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.

Pay Up, Shut Up, and Cheer: How Washington Gaslit America Into Netanyahu’s Forever War

The cost of diesel that hauls every loaf of bread, every pallet of medicine and every bag of fertilizer in this country just set an all-time record. The national average hit $6.44 a gallon, up 71 percent since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Gasoline sits at $4.46, at least six states are already above $5, and Californians are paying $6.11. Shipping giant CMA CGM just slapped an emergency fuel surcharge on its cargo, and the Congressional Budget Office projects the war will add half a percentage point to inflation in early 2027.

But at least Iran doesn’t have a nuke, right?

The president’s response to this infuriating perpetuation of a new forever war sure seems like that’s his stance entirely as he tells you to pay up and smile. Last week Trump said Americans are “going to have to pay some extra for gas” to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and called it “a very inexpensive price to pay.” Back in March he was blunter, declaring that anyone who objected to the price spike was a fool: “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” This is the same man who campaigned on two-dollar gas and who is still promising it will fall “below Two Dollars a gallon” once we “WIN.”

The problem is that you are being asked to pay for stopping a weapon that, according to most of the world, including Trump’s own intelligence community, Iran was not building. In March 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate that the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon” and that Khamenei had not reauthorized the program he suspended in 2003. When reporters asked Trump about that testimony, he replied, “I don’t care what she said.” Days later he bombed Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan and told the nation the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated.” This blatant lie would then set the nefarious stage for an endless conveyor belt of lies that would run for well over a year down the throats of Americans.

If the program was obliterated in June 2025, what exactly were we bombing in February 2026? Trump claimed that without the strikes Iran would have had a bomb within two weeks, while the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no evidence Iran was building one. Gabbard’s own 2026 testimony stated that the intelligence community assessed Iran was not rebuilding its enrichment capability after the 2025 attacks. As he said on our podcast, the nation’s top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, resigned rather than support a war on a country that posed “no imminent threat to our nation.”

Gabbard’s own path tells the story of how Washington swallows people whole and how that assembly line of lies fills their worlds with half-truths and deceptions designed to keep Americans in the dark. In 2019 she warned that a war with Iran would make Iraq “look like a cakewalk,” and in Congress she introduced the No More Presidential Wars Act to require congressional authorization before any attack on Iran. In 2024 she told voters that a vote for Trump was a vote to end wars. Then, after Trump publicly dismissed her, she posted that the “dishonest media” had taken her out of context and that Iran could build a weapon “within weeks to months.” Shameful indeed. When Senator Jon Ossoff asked her point blank whether the intelligence community had assessed an imminent nuclear threat, she answered that only the president can make that determination. Her spine, like that of an earthworm, as she slipped away back to Hawaii, having betrayed all those who supported her.

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Abdul El-Sayed Said ‘Cars Are the Modern-Day Cigarette’ in 2016 Speech

In a 2016 speech that is making the rounds on social media today, Abdul El-Sayed described cars as the ‘modern day cigarette.’

That should go over well… in Michigan.

Who says Democrats are out of touch with the people they want to represent?

The Midwesterner reports:

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed agreed that “cars are the modern-day cigarette” during a 2016 speech in Boston, adding to a series of past remarks criticizing everything from American football to Fourth of July fireworks.

El-Sayed, who was serving as director of the Detroit Health Department at the time, made the remark while discussing the auto industry’s role in Detroit.

“Detroit is Motown. It’ll also be the Motor City,” El-Sayed said. “Cars are a big deal in Detroit whether or not you like them.”

“One person made an argument to me that I probably agree with,” he continued. “Cars are the modern-day cigarette. They’re just like this, like, why do we do it this way?”

Despite his antipathy toward automobiles, the Wayne County firebrand received the United Autoworkers of America endorsement last June.

Earlier in the speech, El-Sayed argued Detroit’s development around the automobile helped shape the city.

“Who built Detroit? The Fords, the Sloans, right? The Dodges of the world,” El-Sayed said. “And what did they want to tell everybody? You can have a car and have a great life, right? So they built the entire city around the car. That’s why Detroit looks like this now.”

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At Least 150 Killed In Yemen Within Two Days Amid Indiscriminate Saudi Air Campaign

At least 150 people have been killed in Yemen since Sunday as Saudi warplanes launch indiscriminate strikes across the country and clashes continue between Ansarallah-led forces and Riyadh-backed proxies.

“The death toll from Saudi airstrikes, clashes, and artillery fire in the governorates of Taiz, Al-Jawf, Marib and Saada stands at 118,” AFP reported on 22 September, citing what it said were Ansarallah-linked military sources.

Sources close to the internationally recognized government, supported by Riyadh, say 36 of their fighters have been killed, according to AFP.

Sirens sounded in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday due to more Yemeni strikes launched in response to the kingdom’s aggression against Yemen.

Hours earlier, Saudi strikes killed several people in Yemen.

An early morning strike by the Saudi-led coalition, targeting a residential home in the city of Mokha, in Yemen’s Taiz Governorate, killed six people, including two infants and a woman.

Several others were injured. Overnight, Yemen’s retaliatory military operations triggered sirens across the kingdom.

