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.

Massachusetts House Passes Social Media Age Verification Digital ID Bill

Massachusetts just voted to force every social media user in the state to prove their age to a tech company. 

The bill passed the House 129-25 on Wednesday, banning children under 14 from social media entirely, requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, and mandating that platforms build age verification systems to enforce all of it. If it becomes law, the policy takes effect on October 1.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

House Speaker Ron Mariano and Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz framed the legislation as protection. “This ban would be among the most restrictive in the entire country, helping to protect young people from harmful content and addictive algorithms that have a proven negative impact on their mental health,” they said in a joint statement. 

They also described the broader goal: “The simple reality is that Massachusetts must do more to ensure that our laws keep pace with modern challenges – especially when it comes to protecting our children, and to setting students up for success in the classroom and beyond.”

The bill doesn’t say how companies should verify ages. It leaves that to Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who would have until September 1 to write the implementing regulations. 

That vagueness is deliberate, according to Michlewitz, who said it gives the AG flexibility in a changing industry. 

But the practical reality of age verification is that someone has to prove who they are. 

That means government IDs, facial scans, or behavioral tracking, and those requirements don’t just apply to kids. Every user on the platform has to go through the system, because you can’t filter minors without checking adults, too.

Keep reading

RINO TREACHERY STRIKES AGAIN IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Senate KILLS Motion to Expedite Trump-Backed Redistricting – 6 Republicans Join Democrats to Jeopardize 7-0 GOP Congressional Map and Protect Jim Clyburn’s Gerrymandered Seat

The South Carolina Senate just killed a critical motion to expedite the Trump-backed congressional redistricting effort, putting the entire push for a bold 7-0 Republican map in serious jeopardy as Democrats and their weak-kneed GOP enablers drag their feet past the start of early voting on Tuesday, May 26.

State Rep. Adam Morgan blasted the vote and sounded the alarm:

“South Carolina Senate KILLS motion to expedite Redistricting! This puts the entire effort in serious jeopardy. 6 Republicans voted with Dems to kill it… The motion would [have] suspended Rule 15b to allow immediate cloture. Without this they can drag the debate out past the start of early voting (Tues, 5/26). This 25-15 vote failed to meet the required 2/3 threshold. Luke Rankin (R-Horry) did not vote.”

The six Republican traitors who voted with the Democrats to block the motion and protect the status quo are:

  • Rex Rice (Pickens)
  • Shane Massey (Edgefield)
  • Sean Bennett (Dorchester)
  • Chip Campsen (Charleston)
  • Tom Davis (Beaufort)
  • Greg Hembree (Horry)

This is the same crew of weaklings (plus one new addition) who previously blocked efforts to extend the session, as The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this month when five of them handed Democrats a temporary win and defied massive pressure from President Donald Trump himself.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, the South Carolina House just rammed through a bold new 7-0 Republican congressional map – a direct strike at far-left Rep. Jim Clyburn’s unconstitutional, race-based 6th District stronghold. Governor Henry McMaster even called an emergency special session to force the issue and secure a clean Republican sweep of all seven U.S. House seats in the Palmetto State.

But these Senate RINOs just can’t help themselves. They’d rather side with Democrats, protect entrenched power, and risk losing ground for conservatives across the country than deliver the fair maps South Carolinians deserve ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Keep reading

US Faces Electricity Shortages Heading Into Summer, as Grid Operators Warn of Limits of Green Energy

With more than 25 years of executive experience in the utility industry, people tend to listen when MISO CEO John Bear talks about energy.

And the message he’s sending about electricity shortages as Americans head into summer is clear.

“I am concerned about it,” Bear told The Wall Street Journal in an article exploring why power-grid operators are worried that electricity supplies may struggle to keep up with rising energy demands.

Bear is not some lone prophet foretelling doom.

From California to Texas to the Midwest, the Journal spoke to grid operators warning that conditions are ripe for outages, as plants pivot to new renewable energy sources.

These concerns are not unfounded. Evidence shows America’s power grid is increasingly unreliable and struggling to keep up with demand, and operators are bracing for rolling blackouts that could be arriving as soon as this year during heat waves and cold snaps.

‘Quitting’ Fossil Fuels?

Politicians and policy wonks often speak of “quitting” fossil fuels, as if they are a filthy habit or a narcotic like crack. But the reality is humans could not survive without coal, natural gas, and oil.

Despite their impressive growth, renewable energy sources—solar, wind, hydro and biomass combined—account for just 20 percent of US utility-scale electricity generation.

Fossil fuels, on the other hand, provide 61 percent of utility-scale electricity generation in the country. They heat and cool our homes, run our appliances, and feed the Teslas we drive.

