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.

Swalwell’s Campaign Paid for Room at Hotel Where He Allegedly Raped Lonna Drewes – Same Timeframe, Same Address

Murphy’s Law is an adage that basically stipulates “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Soon-to-be former Rep. Eric Swalwell has been living that adage out this week, seeing his once-promising political career hit about six feet below rock bottom.

The progressive Californian both withdrew his nomination for California governor and announced his resignation from Congress this week after a deluge of allegations accusing Swalwell of sexually assaulting young female staffers.

Of note, Swalwell is married and has three children.

But while Swalwell has largely retreated from the public eye — presumably to work on his marriage in private — the public isn’t quite as done with him as he is with them.

In fact, in keeping with the theme of “when it rains, it pours,” gasoline has just been poured on one of those allegations that has torpedoed Swalwell’s career.

According to NBC News, a woman named Lonna Drewes came forward with some disturbingly graphic allegations against Swalwell.

“He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness,” Drewes said during a Tuesday news conference.

She added, “I thought I died.”

Drewes claimed that Swalwell offered to help connect her to people who could aid with her software company. In fact, the first two meetings with Swalwell were perfectly pleasant and friendly, before the catastrophic encounter in a West Hollywood hotel.

An attorney for Swalwell has vehemently denied these claims.

“These accusations are false, fabricated and deeply offensive — a calculated and transparent political hit job,” Swalwell’s attorney said.

(Swalwell has hinted that he had failed his wife, but has largely denied allegations of assault or rape.)

But while Swalwell and his team are denying Drewes’ allegation, it might be a little harder to deny the paper trail that internet sleuths have dug up.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin and California Target Book Research Director Rob Pyers took to X and documented a receipt putting Swalwell at the time and place of the alleged Drewes rape.

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Dutch doctors euthanized an autistic teen. Why some say that should be a ‘wake-up call’ for Canada

Four-and-a-half years after he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a Dutch teen was euthanized at his request.

The boy, aged between 16 and 18, had described his life as “joyless.” He’d struggled with anxiety and mood-related problems, and where he fit in, in the world. Oversensitive to stimuli, “every day was an ordeal he had to get through,” according to the latest annual report from the Netherlands’ regional euthanasia death review committees. “In the final weeks before his death, he lay in bed the whole time.”

Despite his young age, his doctor had “no doubts whatsoever” that the youth had the mental capacity to appreciate what he was seeking, and that there was no prospect of improvement, according to the case report.

His death, part of a dramatic increase in psychiatric euthanasia in the Netherlands in recent years, should serve as a warning to Canada as a special parliamentary committee reconvenes to assess the country’s readiness to permit MAID on the sole basis of mental suffering, a prominent Canadian psychiatrist says.

The Dutch experience “should be taken as a wake-up call,” said Dr. Sonu Gaind, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

“The threshold (for assisted death) in Canada is actually lower than the Netherlands,” Gaind said. “If MAID for sole mental illness is opened up in Canada, the numbers would significantly exceed what you see in the Netherlands.”

Proponents of MAID for mental suffering have long held the Netherlands out as a model — “no slippery slope there” — arguing that psychiatric euthanasia in Canada, like the Netherlands, would remain extremely rare.

However, the Dutch situation suggests a more appropriate metaphor for the risks of medically assisted suicide for mental illness “is not a slippery slope but a runaway train,” as Charles Lane reported last week in The Atlantic.

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A Court Banned a Man from ChatGPT. No One Asked If That’s Constitutional.

On April 13, a California Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order requiring OpenAI to keep a user locked out of ChatGPT until at least May 6.

The user, identified in court filings only as “John Roe,” has been arrested on four felony counts, found incompetent to stand trial, and recently ordered released from custody on a technicality.

His ex-girlfriend, proceeding as “Jane Doe,” filed a lawsuit and emergency application alleging that ChatGPT fed Roe’s delusional thinking, generated fake psychological reports about her, and helped facilitate a months-long stalking campaign.

