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.

16 Facts About The Shocking Decline Of Public Education In The U.S. That Every American Should Know

Virtually everyone agrees that our public schools are in a state of decline. Needless to say, it isn’t because we aren’t spending enough money. The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are collectively spending nearly a trillion dollars a year on public education. That is a colossal pile of money. Since 1960, spending per student has increased by 350 percent. That is even after adjusting for inflation. At this stage, we spend more money per student than any other nation on the entire planet other than Luxembourg. Anyone that believes that we can solve our education crisis by spending even more money is simply being delusional.

For nearly a trillion dollars a year, we should be getting a world class education system.

But we aren’t.

In fact, students in the U.S. just keep dropping down the global rankings.

Urgent action is required if we are going to turn this around.

Gallup conducted a survey that discovered that an all-time low 35 percent of U.S. adults are satisfied with the quality of public education in the United States.

There appears to be a growing consensus that we have a major national crisis on our hands, and those that are responsible for this crisis need to be held accountable. The following are 16 facts about the shocking decline of public education in the U.S. that every American should know…

#1 Nearly one-fifth of all high school graduates in the United States cannot even read at a functional level…

National statistics indicate that close to one-fifth of high school graduates are unable to read at a functional level. This means they cannot effectively comprehend and use written information in daily life or work settings.

#2 Only 35 percent of high school seniors are proficient at reading, and only 22 percent of high school seniors are proficient at math…

The scale of the crisis is staggering. Only 35% of high school seniors read at a proficient level. One-third lack basic reading comprehension skills. In mathematics, the picture is even bleaker. Only 22% achieved proficiency. Alarmingly, 45% can’t even manage basic math. Around 2/3 are academically unprepared for college in math and reading. Even prestigious universities like Harvard must offer remedial courses for incoming freshmen lacking foundational skills.

#3 For high school seniors in the United States, math scores have fallen to the lowest level since 2005 and reading scores have fallen to the lowest level since 1992…

The latest report card on American education is in, and it’s devastating. The 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released last month, revealed that the nation’s 12th-graders hit a historic performance low. Math scores cratered to levels not seen since 2005. Reading scores plummeted to their lowest level since testing began in 1992.

#4 According to the most recent NAEP assessment, only 28 percent of 8th grade students in the United States are proficient at math…

Only 28% of 8th graders scored proficient in math on the latest NAEP assessment. The effects are most severe in low-income districts, where school closures, chronic absenteeism, and staffing instability have compounded over time.

#5 In just one decade, the percentage of 13-year-olds enrolled in algebra dropped from 34 percent to 24 percent…

According to the OECD, our average student is almost a full year behind the average student from other countries. Singapore’s students are three years ahead of ours. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), our students are also developing slower than in previous years. In 2023, only 24% of America’s 13-year-olds were enrolled in algebra. A decade earlier, that number was 34%.

#6 It appears that the pandemic had a substantial negative impact on both the reading skills and the math skills of our fourth-grade students…

In spring 2023, just 56 percent of American fourth-graders were performing on grade level in math, down from 69 percent in 2019, according to just one example of test score data cited in the report.

Declines in reading were less stark but still concerning, and concentrated in earlier grades, with 65 percent of third-graders performing on grade level, compared with 72 percent in 2019. Recovery in reading has also been slower, with some researchers finding essentially no rebound since students returned to the classroom.

#7 At this point, only 26 percent of U.S. adults can name all three branches of government…

Only 26% of American adults can name the three branches of government. Less than one-quarter of college graduates knew that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion. Most adults have no idea how many Justices serve on the Supreme Court. Tragically, Princeton University found that barely one-third (36%) of adults could pass a multiple-choice test consisting of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.

#8 Almost two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are not able to identify the United Kingdom on a map of the world…

Sixty percent of students could not identify the countries the United States fought in World War II. Only 24% knew why the colonists fought against the British. Only 24% could identify Benjamin Franklin as a Founder with more students (37%) believing that he invented the light bulb. Our students fared no better in basic geography. A National Geographic study found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (ages 18-24) were unable to identify the United Kingdom (one of our most dependable foreign allies) on a world map. Closer to home, most young Americans were unable to identify the state of Ohio on a map.

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Tech Evangelist Bill Gates Suddenly Argues AI Needs to Slow Down to Protect Humanity

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and leftist billionaire who has spent years predicting that AI would free people from drudgery and speed cures for disease and climate change, published an essay Wednesday warning that without urgent government intervention, AI could cause more harm than good.

Bill Gates, who transformed himself from a software tycoon into a leftist icon of environmentalism and health philanthropy,  has now published an essay calling for an AI slowdown. This is a massive shift is a shift for a tech evangelist who has built his post-Microsoft career on faith in AI’s ability to fix hard problems. Gates said this is the first time in his life he wishes a new technology would advance more slowly.

