Judge denies California's request for immediate restraining order but sets arguments for Thursday

Source: CNN

A federal judge in San Francisco declined on Tuesday California’s request to immediately block the Trump administration from using Marines and members of the state’s National Guard to enforce laws in the state, including by assisting federal officials with immigration enforcement.

Senior US District Judge Charles R. Breyer instead scheduled a hearing for 1:30 p.m. Thursday over a request from the state for a temporary restraining order that would bar officials from directing the service members to assist with certain law enforcement activities.

Attorneys for the state had asked the judge earlier Tuesday to swiftly issue the order without receiving a response from the Trump administration. But the judge has asked both sides to submit more written arguments in the case ahead of the hearing later this week.

In a brief filing to the court Tuesday afternoon, the Justice Department called the state’s request “legally meritless” and argued that if granted, it “would jeopardize the safety of Department of Homeland Security personnel and interfere with the Federal Government’s ability to carry out operations.”



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/la-protests-ice-raids-trump-06-10-25#cmbqvql660000356mqpt6znw1

The lock screen picture on Trump's phone is...you guessed it...HIMSELF!

Hateful, antisemitic road rage tirade unfolds on Southern California street

An Iranian American who has an Israeli flag in his windshield to show support for his Jewish friends and family was the target of a hateful antisemitic verbal assault last week in Reseda, an incident that was captured on camera.  

The victim, who only wanted to be identified as a Los Angeles resident named Justin, was alone in his vehicle on May 22 when the unprovoked, hateful tirade unfolded.  

Justin told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff that the man rolled down his window and threatened to kill him.
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In dashcam footage of the incident, the unidentified man behind the wheel of a Kia, gets in front of Justin’s Tesla and brakes hard, his recklessness, according to the victim, engaged the Tesla’s emergency braking system, nearly leading to Justin being rear-ended by the motorist behind him. The man spits toward Justin’s vehicle, accuses him of not being an American tells him, “Go back to your country you Zionist piece of s***.”  

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/hateful-antisemitic-road-rage-tirade-unfolds-on-southern-california-street/

Scott Pelley's Moving Commencement Speech at Wake Forest NC

He rips Trump to shreds without mentioning his name.

The speech runs from 00:47:49 to about 1:10:00 (about 23 minutes).

https://www.youtube.com/live/FcWa-wXqFss?si=9HIxcFyV5HWELDhx

I don't know why the YouTube thumbnail is not populating, but the link works.

Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week?

Public health experts told ABC News that although the U.S. is in a much better place than it was a few years ago, COVID is still a threat to high-risk groups.

"The fact that we're still seeing deaths just means it's still circulating, and people are still catching it," Dr. Tony Moody, a professor in the department of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center, told ABC News.

The experts said there are a few reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including low vaccination uptake, waning immunity and not enough people accessing treatments.During the 2024-25 season, only 23% of adults aged 18 and older received the updated COVID-19 vaccine as of the week ending April 26, according to CDC data. Among children, just 13% of them received the updated COVID vaccine over the same period, the data shows.

Additionally, Poland said that immunity from COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time, increasing the likelihood of being infected.This is why the current recommendation for those aged 65 and older is to receive two doses of the updated COVID vaccine six months apart.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300-people-us-dying-covid-week/story?id=122068959

So that video Trump played today of alleged mass graves in South Africa? They were fake graves.

The white crosses were not marking actual graves. It was a protest, with crosses set up to represent graves:

Car explosion outside Palm Springs reproductive health facility leaves 1 dead

Source: KTLA.com

A car explosion outside a reproductive health facility in Palm Springs left one person dead late Saturday morning.

Preliminary information from local media outlets indicated that the explosion occurred at American Reproductive Centers, which is located at 1199 North Indian Canyon Drive, around 11 a.m.

No information surrounding the decedent’s identity or where they were when the explosion occurred was available.The FBI also announced they would be deploying assistance, including investigators, bomb technicians and an evidence response team, to the scene to help local authorities. ATF investigators are also being deployed, officials said.

The FBI also announced they would be deploying assistance, including investigators, bomb technicians and an evidence response team, to the scene to help local authorities. ATF investigators are also being deployed, officials said.

Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/explosion-rocks-building-in-palm-springs/amp/

8647 Meme of the Day

26 hours and 33 failed amendment votes: This is Democrats' masterclass in resistance

For a party that has been shut out of power in Washington, what happened this week in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building was a masterclass in resistance.

Over more than 26 sleepless hours that began on Tuesday afternoon and continued into Wednesday, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pounded the panel’s Republican majority with 33 amendments, most of which were aimed at stripping the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” containing politically toxic cuts to Medicaid. In the hallway outside, police arrested more than two dozen protesters, many of whom were in wheelchairs.

Every one of the amendments failed, as Democrats knew they would. But their coordinated assault on the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda framed a powerful narrative that is shaping up to be the party’s most potent message heading into next year’s midterm elections. The marathon session laid bare the Republicans’ vulnerability on Medicaid. They claim to be rooting out waste and fraud from the system. But, in its essence, the bill amounts to a declaration of who should be deemed worthy of health care in this country.
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Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) introduced a 6-year-old boy with Down syndrome named George, who attended with his parents. His congressman is Energy and Commerce member John James, a Republican who is running for governor in Michigan. Dingell read a letter from George’s mother, in which she had written: “Losing Medicaid would cripple our family, absolutely destroy us.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/15/medicaid-democrats-republicans-energy-commerce/

WaPo's Megan McArdle: WeightWatchers' big problem? Hunger.

WeightWatchers was one of the most credible players in a generally discreditable space. Its regime was sensible, healthy and designed to fit into everyday life. It also often failed. A 2007 study of almost 700 “lifetime members” of WeightWatchers, who had reached their goal weight and maintained it for at least six weeks, found that within five years the participants had regained most of the lost pounds.

Now WeightWatchers has filed for bankruptcy, because the sensible and medically approved advice failed to fix the actual reason people were overeating. Not because they didn’t realize what kind of food made you fat, or that they lacked willpower, or they needed to deal with deep-seated emotional issues. They were eating, quite simply, because they were hungry. And it took a drug, not a diet, to control it.

Our secretary of health and human services wants to focus on American diets, in hopes that the same thing that didn’t work the last 100 million times might now suddenly succeed. “They’re counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News last year, as though the makers of weight-loss drugs were somehow putting one over on us by solving an enormous health issue. He has support among the American public. I’ve heard these same arguments echoed by many others in real life, along with laments that the drugs stop working if you stop taking them (just like my blood pressure medicine).

But as markets have realized, the WeightWatchers model has decisively failed. Perhaps it was the best we could do at the time, but that time has thankfully passed. Obesity isn’t a social problem or personal flaw; it’s a biological problem, like my hypertension. Like my hypertension, it has a medical solution that works much better than telling me to reduce stress and eat less salt. And I, for one, am grateful we found it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/15/medicaid-democrats-republicans-energy-commerce/