“From Monday evening until Tuesday morning, Saudi Arabia experienced one of its most difficult nights as a state of alert and anxiety turned into a permanent and pressing condition – from Najran, Asir, Jizan, and Abha to Jeddah, Yanbu, and Al-Ula – amid the escalation of Yemeni deterrence,” Yemeni news outlet Al-Masirah TV reported.

A day earlier, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) said Saudi Arabia has launched over 900 strikes on Yemen since the latest escalation began several weeks ago.

“The Saudi enemy carried out 157 airstrikes and missile attacks targeting the governorates of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada, and Marib, using F-15 and Typhoon warplanes that took off from the Khamis Mushait and Taif air bases, along with missile attacks launched from Najran and Jizan,” the YAF statement read.

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NATO member moves closer to lifting nuclear weapons ban

Lithuania’s parliament has backed a constitutional amendment that would lift a ban on nuclear weapons, thus bringing the NATO member a step closer to hosting them on its territory. Russia has warned the Baltic country, which borders its Kaliningrad Region, that such a move would have significant security implications.

The proposal was backed by 99 lawmakers on Tuesday, with 13 voting against and five abstaining. Two more votes are required, scheduled for October 6 and January 12, 2027. At least 94 of Lithuania’s 141 MPs must support the amendment in each vote.

The measure would remove Article 137 of the Lithuanian constitution, which prohibits weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases on the country’s territory. Supporters argue that the provision no longer reflects Lithuania’s security needs, while opponents have raised concerns over sovereignty and called for the issue to be put to a referendum.

President Gitanas Nauseda has backed removing the restriction, while Lithuanian officials have argued that allowing nuclear weapons would strengthen deterrence against Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected claims that it intends to attack NATO countries.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova last week called the proposed change “absolutely irresponsible,” accusing NATO members of pursuing provocative policies and treating Lithuania as a potential staging ground against Russia.

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As Gas Prices Soar, Congress Goes Home

Instead of six more weeks of winter, we will have at least six more weeks of war, brought to us by Secretary Hegseth and his boss, President Trump, with the help of Speaker Johnson who avoided a procedural vote, taking it upon himself to adjourn, under the Rule 1, Clause 13, of the House of Representatives.

Consider. The Administration, compelled by Israeli interests, has driven America into a war of choice against a nation that represented no threat to our country. The war against Iran is becoming more dangerous every day, more casualties, more expense, and more devastating economic and moral consequences.

On September 15, the House of Representatives expressed its constitutional will and voted 220–204 to direct the President to end American participation in the war against Iran.

This constitutional crisis extends beyond one resolution or one cabinet secretary. The House exists as an independent branch of government, with its own authority over war, appropriations and impeachment.

The Speaker, by preventing a recorded vote on the Hegseth Impeachment and sending members home, prevented the House from exercising one of its most consequential checks on executive power. The practical effect was to protect the Administration from an immediate confrontation with a chamber that had voted to end the war.

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Arkansas Democrat Hallie Shoffner Doubles Down on Trading ‘Five Americans’ for One ‘Undocumented Immigrant’

Arkansas Democrat Senate candidate Hallie Shoffner’s campaign is defending her comments about immigrant farm labor after she said farmers would trade five Americans for one ‘undocumented immigrant,’ but the campaign did not say whether or not Shoffner herself employed illegal immigrants.

Shoffner, who is running to unseat Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), said on September 9, “Every farmer will tell you at one point, we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants, and it’s absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they’re hardworking people. They’re some of the best people we know, and honestly, we’d trade five Americans for just one of them because of how hard they work.”

“And why is it that there’s no pathway for them to work here legally when they’re good workers? We pay them well. They spend money here. They have family here,” she continued.

Cotton’s campaign seized on the unanswered question.

“Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that Hallie Shoffner employed illegal immigrants. Nor did Hallie Shoffner’s campaign even try to walk back her claim that a single illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens – in fact, they’re doubling down,” said Cotton campaign spokesman James Arnold. “Arkansans deserve to know how many illegal aliens Hallie Shoffner employed, how ‘well’ she paid them, and how long they worked for her.”

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Hackers claim to have stolen data on ‘almost all FBI agents’

The cybercriminal group ShinyHunters has claimed it breached the FBI and stole terabytes of sensitive personal information about nearly all of the agency’s agents and their spouses, as well as people who had applied for jobs there.

ShinyHunters is a prolific hacking and extortion group linked to large-scale data thefts targeting major companies and government organizations. The FBI itself warned about the group in May.

“We have compromised the FBI. We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI,” the group announced on its dark-web leak site on Tuesday. It reportedly released a sample of the purportedly stolen data and a screenshot of a defaced FBI recruitment website.

The group claimed to have taken terabytes of information, including names, home addresses and phone numbers. Reuters reported that it was able to find apparent matches for some individuals contained in a sample of the data, but could not establish that the information had actually been taken from FBI systems.

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FDA Should Demand Proof, Not Just Protein, for Duchenne

On microdystrophin, the FDA is doing what the accelerated-approval standard has always required: asking that a biomarker be shown to predict real benefit before it is trusted.