“I’m surprised to feel this way,” Gates said. “I’ve never seen a problem that innovation can’t solve.”

Gates grouped his worries into three categories: safety threats such as AI-enabled hacking, biological weapons and fraud; job losses driven by AI and AI-powered robots; and risks to children, including stunted learning and damaged human relationships. Writing software code and enabling new kinds of cyberattacks are the two areas where he says AI has recently outpaced his own expectations. Asked about the latter, he used one word: “mind-blowing.”

Gates argued the AI industry cannot police itself and called on the U.S. government to take the lead in regulating it. He wants broad national and international frameworks to address AI’s risks to security, safety, jobs and other areas, built around collaboration between elected officials, subject-matter experts and ordinary citizens. The idea echoes a proposal from AI leader Demis Hassabis, who has called for international AI safety standards overseen by an expert body.

“My basic view is nobody’s shown up,” Gates said of the lack of government action so far. “So this is a shrill call, and I want this to be bipartisan.”

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Accused Murderer Out on $600K Bond Recruited USPS Carriers to Steal Nearly $24 MILLION in Checks — Then Sold Them on Telegram

A 28-year-old Houston man already free on a $600,000 bond in a murder case is now accused of running a nearly $24 million check-theft ring, by recruiting U.S. Postal Service mail carriers to steal checks off their own routes and selling the loot on Telegram.

Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28, is alleged to have recruited USPS mail carriers to steal checks on their delivery routes, the DOJ said in an August 25 statement.

Those checks were then allegedly bought from the postal workers by Vaughn and others, advertised on a Telegram channel called “slipsandchips,” and shipped to buyers across the country via FedEx.

Prosecutors say the haul totaled approximately $23,973,338.15. One stolen check was for $1.5 million.

And the man accused of running the operation was not locked in a cell while this was happening. He was walking around on bond after a fatal shooting.

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned a nine-count indictment charging five people:

  • Tryston Tremaine Vaughn, 28 — alleged recruiter and ringleader
  • Alyssa Nadine Bryant, 27 — accused of helping buy, sell, and ship the stolen checks
  • Catherine Clauzelle Kilpatrick, 29 — USPS mail carrier (Greens North Station)
  • Drakkor Jamar Alexander, 34 — USPS mail carrier (Spring Main Post Office)
  • Malcolm Tiree Joubert, 35 — USPS mail carrier (Windmill Station)

All five face conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. The three carriers also face theft of mail matter by a postal employee.

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Stars and Stripes, Perhaps Not Forever

In late 1861, Union soldiers in Bloomfield, Missouri, found the local newspaper’s office empty and decided to put it to good use. Stars and Stripes covered the activities of the three Illinois regiments. Their commander in chief, of course, was US president Abraham Lincoln.

Over time, the paper gained direct funding from the military, but with supposed “editorial independence,” and a mission “to provide first-hand reporting from bases around the world and unbiased, credible news to America’s military.” Those who worked in uniform abroad through two world wars and after, often not in a position to visit a newspaper stand or receive news via TV or radio, could read Stars and Stripes (I read it in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm).

On August 21, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth fired the paper’s publisher, editor-in-chief, and a top reporter after they publicly commented on Department of Defense “interference” with the newspaper’s “independence.”

Once again, Abraham Lincoln — or at least the aircraft carrier named for him — played a central role as Hegseth whined over the paper’s coverage of complaints from deployed sailors’ families concerning the material and mental health situation aboard that vessel.

The firings aren’t really as sudden as they might seem to those not following closely over time.

The first Trump administration floated a plan to shutter Stars and Stripes, but backed down after a “bipartisan” backlash. With Hegseth at the helm in Trump’s second time around, DoD rages frequently against “woke distractions” in its reportage, firing its ombudsman in May for noticing that attempts to change it into a “morale booster” instead of a news outlet are “contrary to the news organization’s mission.”

So, here’s the thing: Who pays the piper, calls the tune.

Stars and Stripes is largely funded by, and its operations and distribution are almost completely enabled by, the US government. “Editorial independence” may sound like a wonderful idea, but there’s always been a leash. We’re just watching the leash get shorter.

Thankfully, the collar at the end of that leash only strangles Stars and Stripes.

These days, even troops aboard ships at sea and at remote firebases in hostile territory have far greater contact with the outside world, most of the time, than even civilians at home enjoyed 50, let alone 150, years ago.

Cell phones. Email. Web access. Zoom. It’s not 100% there, 100% of the time, but neither was Stars and Stripes.

Pete Hegseth can cry if he wants to. He can throw himself on the floor and threaten to hold his breath until he turns blue. The troops will get still their news, whether he likes it or not. They’ll get the kind of coverage they want to get, not just the kind he wants them to get.

