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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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Auction Starts Now, Goes to 7 pm Tonight

by WaterGirl|  July 20, 202512:00 pm| Leave a Comment

This post is in: Open Threads

Auction Time

Auction Starts:  NOON on Sunday (Eastern time)
Auction Ends:  7 p.m. on Sunday (Eastern time)

Three ways to Bid

  1. Put your bids in the comments.
  2. Send email to WaterGirl with your bids.
  3. Email your max bid amount, and I can bid in the comments for you.

email to watergirl at balloon-juice.com

Bidding starts at $450.


This quilt is 78″ x 84″.

Darkness Has a Hunger That's Insatiable and Lightness Has a Call That's Hard To Hear

Auction Starts Now, Goes to 7 pm TonightPost + Comments

Last Call for the Raffle – If You Bought Tickets, Please Check This List

by WaterGirl|  July 20, 202510:21 am| 6 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

List of people who “bought” raffle tickets.  I don’t want to inadvertently exclude anyone who bought a ticket.  Please check the list.

Nym

How Many

2liberal

more than one

A Good Woman

more than one

bbleh

one

BeautifulPlumage

more than one

beckya

more than one

Bill P

more than one

CarolM

one

Chat Noir

one

CtLurker

one

Dmkingto

more than one

EarthWindFire

one

eclare

one

Emily B.

one

emrys

one

Fair Economist

more than one

GBinChicago

more than one

Glidwrith

more than one

hinTN

more than one

jhwbiz

more than one

Josie

more than one

KarenH

more than one

KRK

more than one

lowtechcyclist

more than one

Lurker Josh

more than one

Madeleine

more than one

martyll

more than one

Mr. Bemused Senior

more than one

mvr

more than one

PatrickG

more than one

PercysOwner

more than one

realbtl

more than one

rikyrah

one

Sandia Blanca

more than one

sfinny

more than one

Shane in SLC

more than one

Subaru Diane

     more than one     

SuzieC

one

Tandem

one

tomtofa

more than one

UnwieldyList

more than one

Wapiti

more than one

Z.

more than one

Open thread.

Last Call for the Raffle – If You Bought Tickets, Please Check This ListPost + Comments (6)

Squirrel! (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  July 20, 20255:21 am| 165 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, General Stupidity

Even the Gold-Flocked Calf’s hometown paper is dropping Trump-Epstein sleaze stories:

For nearly 15 years, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein socialized in New York and Florida before a falling out that preceded Epstein’s first arrest. What seemed to draw them together, according to those who knew them at the time, was a common interest in hitting on — and competing for — young women.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) July 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM

Desperate to reassert control over the media narrative, Trump keeps fondling his patented string of old grievance beads (Russia Russia Russia!) like an obnoxious rosary. That’s not working, but the Russian asset he put in charge of the U.S. intel establishment did conjure a SQUIRREL! for MAGA “influencers” to chase:

July 19 (UPI) — The Obama administration should be investigated for abuse of power to smear President Donald Trump in 2016, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday.

Gabbard announced the release of files and a memo related to claims of Russia’s alleged attempt to disrupt the 2016 elections to help Trump win the presidency over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“There was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of government,” Gabbard said in a news release on Friday.

“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the president from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” Gabbard said…

Gabbard said she is forwarding relevant materials to the Department of Justice for possible legal action.

The accusations are lame even by MAGA’s subterranean standards. Gabbard absurdly claims that Russia didn’t try to influence the 2016 election at all. She conflates a statement from her DNI predecessor James Clapper that there was no evidence of a Russian cyberattack that altered election results as an admission that the Kremlin hadn’t taken any action to influence the outcome on Trump’s behalf.

That’s a steaming load of horse shit, even according to Republicans now disgracing themselves in the Trump 2.0 administration. In 2020, a Republican-led Senate panel headed by Marco Rubio (R-FL) unanimously concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump. Their report also contained some details that might prove inconvenient for the purpose of effecting a narrative shift (NYT):

According to the report, Mr. Trump met a former Miss Moscow at a party during one trip in 1996. After the party, a Trump associate told others he had seen Mr. Trump with the woman on multiple occasions and that they “might have had a brief romantic relationship.”

The report also raised the possibility that, during that trip, Mr. Trump spent the night with two young women who joined him the next morning at a business meeting with the mayor of Moscow.

That would have been around the same time Trump was hanging out with Epstein. Whoopsie.

Open thread!

Squirrel! (Open Thread)Post + Comments (165)

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti

by Anne Laurie|  July 20, 20254:18 am| 22 Comments

This post is in: Garden Chats

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti

More photos from commentor Ben in NM:

Top photo: ClaretCup – these are some of the first cacti to bloom in the spring. I’m jealous of my neighbors who have large mounds all in prolific blooms.

