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.

Major First Amendment Victory: D.C. Circuit Overturns Verdict Against James O’Keefe, Rules Undercover Journalism Is Protected Speech

In a major First Amendment and investigative-reporting win, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has overturned a jury verdict and damages award against James O’Keefe and undercover journalist Allison Maass stemming from a Project Veritas investigation into Democracy Partners.

The panel ruled 2-1 that the First Amendment protects publishing undercover footage and that the damages improperly punished protected journalistic activity.

O’Keefe announced the decision in a video posted on his X account Friday evening, saying his faith in the future of journalism has been restored after the appellate court, including a Democrat-appointed judge, set a powerful precedent for undercover work nationwide.

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‘The Bacteria Are Winning’: How Factory Farms Cause Human Sickness

Intensive farming, where animals are kept in close quarters, creates environments that encourage the evolution of harmful bacteria and other pathogens so that they gain traits making it easier to infect people and more difficult to cure, a new study suggests.

Hygiene and welfare standards are often low on industrial farms, also called factory farms, and the rising widespread use of antimicrobials has led to concerns that overuse in animal farming is playing a key role in driving antimicrobial-resistant infections in people.

To gain insights into how intensive animal farming influences the evolution of harmful bacteria, a new study investigated how modern densely populated chicken farms have shaped the evolution of strains of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria, which are the leading cause of gut illness and diarrhea from bacterial food poisoning in people, typically after eating contaminated chicken.

Chickens are of particular interest because populations have shot up sevenfold since the 1960s due to agricultural growth and increasing demand for poultry. Today, roughly 31 billion chickens inhabit the globe. Together, poultry accounts for around 70% of all bird biomass on Earth.

The results showed that C. jejuni evolved rapidly in chickens, developing genetic strains resistant to antimicrobials and more likely to adapt to other species, which makes it easier for them to infect people.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the universities of Oxford and Sheffield in the United Kingdom analyzed the genetic information of 2,747 C. jejuni samples from wild birds and chickens.

They found that since 1900, the transmission between chickens and wild birds has increased by more than 100-fold.

Farming intensification has changed how pathogens interact between populations of wild birds and domesticated chickens, says Oakem Kyne, a lead researcher on the study at the University of Oxford.

There is a much wider variety of chicken-adapted C. jejuni strains now than before they were domesticated, with a large jump since 1900 when modern poultry farming intensified, says Kyne.

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Cause of Death Reportedly Revealed for Missing US Attorney Found Dead Inside Federal Building After Being Reported Missing

The cause of death of a federal prosecutor who once served twice as acting US Attorney based in San Diego has reportedly been revealed.

As previously reported, a caller informed the San Diego Police late Wednesday evening to report that Haden might be missing.

A short time later, he was discovered dead by law enforcement in an office at 880 Front St. in Downtown San Diego.

Southern District U.S. Atty. Adam Gordon confirmed b Haden’s death in a statement, calling it “one of the darkest days in our office’s history.”

“But there was nothing dark about Andrew Haden’s life,” he added.

Now, the New York Post exclusively reports that Haden died by hanging in an apparent suicide.

This should not come as a surprise since San Diego Police Department spokesperson Ashley Nicholas previously noted that no foul play was suspected.

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The Backstory on Bill Gates’ Secret ‘Q’ Clearance Is Revealed — And It Is Chilling

The mystery surrounding Bill Gates’ extraordinary access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive information is a bone-chilling look at how America’s elites are corrupting our government.

And the latest trail leads through nuclear research, the Pentagon, DARPA — and, strangely enough, Jeffrey Epstein.

It all began when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) dropped a massive batch of government records last month, revealing, among other things, that Gates possessed a Department of Energy “Q” security clearance for more than seven years.

DOE describes Q access authorization as comparable to a Department of Defense Top Secret clearance. Depending on an individual’s need to know, it can permit access to highly sensitive Restricted Data involving nuclear programs.

Gates’ authorization was “reciprocally granted” on June 11, 2014, and terminated on December 6, 2021, according to the DOE letter released by Paul. In other words, DOE recognized an existing clearance granted through another federal agency rather than starting from scratch.

Which agency? DOE didn’t publicly say.

But investigator Sayer Ji, who is the Senior Adviser to MAHA Action, has assembled a timeline that provides a potentially important piece of the puzzle — and Paul himself is drawing attention to it.