While there is a great deal of excitement around the potential of renewable energy, one cannot simply replace a coal plant with a wind or solar farm and expect things will go just fine. These are intermittent energy sources, for one, but their construction and expansion has also been hit with delays for a variety of reasons, including inflation and supply chain bottlenecks.

“Every market around the world is trying to deal with the same issue,” Brad Jones, interim chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told the Journal. “We’re all trying to find ways to utilize as much of our renewable resources as possible…and at the same time make sure that we have enough dispatchable generation to manage reliability.”

The shift from filthy coal to clean energy has not always been smooth.

Last year, for example, Hawaiian officials were stunned to learn the coal plant they had killed had been replaced with a massive battery powered by oil, which one public official described as “going from cigarettes to crack.”

Keep reading

In the Midst of Europe’s Rearmament Frenzy, Britain Is Revealed To Only Have Drones for One Week of War

The UK is unprepared for any kind of military confrontation.

US President Donald J. Trump was criticized for calling his weak European allies ‘paper tigers,’ but he was, as usual, right.

In the case of the ‘once greatest ally,’ the United Kingdom, the lack of preparedness is shocking.

Today, reports arise that under PM Keir ‘Not-a-Churchill’ Starmer, Britain only has enough drones for one week of war with Russia.

The Telegraph reported:

“The military’s stockpile of drones is so low that it would vanish within days of war breaking out with Moscow.

Defense chiefs fear that Vladimir Putin could be ready to invade Europe by the end of the decade if a peace deal is struck with Ukraine.”

Keep reading

US said to fire more interceptors to protect Israel in latest Iran war than Israel did

The US reportedly used up more than half of its inventory of THAAD anti-missile interceptors while defending Israel from Iranian attacks during the recent war.

According to The Washington Post on Thursday, the United States used over 200 THAAD interceptors to shoot down missiles bound for Israel. It also launched more than 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors to defend Israel, which itself used fewer than 100 Arrow interceptors and around 90 from the David Sling’s system, the report said, quoting Defense Department data.

Overall, the report said, the US “expended far more advanced interceptors to protect Israel than Israeli forces did.”

A US official told the newspaper that if fighting renews with Iran, the US will likely need to use even more interceptors defending Israel because Israel has sent some of its missile defense batteries for maintenance.

“Israel is not capable of fighting and winning wars on its own, but nobody actually knows this, because they never see the back end,” said a US official quoted in the report.

The Pentagon denied to The Washington Post that there is any issue of burden sharing with Israel, saying, “Ballistic missile interceptors are just one tool in a vast network of systems and capabilities.”

The Israeli Embassy in Washington said in response that “the US has no other partner with the military willingness, readiness, shared interests and capabilities of Israel.”

Keep reading

Obama Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss the human trafficking case for vindictive and selective prosecution in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The Trump DOJ vowed to appeal Judge Crenshaw’s decision.

Last October, Judge Crenshaw set a hearing on whether the child-trafficking case against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was due to “vindictive prosecution.”

Crenshaw set a hearing based on public statements made by Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kristi Noem, and others.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national who was illegally residing in Maryland. In 2019, an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the dangerous MS-13 gang, removed from the US.

After a months-long court battle over his deportation, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was transported back to the United States from El Salvador to face criminal charges.

Keep reading

‘The Worst Leak That I’ve Witnessed’: U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Leaves Its Digital Keys Out in Public on GitHub

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been leaving the digital keys to its own cloud storage accounts sitting out in the open, in plain text form, for some unknown amount of time, according to a report from Krebs on Security. The problem finally got fixed over the weekend, the report says.

Surely the secret information was buried in some obscure folder with an inscrutable name, I hear you saying. The repository was reportedly named “Private-CISA.”

But there’s no way the contents were that sensitive, you object. But the contents included passwords, keys, and tokens—and the passwords were plain text in a .CSV file.

CISA gave a statement to Krebs, saying the following:

“Currently, there is no indication that any sensitive data was compromised as a result of this incident[…] While we hold our team members to the highest standards of integrity and operational awareness, we are working to ensure additional safeguards are implemented to prevent future occurrences.”

Since the repository was created in November of last year, the duration of the vulnerability seems to have been about six months—but it could have been much shorter depending on what information as added when.

To refresh your memory, CISA is a relatively new branch of the Department of Homeland Security that has had an overall rough time during Trump 2.0, even though, by signing it into law in 2018, Trump actually midwifed CISA into existence during Administration 1.0, and sorry about the tangent, but Trump’s speech to mark the occasion was an exceptional example of Trump poetry, including excerpts like this one:

“The cyber battlespace evolves — and it is evolving, and unfortunately, faster than a lot of people want to talk about. But battlespace it is. So as the cyber battlespace evolves, this new agency will ensure that we confront the full range of threats from nation-states, cyber criminals, and other malicious actors, of which there are many.” 

