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Liberation

They’re there to “liberate” the people from their elected representatives.

…what’s even more significant than authorities detaining a U.S. senator for asking a Cabinet secretary a question at a news conference is Noem’s ominous remark immediately prior to Padilla’s interruption.

“We are not going away,” she warned. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

They are there to liberate “the city” from its elected officials. Not the people of the city but the city. The city is a Platonic essence, a glorious concept that rises above the dross

… Read the rest

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Liberation
By Ophelia Benson, June 13, 2025

They’re there to “liberate” the people from their elected representatives.

…what’s even more significant than authorities detaining a U.S. senator for asking a Cabinet secretary a question at a news conference is Noem’s ominous remark immediately prior to Padilla’s interruption.

“We are not going away,” she warned. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

They are there to liberate “the city” from its elected officials. Not the people of the city but the city. The city is a Platonic essence, a glorious concept that rises above the dross

… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

Liberation 

They’re there to “liberate” the people from their elected representatives.

…what’s even more significant than authorities detaining a U.S. senator for asking a Cabinet secretary a question at a news conference is Noem’s ominous remark immediately prior to Padilla’s interruption.

“We are not going away,” she warned. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

They are there to liberate “the city” from its elected officials. Not the people of the city but the city. The city is a Platonic essence, a glorious concept that rises above the dross

… Read the rest
If 

Reichstag fire.

… Read the rest

Forcibly removed and handcuffed 

Today, in Los Angeles:

Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.

That is, a Democratic US Senator from California. I thought at first he was a state senator, but the Guardian clarified halfway in. (That’s my passive-aggressive way of saying the Guardian should have made it clear from the beginning.)

In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service and FBI agents.

… Read the rest
The core emotional needs 

Oh good, a new study.

Cisnormativity impacts core emotional needs of transgender and gender diverse people

Great title. “Cisnormativity” is meaningless and “impacts” is the wrong word. Also: yes, and? To put it in less pseudo-technical terms: knowing that people can’t change sex makes gender lunatics sad. No doubt it does, and hearing from gender lunatics makes the rest of us bored and impatient and irritated.

What in fact are the “core emotional needs” of gender loonies? That’s an easy one. Attention. Constant undivided lavish flattering gushing attention.

Guess what. They can’t have it. Two big reasons: one, we have other things to do with our attention, and two, our attention can’t be flattering because gender lunacy is so absurd … Read the rest

Outside their normal field of operations 

The boots on the ground really don’t want to be there.

California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.

Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.

That seems to mean that the service members contacted the … Read the rest

Activism being active 

The adventures of The Most Oppressed:

The equalities watchdog has told trans activists that personal attacks on her and her staff have “got to stop”.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), appeared emotional as she revealed to MPs that she had to cancel one meeting after police warned of a “serious risk” of violence.

She said that while feminist campaigners had acted in a “dignified and respectful” manner, trans rights activists had made it harder for her staff to come to work in safety.

Well yes but that’s because they are THE MOST OPPRESSED. Of course people who are the most oppressed are not going to worry about … Read the rest

Win stupid prizes 

Two women say many stupid things about JK Rowling:

J.K. Rowling is, unfortunately, on a bit of a winning streak. For years now, she has been almost solely focused on being as transphobic as possible, and in April, she celebrated a ruling from the U.K. Supreme Court stating that transgender women cannot legally be recognized as women. You might think that becoming one of the most prominent faces of anti-trans rhetoric would make Rowling someone whom public figures want to keep their distance from…

No actually what I would think is that people who insist that men are women if they say they are should stop saying that and learn the difference between fantasy and reality.

While Rowling

… Read the rest
Health Secretary seeks more deaths 

Bad Kennedy ratchets up his campaign to stamp out lifesaving vaccinations.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new members to a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors after firing the entire group just days earlier.  His picks include some well-known vaccine critics, including Dr. Robert Malone.

…

It is unclear now how, taken together, the new advisors will affect vaccine policy and availability in the U.S. But public health experts had expected Kennedy could choose members who share his skepticism of immunization.