We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here.

The facts in the complaint are disturbing. But the court’s order raises a question that no one in the courtroom appears to have seriously grappled with, and that matters far more than this one case: can a judge order a person cut off from an AI platform without considering whether that violates the First Amendment?

OpenAI at least mentioned the problem. The company’s opposition brief cited Packingham v. North Carolina, the 2017 Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law barring sex offenders from social media.

Justice Kennedy, writing for a unanimous Court, called the internet “the modern public square” and warned against broadly restricting access to platforms where people speak, read, and think.

OpenAI’s lawyers argued that a court-ordered ban on a user’s access to a general-purpose AI service raises the same kind of constitutional concern. The plaintiff’s lawyers did not address it at all.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn granted the TRO anyway, ordering Roe’s accounts to remain suspended.

According to Eugene Volokh, the George Mason law professor and First Amendment scholar who followed the hearing through a research assistant, there was no meaningful discussion of the user’s speech rights by the court.

That should worry anyone who cares about the principle that the government cannot casually strip individuals of access to communications technology, even individuals who have done terrible things.

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Law now bans Ohioans from using Michigan’s cheaper cannabis

Despite changes to Ohio and Michigan’s cannabis laws, it is still cheaper for Ohioans to drive from Columbus to a Michigan dispensary than to buy marijuana in-state.

Ohio’s cannabis market was subject to legislative changes in the past month as Senate Bill 56 went into effect. The bill banned intoxicating hemp products like THC drinks and increased penalties and restrictions for adult-use cannabis. Data shows central Ohioans would save about $76.63 by driving to Michigan to purchase cannabis, but S.B. 56 now makes possessing cannabis purchased out of state illegal. See previous coverage of S.B. 56 in the video player above.

Because cannabis is federally illegal and state borders are federal jurisdiction, it has always been illegal to cross state lines with cannabis. Previously, the law prevented Ohioans from bringing cannabis from Michigan into Ohio, but not from using cannabis purchased in Michigan within the Buckeye state.

S.B. 56 changes the legality of consuming or possessing cannabis purchased out of state. Under S.B. 56, legal cannabis only extends to legal home-grown marijuana or cannabis purchased at a licensed Ohio dispensary. The law means any cannabis purchased out of state is illegal possession.

Although Ohioans have been able to legally purchase and use recreational cannabis since August 2024, some Ohioans still crossed the border to purchase marijuana more cheaply. Four months into legalization, an ounce of marijuana flower cost more than $200 in Ohio and around $91 in Michigan. At the time, Ohioans would save over $100 on average by driving to Michigan.

Over a year later, Ohioans still save if they purchase in Michigan. NBC4 averaged sales data for one ounce of flower for each month of 2026 in both Michigan and Ohio. The closest Michigan dispensary to Columbus is around 174 miles away, so the average vehicle could make a round trip using about one tank of gas. Gas costs were calculated using the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s average gas pricing data for each month.

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Virginia Governor Wants Amendments To Marijuana Sales Legalization Bill, Including Delayed Market Launch

Virginia’s governor is requesting that legislators make amendments to a bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales that they sent to her desk last month.

On Monday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) returned the measure with suggested changes—including pushing back the launch date for sales to begin by six months, from January 1, 2027 to July 1, 2027.

The move will “allow for additional time to implement a legal market safely and curb the illicit market,” a press release from the governor’s office says.

“Five years ago, the Commonwealth took the first steps to legalize marijuana—and for five years, the work sat unfinished,” Spanberger said. “We are working to set up a marketplace that is controlled, regulated, and responsible—because legal markets only succeed when there are clear guardrails and enforcement to back it up.”

“To keep our next generation safe, we must also ensure real consequences for vape shops that have spent years targeting Virginia’s kids,” she said. “We need to rein in these shady businesses and make sure a legal marijuana market does not make the problem worse.”

Under current law, adults over 21 can legally possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis. The bill as approved by lawmakers would have increased that to 2.5 ounces, but Spanberger wants lawmakers to change that to 2 ounces.