Incontestably true, Mister President. Battlespace it is.

Keep reading

Trump Admin Preparing to Strike Iran: Report

President Trump is preparing to hit Iran with a new round of military strikes, CBS reported on Friday evening.

CBS noted that no final decision has been reached.

Earlier Friday, President Trump raised eyebrows after he announced he would not be attending his son Don Jr’s wedding this weekend because it is “important” for him to remain in DC “during this important period of time.”

“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump said.

“I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time. Congratulations to Don and Bettina!” Trump said earlier Friday.

CBS News reported:

The Trump administration was preparing Friday for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planning, even as diplomacy continued.

No final decision on strikes had been reached as of Friday afternoon.

“Circumstances pertaining to Government” are keeping President Trump from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding this weekend, he said in a social media post. The president had planned to spend Memorial Day weekend at his golf property in New Jersey but will now return to the White House.

Some members of the U.S. military and intelligence community canceled their plans for the Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of possible strikes, several sources said.

Defense and intelligence officials began updating recall rosters for U.S. installations overseas as tranches of troops stationed in the Middle East rotate out of theater, part of an effort to reduce the American military footprint in the region amid concern about possible Iranian retaliation.

The US and Israel first struck Iran in late February.

Keep reading

First hantavirus, now Ebola; What happened to the 323 vials of viruses that went missing from an Australian laboratory?

This month, a hantavirus “outbreak” and an Ebola “outbreak” have been reported. 

The widely publicised hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius was managed by the widely discredited World Health Organisation (“WHO”).  And WHO has declared the Ebola “outbreak” as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (“PHEIC”).

This has reminded us of an article we published at the end of 2024 about virus samples that went missing from an Australian laboratory.  So, we are republishing it below.

In 2021, 323 vials of virus samples went missing from a government-operated laboratory in Queensland, Australia. Two of the vials contained hantavirus.

Hantavirus is one of the viruses that causes illnesses referred to as viral haemorrhagic fevers (“VHFs”).   Another virus that causes VHFs is the Ebolavirus.

Update: An investigation was carried out into the missing vials of viruses by the Queensland Ministry of Health, which determined they were likely destroyed rather than stolen or lost.  According to a “fact check” blog by Snopes, “the agency said the samples were unlikely to have been lost or stolen, and were instead unaccounted for due to incomplete lab records, adding that the breach caused ‘no risk or harm’ to staff or the broader community.”

According to the Mirror, “questions have surfaced over [the missing vials] location following the deadly virus infecting passengers aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.”

Interestingly, 323 missing vials of “live” virus did not attract the attention of an international response that required WHO’s management, but suspected cases of hantavirus on a cruise ship did.

Just as interesting is that missing vials of “live” virus posed no risk to the public at large, but a few suspected cases of “the deadly” hantavirus on a cruise ship, which is not transmitted between people, did.

Keep reading

Disney Begs FCC to Label Far-Left Propaganda Show ‘The View’ as “Bona Fide News” So They Can Handpick Democrat Candidates and Silence Republicans – FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Asks the American People to Weigh In

Disney-owned ABC is now petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to officially declare the screeching harpies on The View as “bona fide news,” giving the daytime talk show a free pass to platform Democrat politicians while blackballing Republicans and dodging equal time rules that apply to every other broadcaster.

This is the same network that spent years pushing nonstop Trump Derangement Syndrome, COVID hysteria, and every woke agenda item under the sun, and now they want the government to rubber-stamp their partisan operation as legitimate “news” journalism? Give us a break.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, one of the few adults left in Washington fighting back against Big Tech and Big Media gatekeepers, just exposed the whole scheme in a blistering public statement that perfectly captures the hypocrisy:

Disney has filed a petition with the FCC asking the agency to declare that The View is exempt from the statutory equal opportunities requirements that would otherwise apply to broadcast shows.

Disney argues that The View qualifies as “bona fide news” under the law, comparing itself to Meet The Press or Face The Nation.

Therefore, Disney argues, it can have one partisan candidate for office on The View while denying equal opportunities to all others.

The FCC is now seeking public comment on Disney’s request to be labeled as “bona fide news.”

Is The View a “bona fide news interview program”?

Under FCC case law, tv shows do not qualify as “bona fide news” if their decisions are based on partisan purposes, such as an intention to advance or harm an individual’s candidacy.

As the Public Notice observes, Congress originally passed the equal opportunities law to prevent media gatekeepers from deciding the outcome of elections. The law, even when it applies, does not prohibit anyone from having any candidate appear on any show. Rather, Congress intended it to empower voters with more information and encourage more speech.

Keep reading