in Illinois, we are closing that down for good.”

The legislation signed by Pritzker will expand retail point-of-sale background checks to include private points-of-sale, too. This expansion will criminalize an individual who sells a 5-shot revolver to a lifelong neighbor, unless that neighbor first undergoes an FBI-conducted NICS check.

On August 30, 2015, Breitbart News pointed to a University of Chicago Crime Lab report showing that inmates locked up for gun crimes avoid getting their firearms from sources that require background checks.  And the Chicago-Tribune noted that Crime Lab co-director Harold Pollack said “some of the pathways [regarding guns] people are concerned about don’t seem so dominant.”

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National Park Service To Surveil Picnics, Family Outings, Weddings

According to a notice published in the Federal Register, the Department of the Interior (DOI) is turning the National Park Service (NPS) into a mirror image of the NSA, FBI, DHS and every other three-letter spy agency you can think of.

“Pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the Interior DOI is issuing a public notice of its intent to modify the National Park Service (NPS) Privacy Act system of records, INTERIOR/NPS-1, Special Use Permits.”

This so-called modification of special records permits will allow law enforcement to collect a disturbing amount of personal information on national park visitors.

As Nextgov points out, anyone wishing to get a permit to use one of America’s 423 national parks will have all their personal information sent to the White House.

“The NPS is making it easier to share more data with the White House and other federal agencies on applications and approvals of special use permits for parks spaces.”

America’s absurd War on Terror is now targeting picnics, family gatherings, weddings etc.

“People interested in using a park for a specific purpose at a specific time generally have to obtain a special use permit. NPS issues permits for three types of uses: standard events like weddings, sports, picnics and family gatherings; special events like demonstrations, races, tournaments and the like; and construction, research and utility work.”

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Now in Effect: Louisiana Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession Despite Federal Prohibition

On Sunday, a Louisiana law decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana went into effect despite ongoing federal cannabis prohibition.

Rep. Cedric Glover (D) introduced House Bill 652 (HB652) on April 4. Under the new law, possession of up to 14 grams of marijuana is punishable by a fine of up to $100 with no threat of jail time.

The House passed HB652 by a 68-25 vote. The Senate approved the measure by a 20-17 vote. With Gov. John Bell Edward’s signature, the law went into effect on Aug. 1.

In his signing statement, Bell downplayed the law, saying “contrary to the narrative developed in the press and elsewhere, [HB652] does not decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.” But as Marijuana Moment noted, “replacing the threat of incarceration with a modest fine does fit the definition of decriminalization used by reform advocates.”

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NIH Director Says Parents Should Wear Masks Inside Their Own Homes

National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN earlier today that parents with children under the age of 12 should wear face masks INSIDE their own homes.

Yes, really.

During an appearance on New Day, Collins said the measure was necessary to protect kids who haven’t taken the vaccine because of the delta variant, despite him admitting that health problems in children are “rare.”

“Which means recommendations of mask-wearing in schools and at home,” said Collins. “Parents of unvaccinated kids should be thoughtful about this, and the recommendation is to wear masks there as well. I know that’s uncomfortable, I know it seems weird, but it is the best way to protect your kids.”

Imagine being so terrorized by the grossly exaggerated threat of COVID, imagine being such a spineless jellyfish conformist, that you wear masks inside your own house.

That’s completely absurd.

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Cop Charged After Mistaking Innocent Dad for Criminal, Entering His Backyard and Executing Him

As frequent readers of the Free Thought Project understand, police officers mistake innocent individuals for criminals all the time. Often times, their fear gets the best of them and these folks who have committed no crime and harmed no one, are beaten or arrested only to be exonerated down the road. One man in Idaho Falls, however, will not have a chance to be exonerated because the police who mistook him for a suspect — executed him.

On February 8, 2021, Elias Aurelio Cerdas, a 26-year-old officer who graduated from training less than a year before the shooting, entered the backyard of Joseph “Joe” Johnson, a father of four, mistook him for a criminal, and executed him.

For nearly six month, Cerdas remained on paid vacation without charges but all that changed this week and he has been indicted for manslaughter.

According to East Idaho News, Cerdas was not arrested after being charged but issued a summons for his arraignment at the Bonneville County Courthouse on Aug. 23.

According to police, shortly after midnight early that morning, a Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to make a traffic stop at which point the vehicle came to a stop and the driver of the vehicle fled into a residential neighborhood. The deputy involved in the pursuit told fellow officers they were looking for a man in a black shirt.