The governor’s proposal will also “strengthen the enforcement provisions” in concert with a related bill lawmakers sent her on the issue “to put a greater focus on consumer and product safety,” her office’s press release said.

Spanberger is additionally proposing that the cannabis excise tax in the bill increase from 6 percent to 8 percent after July 1, 2029, and that regulators be allowed to license only up to 200 retail marijuana dispensaries prior to 2029 instead of the 350 included in the initial wave in the bill as passed by lawmakers.

The legislature is set to reconvene to address the governor’s proposal on April 22.

Meanwhile, Spanberger signed several other cannabis bills on Monday—including measures to protect the parental rights of consumers and allow patients to access medical marijuana in hospitals. She also proposed amendments to legislation to provide resentencing relief for people with past convictions and to change rules for marijuana delivery services.

Personal marijuana possession and home cultivation of marijuana has been legal in Virginia since 2021, but former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) twice vetoed bills to provide consumers with a way to legally purchase regulated adult-use cannabis.

The marijuana sales bills that Spanberger wants amendments to are SB 542 from Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) and HB 642 from Del. Paul Krizek (D).

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Rep. Lauren Boebert Demands Answers for ‘Deeply Troubling Abuse of Power’ by NSA Analysts

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on Monday wrote to National Security Agency (NSA) Director Joshua Rudd about multiple instances of “deeply troubling abuses of power” by NSA analysts who have misused Section 702 of FISA to search private communications, including a person met through a dating service and a potential tenant.

“I write to demand answers about a deeply troubling abuse of power by a National Security Agency analyst who exploited one of our nation’s most sensitive surveillance authorities to spy on Americans met through an online dating service,” Boebert wrote to the NSA.

She recounted an incident that was disclosed by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight (PCOAB)’s September 2023 report that “represents exactly the kind of government overreach that erodes the trust of the American people in their intelligence community.”

“As a Member of Congress who takes both national security and the constitutional rights of every American seriously, I find it unacceptable that nearly three years after this abuse was disclosed, the public has received no accounting of what consequences, if any, were imposed on the individuals responsible,” she added.

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As US Initiates Blockade Of Hormuz, Trump Warns Any Iranian Ships Coming Near Will Be ‘Eliminated’

Mediators Still Press For Iran Deal After US Demanded 20-Year Halt To Nuclear Program

On Monday a US official has been cited in Axios as saying Iran must halt its nuclear enrichment program for 20 years to end the war, scaling back from an earlier White House demand for a permanent end to enrichment. And that’s when sources say the Iranians countered with a shorter “single digit” period, or less than ten years.

Multiple Middle Eastern countries are still working to mediate a resolution, as both Washington and Tehran moved away from maximalist positions on enrichment. Before the talks, Trump demanded a permanent halt, while Iran pushed for a deal allowing a civilian nuclear program without additional restrictions. Axios has further said the “door is not closed” on a deal, but certainly the two sides’ are still far apart, with Tehran accusing Washington of inexplicably reverting to intolerable “maximalist demands.”

At Least 15 US Navy Ships Enforce Blockade

The Wall Street Journal has newly detailed that more 15 American warships are now in place to support the operation, in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The report further specified that “An advisory to mariners from U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with Britain’s Royal Navy, said maritime-access restrictions were being enforced for Iranian ports and coastal areas along the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Arabian Sea.

“Any vessel entering or departing the blockaded area without authorization is subject to interception, ​diversion, and capture,” a notification from US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said. And UKMTO has warned maritime traffic, “These access restrictions apply without distinction to vessels of any flag engaging with Iranian ports, oil terminals, or coastal facilities.”.

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The Public Safety Machine: How Miami-Dade Built A Six-Figure Pipeline That Keeps Recycling The Same Names

If you want to understand how power actually moves inside Miami-Dade government, stop focusing on titles.

Watch the pattern. Watch the nonprofit galas, the communication’s glitz. Then you’ll know who’s being promoted by miami Dade tax payers dollars.