And because all that technology runs two-way, they can also REPORT the news they want covered without consulting him first as he obviously expects Stars and Stripes to.

The military news coverage, and consumption, of the future will look a lot more like WikiLeaks than like Stars and Stripes.

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Inspector General Says President Biden’s FEMA Broke Law Skipping Trump Homes After Hurricanes

Just two weeks after Florida had been ravaged by Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton arrived on October 9 with sustained winds of 110-115 mph. Milton was a devastating hurricane that caused an estimated $34 billion in damage and killed 12 Floridians.

But what did a FEMA supervisor tell one Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) crew to do?

Breitbart News reported at the time that “Marn’i Washington, a FEMA supervisor, reportedly informed hurricane relief workers ‘verbally and in a group chat,’ to ‘avoid homes advertising Trump,’ in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.”

Not long after, Washington was fired.

Nearly two years later, a new Inspector General report has made it official that the then-Biden-run FEMA “skipped homes during the response to Hurricane Milton due to the presence of political signage supporting then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump, violating FEMA policy and the Hatch Act of 1939.”

“This situation eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal access to resources and tools,” the report adds.

“These issues occurred due to weaknesses in FEMA’s training, documentation, and oversight,” continued the Inspector General. “FEMA DSA [Disaster Survivor Assistance] crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before deploying to disasters, DSA policies and procedures did not require crews to explain why they skipped homes, and DSA crew leaders were not required to conduct quality control reviews of survivor interactions.”

It’s important to point out that FEMA crews were already instructed not to knock on any doors with “no trespassing” or “no soliciting” signs, which makes sense. Skipping the homes of Trump supporters is indefensible. First of all, almost all of the violence we’ve seen since the Trump Era began has been committed by the left. Secondly, if you take the job with FEMA, you better do the job.

To their great credit, it was FEMA employees who made this scandal public, which is of some comfort.

In its write-up of the Inspector General report, the far-left Washington Post drops this without any context:

However, safety concerns during disaster response are common, the former senior official said, with most of the encounters that FEMA canvassers faced involving guns.

Well, what does that mean exactly, because a good-faith search came up with exactly zero news of even a single FEMA staffer shot while working in a disaster area?

Moreover, if you’re living in a disaster area with no electricity and no idea if the authorities have a handle on things, all good people grab their guns and are wary of strangers. So, I have no doubt many a FEMA staffer has been greeted by a resident wise enough to arm him or herself. That’s hardly a threat or a menace. Hurricane or not, every stranger who knocks on my door is greeted with a welcoming smile and a loaded pistol hidden behind my back.

So, we all know why this FEMA supervisor skipped Trump homes: hate. She hates Trump supporters, believes they deserve to suffer, and abused her position to justify and spread her bigotry.

All in all, however, FEMA handled this well.

Still, as someone who lives in Western North Carolina and saw his town socked by Helene two years ago, it is foolish for anyone to wait around for the federal government to come save them. We were on our own for at least a week before any noticeable help arrived. FEMA should be a state program, not a federal one.

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Medication-Induced Psychosis and the Case for Safer Psychiatric Care

Board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Witt-Doerring discusses his specialized focus on adverse reactions to psychiatric medications and safe de-prescribing, using the high-profile Lindsay Clancy case as a timely illustration. Witt-Doerring, who has worked in clinical practice, for Johnson & Johnson, and at the FDA, argues that conventional psychiatry often oversimplifies mental distress as chemical imbalances requiring indefinite drug treatment. His approach emphasizes common-sense interventions—gradual medication reduction, accountability for diet, physical activity, and lifestyle—helping many patients regain energy and motivation that long-term drugs can suppress.

Witt-Doerring reports that for roughly 80 percent of cases involving anxiety, depression, or insomnia, patients can discontinue medications without major issues. More complex conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia present greater challenges, and some individuals elect to remain on treatment. He notes a growing network of clinicians, including Mark Horowitz in the UK and participants in deprescribing mentorship programs, who share this holistic orientation.

The conversation centered on Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother charged with killing her three young children in early 2023. Initially, many viewed the act as pure evil warranting imprisonment. Witt-Doerring contends the medical record supports a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity due to medication-induced psychosis. After her third child, Clancy experienced postpartum depression and life stresses. Telemedicine providers prescribed Zoloft, an SSRI; she developed severe insomnia, the dose was doubled, symptoms worsened, and it was stopped. She was later placed on Prozac, then Seroquel, and eventually amitriptyline, with the dose increased the day before the tragedy. In a short period she was exposed to approximately 11 medications.