During the search, police identified the man and found that he had multiple warrants for his arrest including Felony Battery on an Officer, and two Failure to Appear Warrants with original charges of Resisting/Obstructing Arrest, and Providing False Information to Law Enforcement.

Police claim the suspect, Tanner Shoesmith, 22, had a history of violent altercations with law enforcement which appears to be a cover for the way they acted when they found and then killed Johnson.

According to police, the passenger in the vehicle that was originally pulled over never fled and stayed behind to talk to police. Police claim this passenger had received a message from the suspect, who — while on the run from the cops — took the time to message the passenger and send him his GPS coordinates.

According to police, these GPS coordinates — sent by the suspect who was running from cops, to the passenger he knew was still with the cops — showed him in the backyard of a residence on the corner of Tendoy Drive and Syringa Drive — Johnson’s backyard.

Police then surrounded this house and killed the father of four in his backyard after claiming he had on a black t-shirt and was holding a gun.

“Sometimes everyone does what they think is right and tragedies happen,” the chief said at the time.

After killing the innocent man, a brief investigation revealed that he was not the suspect and, in fact, lived in the home and had committed no crime. Moments later, down the road, a deputy reported seeing a man running and the suspect was located in the back yard of a house, hiding in a shed. The suspect, who police claim has a history of violent interactions with police, was taken into custody without incident.

Since that day, police have failed to release any more information in regard to the shooting.

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They’re Normalizing Police Robots By Calling Them “Dogs”

Hawaii police are defending their use of pandemic relief funds for a robotic “police dog” made by Boston Dynamics which scans homeless people’s eyes to see if they have a fever.

“If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever,” says a new report from Associated Press. “That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animal-like agility.”

“Acting Lt. Joseph O’Neal of the Honolulu Police Department’s community outreach unit defended the robot’s use in a media demonstration earlier this year,” AP reports. “He said it has protected officers, shelter staff and residents by scanning body temperatures between meal times at a shelter where homeless people could quarantine and get tested for COVID-19. The robot is also used to remotely interview individuals who have tested positive.”

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The Politics of Spectacle: On Eviction Moratorium, The Squad Talks the Walk

Members of Congress departed for a seven-week vacation at the same time that the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) national eviction moratorium expired on July 31. The Squad, a subset of members of the House of Representatives who espouse Bernie Sanders’ policy agenda, gathered at the Capitol building to demand that Congress come back to work and hold a vote to renew the moratorium. Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, and other Squad members slept on the Capitol steps overnight as part of the ongoing protest. Critics on social media pointed out that the rally was too little, too late while others remarked that the low attendance of the rally, comprised mainly of political surrogates, rendered the action nothing more than a photo opportunity for the Squad.

Founder of Black Agenda Report (BAR) Glen Ford died three days before the protest. Ford strongly opposed the politics of diversity, which privilege political representation over substantive policy demands and the popular power required to achieve them. He closely monitored the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to demonstrate that voting for elected officials who look and behave like their constituents does not necessarily equate to representation. Ford led BAR’s effort to expose how the CBC, for example, voted in large majorities to militarize U.S. police departments and enshrine their officers with protected class status under federal hate-crime legislation.

The Squad rose to prominence following Barack Obama’s two-term presidency. Obama represented the pinnacle of diversity. Obama was famously touted as a victory in the long, hard struggle of Black Americans for human rights, yet his administration greatly expanded the theater of the U.S. war machine and enacted a broad policy agenda friendly to the rich. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign emerged from the economic discontent once encapsulated by Occupy Wall Street — a protest movement that Obama’s DHS and FBI brutally repressed at the tail end of his first term. In a pivot away from protest, an increasingly left-leaning Democratic Party base placed their energy into electing “progressive” members of Congress.

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9 Crazy Examples of Waste, Unrelated Pet Projects Snuck into Massive Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

When President Biden first unveiled his $2+ trillion proposal for an infrastructure spending package, he was widely ridiculed for stretching the meaning of the word “infrastructure” far past its breaking point. The legislation snuck in climate change policy, billions for woke diversity initiatives, massive funding for public schools, and much more under creatively deceptive guises such as “human infrastructure.” Thankfully, this package didn’t get far.

However, more feasible efforts continue from a bipartisan group of senators seeking to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure compromise package. This legislative effort does, in fairness, stay much closer to the traditionally understood definition of infrastructure with its funding for roads, bridges, and more. Yet even this supposedly moderate, reasonable bill is 2,702 pages in length, leaving ample room for lobbyists and individual politicians to slip in wasteful items and crony pet projects.

Here are nine examples of seemingly unrelated, wasteful, or otherwise dubious spending programs snuck into the thousands of pages of legislative text.

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