Because the pattern doesn’t change. The names don’t change. Only the positions do.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava didn’t just inherit a public safety structure. She built the modern version of it in 2022, creating the role of Chief Public Safety Officer and appointing J.D. Patterson to lead it.

Patterson wasn’t just another administrator. He came out of a network of nonprofits and community organizations deeply embedded in the same civic ecosystem that overlaps with the administration’s leadership base.

That’s the model: government leadership, nonprofit ecosystem, and internal alignment.

From there, the system didn’t stabilize. It started rotating.

First J.D. Patterson. Then James Reyes, elevated into a sweeping public safety role overseeing multiple departments. Then Arnold Palmer, now heading the Office of Public Safety. And now, quietly positioned inside that same structure, Stephanie V. Daniels, Director of Security and Compliance within the Office of the Chief of Public Safety. A position created for her to come back from “retirement” so as to make the public safety appointment an internal hire.

Same structure. Same network. Same pipeline.

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The Strait Of Hormuz Crisis Exposes A Fatal Flaw In Economic Thinking

A priest, an engineer, and an economist are stranded on a desert island. The first order of business is to get some food. The priest suggests that they all pray. The practical-minded engineer suggests that the three men make a net to catch some fish. But where will they find the necessary materials? The priest and the engineer turn to the economist and ask him if he has any ideas. The economist replies, “Assume a fish.”

This well-worn economist joke summarizes one of the chief flaws in contemporary economic theory.

That theory almost completely ignores the role of physical resources, assuming they will always be available in the quantities we need at prices we can afford at the time we need them. When those resources aren’t available, that theory begrudgingly accepts that there will be some damage to economic activity, but tends to greatly underestimate the impact.

This conceptual flaw explains why economists in most financial institutions and governments, and thus investors, are not especially alarmed at the loss of energy resources, as stock market indices remain not too far from their recent highs.

For a good summary of how contemporary economic theory goes off the rails, Australian economist Steve Keen offers a mercifully brief and comprehensible explanation. Here I will relate one critical part of that explanation. About 5.7 percent of U.S. GDP is devoted to procuring and distributing energy. Most economists will tell you that a 10 percent decline in energy availability would have a small effect on the U.S. economy. They would take the percentage of the economy devoted to energy, in this case 5.7 percent, and multiply it by 10 percent to arrive at a 0.57 percent reduction in economic activity.

This conclusion is utter nonsense and not even close to what the effects would be.

The reason is that energy is the master resource. It cannot be treated like other resources. Energy is the resource that makes all other resources available. Nothing gets done without energy. The correlation between economic activity and energy use is 0.9 (where 1.0 represents a perfect correlation). This should come as no surprise. When the economy is growing, energy use grows with it as energy fuels the economic activity that pushes growth.

What this implies is that a 10 percent reduction in energy availability is much more likely to result in a decline in economic activity closer to 10 percent than to one-half percent.  For comparison, the real GDP of the United States fell 4.3 percent during the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 through June 2009.

So, how much energy is currently being denied to the global economy by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? No one knows for certain. We do know that liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from Qatar were previously transiting through the strait. And, close to 20 percent of the world’s oil supply was also passing through the strait on a daily basis.

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Nicaragua Bans Several Christian Groups As Persecution Worsens

The government of Nicaragua banned at least 18 Christian groups from operating within the country as persecution from the Latin American nation’s regime worsens.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in a report published last month that they were able to identify 15 Protestant groups and 3 Roman Catholic groups stripped of legal status in 2025.

“Affected institutions were schools, religious radio and television outlets, and faith-based charities, including Lutheran World Relief and Food for the Hungry,” the group said.

The Independent Fundamentalist Baptists were also stripped of their legal status.

After revoking legal status, the government has in some cases taken their property.

One religiously affiliated school was allowed to operate for nine months after having its status revoked, with leadership told it would eventually be turned into a state school.

But the premises were instead used as a police station.

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