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.

Obama Claims Government Less Corrupt Than Ever as Democrats Run on Issue

Former President Barack Obama claimed Thursday that Washington runs cleaner now than through most of its past, pointing to a collapse in bribes, patronage, and favor-trading.

The former president made the argument in the third episode of A Great Book with Barack Obama, a six-episode series that premiered Thursday on Amazon’s Audible, Axios reported. The episode pairs Obama with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore for a discussion of Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel All the King’s Men.

Obama suggested the assessment catches listeners off guard.

“People are always surprised when I tell them the federal government is so much less corrupt than probably it’s ever been, in terms of just pure bribes or patronage or favors,” he said.

The 44th president argued that the reforms behind that decline also stripped lawmakers of tools they once used to assemble coalitions. He pointed to the Lyndon B. Johnson era, claiming reforms passed on either side of Watergate wiped out most of what party bosses once used to swap favors for votes.

He described the loss in mechanical terms.

“It’s part of the reason why things got a little harder to get done because that was sort of some lubrication … to help to bridge some of the ideological differences that were out there,” Obama said.

A record 89 percent of U.S. adults told Gallup that government corruption is widespread, according to results released Sept. 2. That figure climbed ten points from last year and sits well past the 72 to 79 percent range recorded between 2010 and 2025. Among Democrats, it reached 91 percent, up from 57 percent in former President Joe Biden’s final year in office. Republicans registered 83 percent.

Democrat officials have spent the month pressing the issue. Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) claimed on ABC’s This Week that President Donald Trump’s presidency is “the most corrupt presidency that we’ve seen in our lifetimes, maybe ever in the United States.”

“So that is one of the things that I think Democrats can run on in ’26,” the Illinois Democrat added.

Corruption ads are running in more than a dozen House races and in nearly every competitive Senate state, the Washington Sun reported. Republican pollster Robert Blizzard said frustration with politics-as-usual is “at a fever pitch.”

Obama has been shaping his party’s midterm message directly. At a private fundraiser this month, he urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to put artificial intelligence oversight at the center of the Democrat agenda.

The podcast is the sixth release under Higher Ground’s exclusive first-look deal with Audible, and the first the former president hosts himself.

Keep reading

Dem Senator Wants To Regulate The Internet To Prevent Another Trump From Happening

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called for government regulation of the internet as part of a broader effort to reduce loneliness and powerlessness among Americans, two conditions he argues push voters toward leaders like President Donald Trump. Murphy made the remarks on September 21 during an appearance on the I’ve Had It podcast, where he discussed his book, Crisis of the Common Good.

Murphy told the podcast hosts that isolation and helplessness define the country right now. “Those are the two things I think Americans are going through right now… They don’t feel powerful at all, and they feel lonely,” he said.

His remedy for loneliness coincidentally becomes an excuse to grow the government even further.

“And so, government should build a set of rules in which people feel more powerful – that’s why the minimum wage is so important – and people feel so more connected,” Murphy said.

He added, “That’s why, you know, rebuilding healthy institutions in your town should be a project that government is involved in.”

Then he got to the internet and revealed his true objective. “Regulating the internet so that you’re spending less time alone on Instagram should be an important government project,” Murphy said. And if Americans feel more powerful and less alone, Murphy argued, “they are going to be less likely to fall for a bullshit demagogue like Donald Trump.”

Keep reading

 Actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder Handcuffed While Protesting Netanyahu’s UN Speech

Actresses Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon were taken into custody Thursday outside the United Nations in New York during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the General Assembly.

Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest, which took place a few blocks from the UN headquarters on Thursday.

Protesters wore matching shirts that read “Fund people not bombs” and carried banners including “Stop Arming Israel” and “End the Genocide.”

Chants captured on video included “Netanyahu, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide,” “Let Gaza live,” and “Stop arming Israel.”

An NYPD spokesperson said Community Affairs officers warned the crowd to leave.

“They continued to block the intersection. Multiple individuals who didn’t comply were taken into custody,” the spokesperson said, without giving a final headcount.

Keep reading

US Pledges $267 Million More In Ebola Aid To Congo

The United States is sending another $267 million to fight the Ebola outbreak in Congo, bringing total U.S. aid for the outbreak to $887 million, the State Department announced Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The outbreak, first detected in Congo’s Ituri province in May before spreading to Uganda, has killed at least 3,700 people as of the U.N.’s Sept. 22 count. That makes it the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.

The new money fulfills a G7 pledge of up to an additional $500 million, and it came with a message for everyone else. The State Department urged other “capable nations to increase burden sharing to meet the urgency of the moment.” The U.N.’s $2.13 billion response plan is only 48 percent funded, leaving a gap of roughly $1.1 billion.

As The Epoch Times notes further, the $887 million in direct aid for the Ebola outbreak is on top of existing U.S. contributions to international aid through the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Since the start of the second Trump administration, U.S. contributions to OCHA’s aid programs across 21 key countries have reached $3.8 billion.

A $2 million first tranche contribution was agreed to in December 2025 when the Trump administration outlined its “Humanitarian Reset” framework agreement following the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and cuts to its funding.

