We must shut down USAID to save money but when it comes to siccing the police* on protesters money is no object.

Deploying National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last at least the next 60 days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a senior defense official told lawmakers Tuesday.

“We stated very publicly that it’s 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere,” Hegseth told members of the House appropriations defense subcommittee.

Hegseth was repeatedly asked by members of Congress about the cost of the deployment, then conferred with his acting comptroller,

Well that was a hellish night/morning. I was just about to publish a post late last night when bang the electricity went out. It happens a lot in this nabe, I guess because it’s old so the infrastructure is prone to failure. Starvation because of not opening the fridge. Hot and smoggy outside. Hours and hours pass then finally pop on it comes – just a little under the 12 hours or so it took last time, which was only a year ago (or perhaps two).

Dodged one bullet anyway – before the outage laptop ordered me to update so I proceeded to update, heeding the stern order NOT to shut down during the update because that would ruin EVERYTHING. … Read the rest

Oh grow up ffs.

I had gender reassignment surgery – then the Supreme Court said I wasn’t a woman

Because you’re not. You could have had rabbit ears surgically attached to your head; you wouldn’t be a rabbit. You could have had feathers painstakingly inserted into your skin; you wouldn’t have been a bird. You could have worn a Marilyn Monroe mask; you wouldn’t have been Marilyn Monroe. Forget about being a woman; try being an adult for a change. Adults understand that cosmetic tweaks are not magic and can’t make us something we’re not.

 I’m not trying to make a statement about what a woman is, I just want to be one, writes Juno Dawson.

But you can’t. … Read the rest

The coup continues step by step.

The U.S. military will temporarily deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles until more National Guard troops can arrive, marking another escalation in President Donald Trump’s response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies.

The U.S. Northern Command said a battalion would be sent to help protect federal property and personnel until more National Guard troops could reach the scene. For now, the Trump administration was not invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

For now. One step at a time.

Trump said on Monday he felt he had no choice but to

More on Kennedy’s campaign to make America sick again:

Kennedy said the committee members had too many conflicts of interest. Currently, committee members are required to declare any potential such conflicts, as well as business interests, that arise during their tenure. They also must disclose any possible conflicts at the start of each public meeting.

But Dr. Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Kennedy’s actions were based on false conflict-of-interest claims and set “a dangerous and unprecedented action that makes our families less safe” by potentially reducing vaccine access for millions of people.

“Make no mistake: Politicizing the ACIP as Secretary Kennedy is

Wannabe dictator rehearsing:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that he has been told President Donald Trump “is deploying another 2,000” National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Newsom tweeted that news hours after about 700 U.S. Marines were mobilized Monday to support the California National Guard to protect federal personnel and property in Los Angeles during protests there.

…

Earlier Monday, Trump said he would support arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom for purportedly obstructing federal immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles.

…

Trump’s comment came shortly before Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta said they would sue Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for deploying the initial tranche of 2,000 National Guard troops to deal with protests over

These people are so enraging.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is “retiring” all 17 members of a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors, a shocking step that could help to sow doubts about immunizations in the U.S.

He has no professional training in this field whatsover. He’s an outsider, an amateur, a crank, a hobbyist, a fraud. He’s not qualified to clean the toilets at the agency he runs, let alone firing panels of advisors.

It is not a good idea to put ignorant obstinate conceited amateurs in charge of technical bodies that oversee public health.

Kennedy is removing all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP,

Another expulsion.

The initial suspension in September 2024 was for not quoting GPEW policy on Gender Self ID & ‘Transwomen are women, transmen are men’ policy at a hustings.
I don’t agree with these policies, and it felt dishonest to quote them in front of my electorate
2/n

— Pallavi Devulapalli (@doctorpallavi) June 9, 2025

The final email of expulsion stated that in order to protect the party, they had concluded that I needed to be permanently expelled.
One person found it so difficult to decide if I was a danger to the party that they abstained from the vote. The vote was carried 9-8.
4/n

— Pallavi Devulapalli (@doctorpallavi) June 9, 2025

I have received many messages of support

Embrace the label.

Darlington nurse Karen Danson has accused the NHS Trust of “abandoning” its female workers after their landmark legal victory against the hospital.

The Darlington Nurses won their legal case against their employer after raising concerns about a biological male, who identifies as a woman named Rose, being allowed to use the female staff changing room.

…

Defending their legal fight against the trust, Danson declared that the nurses are simply “fighting for what’s right”, and are “not terfs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists)” for doing so.

She stated: “There’s been lots of positivity out there for us, there’s loads of positive comments, and I’m not a bigot, I’m not a terf, I’m just fighting for what’s right.”

Hey … Read the rest

Trump has been wanting to do this for at least 9 years.

During his first term, Trump mused on several occasions about deploying US troops on domestic soil, either to crush protests or tamp down on crime. Aides at the time talked Trump out of the move, which would amount to a dramatic step without recent precedent.

Now, however, the president is less encumbered by aides who seek to restrain his more extreme impulses. And after a campaign during which Trump promised crackdowns on crime and illegal immigration, he appears eager to demonstrate a willingness to use maximalist actions to follow through on his pledges.

Well. He appears eager to do what dictators and fascists do. It’s not about his … Read the rest

Do people even understand their own words?

A customer of Asylum Hair and Beauty in Durham received this text message after her appointment.