Drug labels explicitly warn that antidepressants can precipitate mania and psychosis. Clancy later reported command auditory hallucinations. Collateral evidence includes text messages in which she described the drugs damaging her brain and making her feel worse, disclosure of intrusive homicidal thoughts to family weeks earlier, and forensic analysis of her computer searches for medication side effects. Family, friends, colleagues, and her nanny described her as a loving mother with no history of violence, substance abuse, or relational breakdown—the typical motives in filicide cases. The prosecution’s theories of psychopathy or “altruistic filicide” appear inconsistent with this background. Witt-Doerring highlights parallel malpractice concerns over continued antidepressant prescribing despite clear worsening.

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‘Shocking’ study shows link between transgender ideology and left-wing violence

Trump administration-funded researchers and independent collaborators found a startling correlation between proponents of a transgender ideology and left-wing violence, according to a new report obtained by The Post and set to be released Wednesday.

The new study from researchers at Rutgers University, the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and Network Contagion Research Institute found that those normalizing transgender beliefs were more likely to be supportive of political violence.

Respondents were quizzed about six potential targets of political violence for the study: “killing Charlie Kirk, killing Donald Trump, killing Brian Thompson, arson of ICE buildings, damaging wealthy people’s property, and violence against police.”

“These findings suggest that gender ideology is associated with LWA [left-wing authoritarianism] and willingness to justify political violence,” stated the study, which titled “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?”

“Experimental research is needed to determine causality,” according to the researchers.

The study comes amid recent public debates about high-profile shootings involving transgender individuals.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a gunman who allegedly had a trans-roommate lover. The late conservative icon was speaking at a Utah university campus on Sept 10, 2025, when he was shot before a daytime crowd while addressing a question on transgender violence.

“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” asked one attendee during a question-and-answer session.

“Too many,” Kirk replied.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Agrees to $18 Billion Settlement with 29 States to End Teen Social Media Addiction Lawsuit

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed children through addictive design.

NBC News reports that the settlement, which still needs a judge’s approval, came one day after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified in a California courtroom. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had also been expected to take the stand before the deal was reached.

In a statement, Meta said “the agreement includes a payment of approximately $18 billion, which can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities.” The company said the deal is part of a broader agreement with 52 attorneys general nationwide, extending well beyond the 29 states that sued in California.

Meta did not concede wrongdoing. A court filing states the company “denies the allegations against it and that it has any liability to the Plaintiffs.”

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey and other states had accused Meta of designing addictive products that harmed children and of violating federal privacy and consumer protection laws. Meta pushed back, arguing the states were cherry-picking features while ignoring safety tools it already offers, including teen accounts that default to private, time-limit reminders, parental supervision options, and restrictions on who can contact minors and what content they see.

Under the settlement, Meta will build in daily limits and nighttime blocks for teenage users. The court filing says the company “commits to establishing daily limits and blocks on nighttime use for teenage users.” Teen accounts on Facebook and Instagram will default to a combined two-hour daily use limit, and teens will need parental permission to turn that limit off.

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Trump Declares National Emergency to Secure U.S. Power Grid From Foreign Cyber Security Threats

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Aug. 26 to secure the national power grid, citing unusual and extraordinary foreign cyber and security threats.

The order prohibits certain foreign-made bulk-power system electric equipment, including software, that poses cybersecurity or operational risks, from being purchased or installed in the United States.

“Certain foreign actors are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the electricity that supports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, and economy,” Trump said in the order.

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Democrat Senate Hopeful Bankrolled by Same Donors Funding Neo-Nazi Candidate

Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed reportedly has some problematic donors.

The Washington Free Beacon published a report detailing over a dozen donors who donated to Florida neo-Nazi congressional candidate Dan Bilzerian and also to El-Sayed.

More than a dozen donors to the Hitler-praising, neo-Nazi congressional campaign of Dan Bilzerian have also contributed to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed—in many cases spreading thousands of dollars between the two candidates, the Washington Free Beacon found.

Bilzerian, a far-right social media influencer with a trust fund, and El-Sayed, a far-left epidemiologist, have no policy overlap except strong opposition to AIPAC and Israel, but their donors include a man who has equated Zionism to Nazism and a Texas subprime auto loan entrepreneur who also threw his weight behind Israel-bashing Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie.

The overlapping donor list suggests that El-Sayed’s virulently anti-Israel rhetoric appeals to the kind of Muslim-American donors who also buy into Bilzerian’s hateful Jew-baiting and offensive trolling.

The most significant Bilzerian and El-Sayed donor is Ibrahim Awad, who has given more than $19,500 between both candidates, Federal Election Commission records show. That haul included a $12,651.88 jumbo gift to the Bilzerian Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee. The figure is above the legal limit and potentially a campaign finance violation if passed along to Bilzerian’s campaign committee.

Awad is a Georgia-based personal injury attorney—with a mixed record.

Awad has been an ardent critic of Israel’s efforts to eliminate Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In a post on X, he castigated attorneys who “blamed Hamas for Israel’s genocide—but never said a damn word about Palestinians executed in the West Bank, where Hamas doesn’t even exist.”

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