“Fantastic explainer here,” Paul wrote. “Gates, a private citizen, had ‘Q’ level clearance, which is equal to a Department of Defense Top Secret clearance and is required to handle sensitive nuclear weapons data and Restricted Data. Was this for DARPA? And why? This was long before COVID-19.”

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U.S. Ambassador Barrack: Israel Bombed Syria During Election Cycle — Without Warning Turkey, Despite Intelligence Clearance

U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack stated that the Israeli strikes on Syrian airfields had been conducted without the knowledge or consent of the Turkish government. Ambassador Barrack revealed that, via their respective intelligence services, the Syrian government and the Israeli Mossad had ascertained prior to the strikes that there were no Turkish military assets in the area.

Barrack laid out the diplomatic efforts the U.S. took to facilitate peaceful Israeli monitoring of Syrian activities — efforts that ultimately fell apart.

“Israel had told us for a preceding five days they were concerned about what was going on,” Barrack stated. “We went to our intelligence agencies. Syria talked to Mossad, gave them the information that there were no Turkish military, there were no Turkish convoys, there were no Turkish armaments, and that there was nothing adversarial or offensive going on. That was on Friday. They were supposed to meet again the next week.”

Despite that, Israel struck — without warning Ankara.

“Something went wrong,” Ambassador Barrack continued. “And they decided in the last minute to bomb the craters on the two runways. The problem was that the Turkish side was not notified.”

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UC Berkeley Math Professor Makes a Startling Revelation About Her Students as She Blasts School’s Woke Admissions Policy, Which an Obama Admin. Official Implemented

One of the nation’s supposedly most rigorous colleges is completely infested with unqualified students, forcing a calculus teacher to come forward with a stunning revelation.

Zvezdelina Stankova, a professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley, wrote a damning op-ed in the San Francisco Standard last week excoriating the university’s woke admissions standards, which Then-President Janet Napolitano implemented.

Back in 2020, Napolitano, who served as Homeland Security Secretary under former President Barack Obama, overruled a task force that urged the school to phase out the SAT and ACT.

She argued that doing so was proper due to pandemic disruptions and ‘equity’ concerns.

The Regents voted later that year to make testing optional. Then, a court ruling focused on access for students with disabilities required UC to become test-blind through 2025.

Due to this policy, Stankova noted that because the kids are so far behind on mathematics, she has to spend her time teaching middle-school math to them.

Not high school. Middle school.

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Gaming Giant Roblox Says Teen Suicide Victim Waived Right to Sue When She Was Just 8 Years Old

Gaming platform Roblox is arguing that an 8-year-old girl gave up her right to sue the company by clicking “I agree” on its terms of service, according to court filings in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her mother. The girl tragically took her own life at just 13 year old after being introduced to dark and violent subcultures on Roblox, TikTok, and Discord.

The Louisville Courier Journal reports that Jaimee Seitz filed the lawsuit in October 2025 in federal court in the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleging her daughter, Audree Heine, was exposed to “harmful and violent influences” on Roblox after joining the platform at age eight, despite parental controls Seitz says she had set on the account. Audree also used Discord and TikTok to communicate with other Roblox users, and the suit names both companies as defendants alongside Roblox.

Audree tragically died by suicide in December 2024, one week after her 13th birthday. According to the lawsuit, investigators later found a journal in her school locker showing she had been introduced to a community that glorified a mass school shooter and other violent ideologies through her interactions on Roblox, Discord, and TikTok.

Roblox, Discord and TikTok have each asked the court to dismiss the claims. Roblox also filed a motion to compel arbitration, arguing that Audree and her parents waived her right to a trial no fewer than 28 times, including by creating her account, accepting six updates to Roblox’s terms, redeeming gift cards twice, and buying the platform’s virtual currency, Robux, 19 times. “Roblox made the Terms plain and Audree repeatedly manifested her assent, as courts have routinely held in examining similar agreements and as the one at issue here,” the company’s attorneys wrote.

Seitz disputed that argument in comments to the Courier Journal. “So let’s be serious about an argument that if my child clicking a tiny ‘I agree’ box somehow means she knowingly agreed to arbitration,” she said. “She was a child, she didn’t understand arbitration. She didn’t understand contracts. She didn’t understand what the little box could mean years later. But now they want a court to treat that click as though an 8-year-old knowingly negotiated away her right to have these issues heard. It’s insulting.”