In a conversation with her stylist, when the topic came up, she said that men cannot become women and children shouldn’t be sterilised.

She has now been banned from the salon. pic.twitter.com/dYZg7gJDW0

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) June 7, 2025

Incredible enough?

“We are a proudly inclusive and respectful space for all people”

Except, of course, you, because we don’t like your thinking.

“regardless of gender identity, background, or beliefs.”

Except, of course, your beliefs. We’re wonderful people, hugely kind and welcoming, except when you walk in to get a haircut.

“We believe in equal rights, dignity, and … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Troops with assault rifles.

As David Frum said, this is a dress rehearsal — and by that he means it’s a dress rehearsal for a military coup. And as California Governor Gavin Newsom warned, the federal government is looking for a spectacle — and by that he means Trump and his minions are seeking a spark to blame the upcoming Reichstag fire on.

This is how it happens, folks. Sinclair Lewis was right: it can happen here. History is repeating, as it does, no matter how much we’re forewarned.

The problem with history books is that they always look at it from hindsight. Historians have tragically failed at conveying to the public what … Read the rest

Reuters reports:

President Donald Trump’s administration said it would deploy 2,000 National Guard troops on Saturday as federal agents in Los Angeles faced off against a few hundred demonstrators during a second day of protests following immigration raids.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Pentagon was prepared to mobilize active-duty troops “if violence continues” in Los Angeles, saying the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were “on high alert.”

What violence though? Reuters doesn’t report any. It could be that Reuters is just failing or refusing to report it, but it could also be that there isn’t any to report that Reuters knows about.

Federal security agents on Saturday confronted protesters in the Paramount area in southeast Los Angeles,

Just four months in and already they’re going for military takeover.

US national guard troops began to deploy in downtown Los Angeles after an immigration crackdown saw police use teargas on protesters in a move that has sent shockwaves though American politics.

Local television station ABC7 reported that national guard troops had started to arrive in downtown Los Angeles. It broadcast video of military trucks and troops with the helmeted soldiers wearing green camouflage uniforms, carrying assault rifles and handing out riot shields.

The troops paused at City Hall and drove through the Paramount neighborhood where protests had happened. The initial deployment represented about 300 troops at three different locations out of a total expected of 2,000. “There are

Musk and Trump may squabble but they’re united on the important stuff.

As it happens, Trump and Musk’s dueling criticisms are each, in their own ways, at least partially valid. The bill is an abomination, although not because it’s “pork-filled.” And much of Musk’s wealth does come from the federal government, which he has spent the past few months trying to dismantle while preserving his own subsidies. According to Axios, among other things, Musk was angry that the bill cuts the electric-vehicle tax credit, which will hurt the bottom line of his electric-car company, Tesla.

But neither billionaire—one the president of the United States and the other a major financial benefactor to the president’s party—opposes the bill for

Hostility to women continues to thrive.

Public sector workers and trade unions are widely refusing to accept the Supreme Court’s judgment on what a woman is, a think tank has warned.

A new study by Policy Exchange shows that dozens of organisations across the public, private and charitable sectors have continued to question the legal meaning of “a woman”, despite the ruling.

…

Policy Exchange’s report, the fifth edition of its “Biology Matters Compendium”, compiles examples of organisations refusing to acknowledge the legal force of the court’s judgment.

Kind of like segregationists refusing to acknowledge the legal force of Brown v Board of Education. Well no…not kind of like; exactly like. No we will not respect women’s rights and … Read the rest

Originally a comment by iknklast on Some other workable plan.

As for transporting enough stuff – no. Doing a wetland restoration, I had to transport ‘stuff’ halfway across Oklahoma…a modern state (sort of) with the ability to stop for gas and water plants, etc etc etc. More than half the plants died. It was a five hour trip (usually three, but because of the frequent stops, it took longer).

What we were transporting would be going into a similar system, where there was adequate water, nutrients, and sunlight, and once upon a time was an established system. After the transplant, about half the remaining plants died. Our success rate was low, and we didn’t really have any truly adverse … Read the rest

Nancy Armour at USA Today heaps praise on Simone Biles for insisting men should too so ruin women’s sports.

[Biles] also has little use for anyone who punches down on others, which is Gaines’ specialty.

Punching down? A woman saying men shouldn’t invade women sports is punching down? Is Armour aware that men are bigger and stronger than women? Not the other way around?

Gaines has used her tie for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships to become a MAGA media darling. But her grifting has done real harm to the transgender community, which is already at an elevated risk for suicide and self-harm.

Her grifting? It’s grifting to … Read the rest

Why do grown-ass people keep talking about colonizing Mars?

Albert Burneko points out how absurd the whole thing is.

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars’s dead core? No? Well. It’s fine. I’m sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh. Well then let’s discuss something else equally realistic, like your plan to build a condo complex in Middle Earth.

OK, so you still want to talk about Mars. Fine. Let’s imagine

Now they tell us they knew all along.

But although the break between Musk and Trump only exploded into public view on Thursday, cracks in the alliance began to appear much earlier. As Musk’s “move fast and break things” bravado complicated the White House’s ambitions to remake American society, the billionaire alienated key members of the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and quarreled with Cabinet members, physically coming to blows with one.

…

Trump on Truth Social has called for public scrutiny of Musk’s government contracts, potentially imperiling his business empire. Republicans, meanwhile, are wary of how the world’s richest man could use his deep coffers to retaliate against them, especially as he floats the