A second tranche of $1.8 billion was made to OCHA on May 14. Part of this includes $350 million in aid to Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan, the department said.

In addition to aid contributions to the United Nations, the United States, under the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy, has been outlining bilateral global health agreements with partner countries. In February, Washington and Congo signed a five-year health memorandum of understanding under that strategy, with the United States intending to provide up to $900 million to support HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and disease surveillance.

The current Ebola outbreak began in Ituri province in northeastern Congo. It quickly spread to Uganda. On May 17, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the virus a public health emergency of international concern.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference on Sept. 16 that transmission is declining in the most affected areas of the outbreak epicenter, with the epidemic mostly contained to northeastern Congo.

But he warned that more work was needed. He said the situation wasn’t a single epidemic to manage, but rather “many outbreaks in many places.”

According to the CDC’s situation page, no Ebola cases associated with this outbreak have been reported in the United States, and the overall risk to the U.S. public and travelers remains low.

Keep reading

Wicked Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes Caught in Major Scandal – May End His Tyrannical Reign

The chickens come home to roost.

Wicked Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the man behind the socialist takeover of Brazil and punisher of all good conservatives, is caught up in a scandal that may end his tyrannical career.

How wicked is Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes?

Moraes returned former President Jair Bolsonaro back to prison based on trumped-up charges immediately after Jair’s eighth surgery due to the aftermath of a 2018 attempted assassination.  The popular former president remains in prison to this day. He pulled out the same playbook to destroy his political opposition that Democrats used against President Trump.

In September 2004, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, revealed the shocking rationale behind the recent ban imposed by communist Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

This explosive Twitter expose’ revealed de Moraes’s involvement in serious crimes and human rights violations, all under the guise of upholding “democracy.”

In a decision issued on August 18, 20214, de Moraes justified his orders to ban social media accounts and suppress dissenting voices by claiming that anyone attempting to expose him or his allies must be silenced in the name of “democracy.”

Keep reading

Michigan Dem Christina Hines Started Program Allowing Those Accused of Serious Crimes to Potentially Avoid Jail

Michigan Democrat Christina Hines helped establish a restorative justice program in Washtenaw County that allows defendants accused of serious felonies, including home invasion and assault with intent to do great bodily harm, to be considered for alternatives to incarceration.

Hines pioneered the Washtenaw County Restorative Justice Program in 2021 while serving as the county’s first assistant prosecutor under Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit. 

According to Washtenaw County’s restorative justice policy, the program consists of three primary elements:

The person who committed harm acknowledges the harm done and takes responsibility. The person who committed harm, and the person harmed, voluntarily work together and agree to a plan in which amends can be made. The person who committed the harm, and all affected parties who desire to do so, work together to determine the root causes of the harm and develop a plan to ensure that the harm will not reoccur.

The program allows eligible criminal cases to be considered for diversion after formal charges have been filed by the prosecutor’s office. Home invasion, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and other serious felony offenses are not categorically excluded and are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Hines described Washtenaw County’s Restorative Justice Program as the first of its kind in Michigan in a December 2023 article for the Michigan Bar Journal.

“Many adult criminal cases are referrable, with exceptions for sexual assault, victimization of children, intimate partner violence, and other cases where the prosecutor determines the defendant poses a public safety risk such as homicides or cases involving gun violence,” Hines wrote.

“Restorative justice is an approach to address conflict and misconduct that focuses on healing rather than punishment and values accountability over exclusion,” she added.

An October 2022 court order establishing the program states, “The Court encourages residents of this County to employ restorative justice practices, not only in justiciable matters, but in all aspects of life and law.”

The order also provides that criminal cases may be diverted to the Restorative Justice Program after they have been formally charged by the prosecutor’s office.

A September 2021 Washtenaw County Legal News article discussing Washtenaw County’s initiative pointed to New York City’s Common Justice program, which specifically handles serious and violent felonies, including assault and robbery. “The experience in other communities has demonstrated that crime survivors often prefer restorative justice as an alternative to the traditional criminal legal system. New York City maintains a robust restorative-justice program administered by Common Justice,” the article stated.

Research has identified concerns about victims’ experiences with restorative justice.

A 2012 study examining victim-offender mediation found instances in which victims experienced marginalization, intimidation, and pressure during mediation proceedings.

“The findings of the current study indicate that these [RJ] principles were compromised in each case to some extent,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers identified victim-sensitive or victim-centered practices as the most commonly overlooked principle. In certain cases, mediators encouraged victims to “keep things positive” rather than share the depth of the personal and family impacts of the crime. Some victims felt threatened by offenders or their families, while others felt pressured to accept apologies.

The study also found that victims were sometimes inadequately prepared for mediation, pressured by mediators to behave in certain ways, or occasionally intimidated by offenders and/or their families.

Keep reading

‘Trans-Identifying Nurse’ Charged With 4 Counts of Child Abuse After Abusing a Premature Baby Girl in the Hospital

A now-former nurse at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been charged with four counts of child abuse after a tiny premature baby girl in the neonatal intensive care unit was found with multiple broken bones and bruises covering her body, including her tongue.