Alex Walsh, an attorney representing Seitz, said Roblox’s filing seeks to move the case into a “secret arbitration process” rather than a jury trial. “Why would the companies want that? For a very simple reason,” Walsh said. “They do not want the truth about how dangerous their platforms are to come out. They don’t want there to be a light shined on what they’ve done wrong and how many children have been harmed.”

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Massachusetts Sanctuary Politicians Released A Man Charged With Vehicular Homicide Three Times — ICE Finally Got Him

Massachusetts Democrats protected an illegal immigrant three times while one of their constituents lost his life.

Heriton Da Silva Aredes is a deported Brazilian national who came back to the United States and continued to engage in a career of criminality by committing assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless operations of a motor vehicle, and furnishing a false ID among other illegal acts.

He started to come on ICE Boston’s radar in August 2023, after the Massachusetts State Police apprehended him in Middleboro. He was released by the state authorities before immigration agents were able to act. Not long after his release, he was arrested for the same transgressions by the Stoughton Police Department. Once again, ICE was unable to act before he was released.

The situation was the most grave in July 2026 when Aredes was charged with the negligent homicide of a motor vehicle victim. With his posting of bail, the Bristol House of Corrections released him without notifying ICE or honoring the immigration detainer.

It was not until August 6 of 2026 that ICE was able to arrest Aredes in the targeted operations in Taunton, Massachusetts.

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Tech Giants Scramble to Calm Public Anger over AI Data Centers

In July, roughly 1,000 Georgia residents gathered at the Effingham County College & Career Academy to hear what OpenAI could offer their community. They also faced protesters angry about the impacts of AI data centers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a day after announcing plans for a new data center near Savannah, Georgia, OpenAI held an open house for residents’ questions. Attendees passed protest signs reading “I didn’t vote for AI” and “You can’t drink data!!!” Inside were OpenAI-staffed booths with facility information, QR codes to a job board, site renderings and a taco bar. OpenAI pledged the community $80 million, plus up to $71 million in coding credits for local students.

OpenAI Chief Global Affairs officer Chris Lehane called the open house “an important piece” of winning community support. “People really do want to know, like, ‘Are my electricity bills gonna go up or not? Is this gonna impact my water supply? Am I gonna pay more or less in taxes?’” he said.

Open houses, multimillion-dollar pledges and free food were not standard for an industry that typically won approval through speed, confidentiality and political connections. That’s changing as grassroots backlash threatens the buildout’s momentum. Companies add job guarantees and water investments to deals, cite facilities that cut tax burdens, and frame AI’s impact around opportunity, not job losses.

“The politics of data centers have become more prominent and unambiguous across the country,” said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. Microsoft, he said, saw the need for a community-focused approach after the issue surfaced in last November’s elections, including New Jersey’s governor’s race, which Democrat Mikie Sherrill won after campaigning on electricity prices. “As soon as, especially, the New Jersey race was over, it was clear that this was on a different trajectory,” he said. Two months later, Microsoft announced commitments on electricity, water use, jobs and taxes.

Opponents cite rising electricity prices, environmental effects and noise; some object to AI itself over job-loss fears or broader social harm. Clifford Young, chair of Ipsos Public Affairs, said the backlash reflects a “broader-based belief that the system is broken and no longer working for the average person… it’s become, I would say, even a poster child for it.”

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Judge denies Karmelo Anthony’s request for new trial in Austin Metcalf murder case

A judge denied a request from Karmelo Anthony seeking a new trial in the murder case of Austin Metcalf.

Retired District Court Judge Michael Chitty handed down the decision on Saturday.

Anthony, now 19 years old, was convicted by a jury in June for fatally stabbing Metcalf, 17 years old, at a Texas high school track meet in 2025 and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Last month, Anthony’s defense team filed two motions, one seeking to disqualify State District Judge John Roach Jr. from overseeing posttrial proceedings, and the other requesting a retrial.

The defense argued that the judge’s posttrial comments and rulings created an “appearance of bias” and deprived Anthony of his right to a fair trial.

Roach was recused and Chitty was appointed to review the motion for a new trial.

The request for the retrial also reportedly involved an off-the-record “gentleman’s agreement” between the defense and the prosecution to not bring up the backgrounds of the defendant and the victim.

The day after his conviction, Anthony had also filed a notice of appeal. According to The Dallas Morning News, after Chitty’s Saturday decision, the case now moves to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.

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