#militarization

#militarization

From the 1940s until the 2000s, 2,000 tons of ammunition fell every year on Vieques, a small island in the Puerto Rican archipelago. The U.S. Navy transformed this Caribbean paradise of crystal-clear waters into the most realistic recreation possible of a war zone: after expelling thousands of residents and taking control of two-thirds of the island and its resources, the navy established there a training base and a firing range to conduct artillery tests and other military exercises

But almost 20 years ago, just a few blocks from the town square where the mayor was gunned down at point-blank range, another event occurred that marked the country's recent memory. In the early morning of September 6, 2006, about 20 hooded men with assault rifles, dressed in police uniforms, stormed into a nightclub, firing shots. Before leaving, they took five human heads out of a bag and left them on the dance floor.

Urban photography rewards amateurs. Whatever grandeur is lost in overexposure or an obvious angle is compensated for by lookie-loo enthusiasm, which charms locals on par with tourists. This is true of any beloved city, but since I live in Chicago my relevant example is Chicago, the Windy City, on a sea-size lake, with a skyline appreciable from a human vantage.

Organizers say they are expecting more than 100,000 people to attend the largest "No Kings" rally in DC being held Saturday, October 18. It's part of a second nationwide series of No Kings protests against Donald Trump and his administration. If that many people do show up for the DC protest, it could eclipse the estimated 100,000 who attended the April 5 Hands Off! rally convened in DC by the same coalition of progressive groups. (In June, organizers did not plan a No Kings rally in DC itself, where an Army parade was being held on what was also the President's birthday.)

Of all the threats in space, it's what the UN calls "a blurring of the line between civilian and military uses" that fires the imagination most. But there are other concerns: collisions between satellites, flight congestion, space debris hitting other spacecraft or falling to Earth, asteroids... Viewed as a mass of problems, it may seem as though we're "staring at a perceived wild tiger," says Helen Tung, a space lawyer and lecturer based at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

As a lifelong New Yorker, I am revolted by the idea of the militarization of our streets, Tisch said. As long as I have the honor of serving as the Police Commissioner of the city of New York, I will be very clear with anyone, with all of you, with the Attorney General, with whoever wants to talk to me about it, about the fact that the NYPD: We've got this, we don't need, or want the federal government's help here in that way.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law when they deployed thousands of federalized California National Guard members and U.S. Marines to bolster immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. US District Judge Charles Breyer found in a 52-page ruling on Tuesday that the Trump administration breached the Posse Comitatus Act, a law dating back to 1878 that bars the military from domestic policing.

He cannot hide the evidence of rising inflation and wide-ranging national security failures, such as threats of nuclear war from North Korea, the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza, or the continued Russian mass slaughter of Ukrainian civilians. He cannot hide the public outrage over maneuvers intended to evade the release of the full Epstein sex trafficking files, and over cutbacks to Medicaid and disaster relief.

Hegseth said the anti-protest crackdown in LA is the beginning of a "new phase" of militarization against Americans.