The accused is 43-year-old Kieran L. Ansley of Niles, Michigan. A warrant was authorized in early September, WOOD-TV reported.

Ansley faces two felony counts of second-degree child abuse, each carrying up to 10 years in prison, and two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree child abuse.

Ansley appeared in Grand Rapids District Court this week, remains free on bond, and is required to wear an electronic tether. The next hearing is set for early November.

The infant was born in November 2025 at 23 weeks, weighing one pound, one ounce. She spent months in the NICU fighting to live. By early April she had made it past her due date and was two days from going home.

“She was born at 23 weeks: 1 pound, 1 ounce,” grandfather Robert Steavens told WOOD-TV. “And she made it through her due date, ready to go home. And then two days before she was ready to go home, this happened.”

On the evening of April 2, the child’s mother left the unit with her daughter appearing fine. She returned about 6:30 a.m. the next morning.

Keep reading

CDC Officially Lists One Measles Death, as Agency Works to Create Standard Definition

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with state epidemiologists to create a standard definition for measles deaths.

The CDC launched the project earlier this summer, before Pennsylvania announced two “measles-associated” deaths, setting off a controversy after the coroner who reviewed the deaths contradicted Gov. Josh Shapiro and the state health department, telling the media that one of the deaths was not caused by measles.

“Pennsylvania may classify deaths as ‘measles-associated’ under its state surveillance definition, but CDC is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) to establish a standardized definition for measles deaths to ensure consistent reporting across jurisdictions,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Press Secretary Grace Davis Jamison told The Defender.

“CDC will apply the same national standard to every state and report any measles-caused deaths when the National Center for Health Statistics identifies measles as the underlying cause based on death record information submitted by the states,” Jamison said.

On Aug. 25, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced two deaths, both infants, describing them as “measles-associated.” In mid-September, the state announced two additional deaths, including one of a 40-year-old woman with a long history of underlying illness.

The CDC measles surveillance page, updated today, displays an asterisk with only one recorded death in 2026. The accompanying note says, “This number is subject to change; CDC will update its reporting as additional information becomes available and relevant reviews are completed.”

The federal government recently revised how it counts measles deaths in response to ongoing scrutiny around whether the Pennsylvania fatalities labeled “measles-associated” were actually caused by measles.

The Guardian recently reported the CDC will base its measles death count on data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The CDC updated its site today, only after the NCHS alerted the agency about a measles-related death, Jamison said.

“Through its standard process, NCHS verified that the death occurred and that measles was listed as the underlying cause of death,” Jamison told The Defender.

Previously, the CDC pulled its measles death figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), which receives public health surveillance data from state, local and territorial health departments.

NCHS tracks only the official causes of death as reported on death certificates, while the NNDSS reports include additional information about a person’s health status at the time of their death.

Keep reading

Alaskan Sex Offender Given Probation After Bringing Migrant Mom, Child Across Border

A previously convicted sex offender from Alaska received a sentence of three years’ probation for paying to have a woman from Honduras and her 14-year-old daughter brought over the border.

This week, Douglas Eugene Price went before U.S. Southern District of Texas Chief District Court Judge Randy Crane, who accepted a recommendation from federal prosecutors after Price had pleaded guilty to one count of harboring aliens. Prosecutors dropped a second count of the same charge in consideration for the plea agreement.

As Breitbart Texas’s Randy Clark reported, the case began on January 16, when a 14-year-old girl from Honduras crossed into Hidalgo, Texas, with the intention of being released to Price as her sponsor through the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The girl’s mother crossed into the country separately, planning to meet up with them and stay in Alaska.

However, during an investigation by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, agents learned that Price was a convicted sex offender and was listed on child abuse and kidnapping registries.

Agents interviewed the woman’s mother, who said she had known Price for years and that they had worked together in the past. The woman had also worked as Price’s housekeeper and babysitter before she was detained by immigration authorities in 2025 and deported to Honduras.

During the investigation, agents found messages between the two and a transfer of $5,000 meant to pay for the smuggling fees to have the woman and her daughter illegally brought into the country.

Keep reading

“HYPOCRITE” — Ric Grenell Calls Out Democrat Senate Candidate Mary Peltola After Repeatedly Using Homophobic Slurs Like “F*ggot” on Her Own Gay Staffers

On Thursday, the former acting Director of National Intelligence and Kennedy Center president went after Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola after former aides accused the Senate candidate of repeatedly using homophobic slurs, including about members of her own staff.

Grenell, who is openly gay, did not mince words.

“Sorry, @marthamaccallum and @JacquiHeinrich — multiple Democrat staffers confirmed that their Democrat boss used homophobic slurs, not once, but multiple times,” Grenell posted.

“Calling your own gay staffers derogatory and condescending names while asking Democrats to vote for you shows she’s at least a comfortable hypocrite. I’m old enough to remember that this accusation would be nonstop media coverage for a Republican.”

Keep reading