“We all knew this would happen and it’s a national tragedy and a major threat to children’s health and lives,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University,

… Read the rest
It WILL put the badge on its shirt 

Oh come ON.

It’s not a hoax, it’s right there on their “Pride” page.

We want all colleagues to bring their full self to work, and to support our colleagues, particularly from the non-binary or transgender community, we have pronoun badges available for all our colleagues in store, sites and head office to wear with pride.

The option to display your pronoun is open to any in the LGBT+ community, as well as allies wanting to support colleagues by creating an environment where the display and discussion of pronouns is the norm.

That is, supporting the very few colleagues who subscribe to … Read the rest

Mr Musk regrets Mr Musk regrets 

Thank goodness Elon Musk is not at all impulsive or flakey, given all the powers Trump handed him.

Billionaire Elon Musk has said he regrets some of the posts he made about US President Donald Trump during their war of words on social media. “They went too far,” he wrote on his social media platform X.

How is that possible? Surely Musk, with so many serious responsibilities, would not impulsively blow up a whole row of bridges in a tantrum?

His post comes after Trump said he was open to the possibility of reconciliation in an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday. The president said he was a “little disappointed” about the fallout, but there were “no

… Read the rest
Issa fizikl comminashun of kemmikalz in yor brane 

Hahahahaha science! Science I tell you!!!

Ice cream, Mandrake? Children’s ice cream? … Read the rest

The absolute last 

Totalitariantrump wants to control everyone and everything.

The Smithsonian Institution has rebuffed Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the director of its National Portrait Gallery, with the museum’s governing board asserting its independence in a direct challenge to the president.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting Monday, the Smithsonian’s board of regents declared that “all personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the secretary, with oversight by the board” – turning away Trump’s claim of authority over the institution’s staffing.

The standoff centers on Kim Sajet, whom Trump announced he had fired on 30 May, calling her “highly partisan and a strong supporter of DEI” – or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives –

… Read the rest
Alphabet comment 

This is just plain lying. The BBC telling whoppers right out in the open – whoppers that damage women and delight men who pretend to be women and take all our stuff.

Greens expel ex-spokesperson after LGBTQ+ comment row

You already know what the lie is, of course. It’s not an “LGBTQ+” comment.

The Green Party of England and Wales has expelled its former health spokesperson eight months after an investigation was launched into her comments on LGBTQ+ hate crimes.

Documents seen by the BBC show the Greens expelled Dr Pallavi Devulapalli for breaking party rules by attending a party event while under investigation for calling reports of rising LGBTQ+ hate crimes “mischievous”.

…

Green Party documents show Dr Devulapalli

… Read the rest
They will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before 

This is his idea of heaven.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has sent thousands more troops to Los Angeles on a fourth day of chaotic protests against immigration raids, as the unrest spread to other US cities. Some 700 US Marines have been deployed to the LA area and the contingent of National Guard troops mobilised to help quell the disorder has been doubled to 4,000.

It’s his dream – he gets to play sojers with REAL SOJERS. He gets to send the tough guys in to rough up the nasty brown people Trump doesn’t like.

The state is suing the president for sending in troops without the governor’s permission. It is highly unusual for the American military to

… Read the rest
Guest post: A metaphysical portal to womanhood 

Originally a comment by Artymorty on More than a second.

That nurse Sofia should not have lied to Juno Dawson. He does not have a lovely new vagina. As a famous surgeon in Casablanca once put it, “I don’t change men into women. I transform male genitals into genitals that have a female aspect. All the rest is in the patient’s mind.”

And it’s my understanding that — from what my transsexual British friend told me after he had the procedure — a prerequisite to vaginoplasty surgery in the UK is signing a waiver that explicitly states that the patient is not going to come up from the anesthesia with an actual vagina between his legs.

That Moroccan sex … Read the rest

Chump change 

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,

… Read the rest
Return of truant 

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

More than a second 

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

700 Marines to Los Angeles 

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

… Read the rest
He said he wasn’t going to do this 

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

… Read the rest