Much of the commentary around REGENXBIO’s RGX-202 has framed the FDA’s stance as regulatory inconsistency, arguing that the agency is holding one sponsor to a standard it waived for another. But the question before the FDA is simpler: whether microdystrophin expression is actually strong enough to predict clinical benefit.

The charge of inconsistency does not survive contact with the record. And it is worth noticing that its loudest version comes from a sponsor whose commercial position gives it every reason to want the bar set lower.

Nor is REGENXBIO alone in having a commercial interest in how low that bar is set. Solid Biosciences is pursuing the same accelerated-approval opening for SGT-003 while emphasizing high microdystrophin expression and other biomarker results from its early-stage trial. Solid is still gathering the controlled functional evidence that can show whether those laboratory findings actually translate into meaningful improvement for boys with Duchenne. That is precisely why the FDA cannot allow impressive protein numbers themselves to become the standard of proof.

The problem is larger than any one company. If microdystrophin expression can secure accelerated approval without convincing evidence that it predicts how patients actually function, every sponsor developing a similar therapy has an incentive to race toward the biomarker rather than wait for the harder clinical answer.

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Antidepressants (SSRI) Trigger Hyponatremia, Which Causes Severe Anxiety

Hyponatremia, or low sodium in the blood, is one of the most common electrolyte disorders seen in clinical settings, and its effects are anything but minor. Sodium keeps your nerves firing and your muscles working. When levels dip, even slightly, you feel drained, confused, or shaky. Push it further and symptoms like nausea, seizures, or fainting start to appear. In severe cases, sodium imbalance drives long hospital stays, lasting cognitive decline, and death.

Antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are routinely prescribed for mood disorders, but what often gets overlooked is how they disrupt sodium balance in your body. This translates into real-world risks like falls, broken bones, and worsening mental health. Older adults, especially women, are hit the hardest, with even short-term use setting off dramatic shifts in sodium control.

The severity of harm varies depending on the drug, the dose, and how long it’s used, yet the outcome is always unpredictable — and sometimes catastrophic. Research makes it clear that these medications disrupt sodium balance in dangerous ways, and a major study to track this problem shows exactly how quickly and severely those drops in sodium occur.

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Bibi: Send More Bombs

As we approach the three-year mark of the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israel has signaled that it has every intention of continuing its massive bombing campaigns against Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and possibly other countries. And Donald Trump has signaled that he is ready to help. On September 15, the Washington Post reported a decision by the Trump administration to provide Israel with some 40,000 of the US Air Force’s massive 2,000-pound bombs, the largest such transfer to any country in many years.

Bombs Away for Zion

Specifically, the administration announced that it was prepared to “sell” to Israel a $2.8 billion package of US Air Force 2000-pound bombs, consisting of 20,000 MK-84 bombs and another 20,000 BLU-117 bombs. The two versions are similar in size, weight, and functionality. Although both models are considered “general purpose” and “dumb” bombs, they can be configured with various guidance kits into precision guided munitions, aka “smart bombs.” Presumably, Israel will use its own guidance kits which it produces domestically. The administration’s package for Israel also includes 20,000 of the USAF’s I-2000 penetrator warheads, which function as a heavy-duty bomb body for the MK-84 or the BLU-117, effectively converting the munition into a hard target penetrator or “bunker buster.”

Israel’s profligate use of massive munitions on civilian populations has drawn international criticism since the opening weeks of the Gaza conflict. According to CNN, “In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away…. Satellite imagery from those early days of the war reveals more than 500 impact craters over 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter, consistent with those left behind by 2,000-pound bombs. Those are four times heavier than the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, during the war against the extremist group there. Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The population of Gaza is packed together much more tightly than almost anywhere else on earth, so the use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect.”

“The use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area as densely populated as Gaza means it will take decades for communities to recover,” said John Chappell, advocacy and legal fellow at CIVIC, a DC-based group focused on minimizing civilian harm in conflict. Such massive bombs are “normally used sparingly by Western militaries, experts say, because of their potential impact on densely populated areas like Gaza. International humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate bombing.”

Separately, a writer for the Concord Monitor has described the catastrophic effects of a MK-84 2000-pound bomb being dropped on a crowded residential area such as Gaza: “The detonation will create an instantaneous fireball that will lash out at temperatures exceeding 8,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The explosion will carve a crater 50 feet wide and 35 feet deep and hurl 10,000 pounds of rock and dirt debris at supersonic speed. The lethal radius will be a quarter-mile wide and will kill all the people within that area. But the destruction will not stop there. The bomb will rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wider blast radius. The blast waves will be felt up to half a mile away, rupturing lungs and tearing off limbs. A single bomb will destroy entire city blocks.”

Israel regularly boasts about the professionalism of its military and likes to call the IDF the “most moral army in the world.” Its record in action tells a vastly different story. One curious decision by the IDF that apparently has never been challenged by the US is why it has opted for 2000-pound bombs against “soft” civilian targets, when 250-pound, 500-pound and 1000-pound munitions, which are readily available from the US, are far cheaper and cause far less collateral damage. Could it be that Israel’s real goal is simply genocide, a charge that it has claimed is unfounded

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