Yucca – this is a neighbors Yucca. I’m not sure of the specific variety.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 1

Bird of Paradise – I know this as Desert Bird of Paradise and I think it is incredibly beautiful. This one is a volunteer and grew from a seed and obviously really likes this spot. Every year I trim it back by about a quarter to keep in under control. I also only water it about twice a year. Once in the Spring before the first bloom…
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 2

When that bloom is done I trim it again around June/July and give it another shot of water and get another bloom out of it. I’ve never quite gotten a third bloom – just run out of sunlight and heat.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 3

TexasYucca – this is also in neighbor’s yard and is a Texas or Red Yucca. I have one in my yard but it wasn’t doing very well so I moved it to a warmer spot. It seems to like it so I’m hopeful.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 4

show full post on front page

Octillo – this is an Ocotillo in a neighbor’s yard. I had one but it didn’t make it. Ocotillo is on the edge of our climate zone so needs a very good location. I knew I should not have bought it, but I couldn’t resist.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 5

Prickly Pear – these are Prickly Pear which grows everywhere. In fact, the last photo is from my back alley where I dumped a bunch of trimmings and they just took root and grew!
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 6

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 7

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 8

Desert Willow – another plant that grows everywhere. The flowers can be pink, purple, or red.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cacti 9

***********

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: CactiPost + Comments (22)

War for Ukraine Day 1,241: The Reasons

by Adam L Silverman|  July 19, 20259:55 pm| 11 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War, War in Ukraine

A painting by Ukrainian artis NEIVANMADE. The background is white. In the center, which is black with blood red bordering, is an hourglass. Inside the hourglass is a Ukrainian Azovstal POW painted in blood red. He is shirtless. His arms are upward along the outer edges of the upper half of the hourglass forming a saltire cross. He is chained with steel gray chains shackled to his wrists. Above his head, in grey, is written "Ruzzian Captivity." below his torso in the lower half of the hourglass, written in gray, is "Kills." To the left of the hourglass "He Saved Others" is painted in gray. To the right of the hourglass "But He Can't Save Himself" is painted in gray.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The cost:

🫡🕯️🇺🇦 Odesa has suffered a heavy and irreparable loss: on Friday, July 18, while performing a combat mission on the front line, a legendary figure died – the president of the Odesa Aeroclub, chairman of the board of the Odesa Region Parachuting Federation, Konstantin Oborin.

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:19 AM

🫡🇺🇦 In 2022, rising into the sky above Odesa, Konstantin Oborin fulfilled the last wish of his student, Hero of Ukraine Vladislav Buvalkin, to scatter his ashes over his native city. That same year, the mayor awarded Colonel Oborin the Order of Grigory Marazli, III degree.

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:19 AM

16yo Tigran Ogannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov were posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom. The boys were brutally murdered by russian occupiers in Berdiansk. Their last words, recorded before execution, were: Glory to Ukraine!

Let the world remember their names. russian occupation is not peace.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:09 PM

The reasons:

Ukrainian children share their heartfelt thanks to the brave soldiers defending their country.

📽️ bambilviv

United 24 Media / Instagram

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— Eugene McParland 🇺🇦 (@eugenemcparland.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 2:41 PM

🏆🇺🇦 Ukrainian veterans won gold at the World Dragon Boat Championships, beating Canada🍁💖 by just half a second!
“In the Ukrainian boat, there are guys without legs. Guys in wheelchairs. With serious injuries. With pain that cannot be seen—but it is there. They are determined to win.”

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM

Usyk being awesome once again

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— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:36 AM

Undisputed. Our Champion! Congratulations Oleksandr , congratulations fellow Ukrainians! 🥊🏆

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM

🥊Usyk: I want to thank all the guys who are currently defending our country. I received many messages yesterday and today too. From the various units that defend my country on the front lines. Guys – Glory to Ukraine! You are incredible! You allow me to be here now.

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 6:33 PM

Usyk🥊
Ukrainian cossack🇺🇦

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM

Usyk, a UNITED24 Ambassador, becomes two-time undisputed heavyweight champion

Ukrainian National Anthem, performed by Ukrainian singer Nadya Dorofeeva before the fight in London

United 24 Media / Instagram

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— Eugene McParland 🇺🇦 (@eugenemcparland.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM

It’s night in Ukraine. our usual wartime curfew, but just listen to how people are celebrating Usyk’s victory, each from their own home. This is how most apartment buildings in Ukraine sound tonight.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 6:19 PM

Here is President Zelesnkyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

show full post on front page

Everything Must Be Done to Achieve a Ceasefire; And the Russian Side Must Stop Hiding From Decisions – Address by the President

19 July 2025 – 20:21

Dear Ukrainians!

Right now, in Shostka, in our Sumy region, recovery efforts are still ongoing after Russian bomb strikes. A great deal of work was also done today in Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region and in other cities and communities that were hit. Everyone affected is receiving the necessary assistance. In the Dnipro region, emergency responders are also currently rescuing the wounded after an Iskander missile strike on Velykooleksandrivka. Unfortunately, that strike also claimed lives. My condolences to all the families and loved ones. We will definitely respond to Russia in a way that they will feel.

Today, I received a report from Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs covering a range of issues. The first was sanctions: we discussed the synchronization of sanctions. It is very important that the new EU sanctions package is also supported by other free European countries that are currently not part of the European Union. We will continue the process – a very important one – of synchronizing sanctions – and not just those European – within our jurisdictions. I instructed that this work be carried out as swiftly as possible. We are also working on the American track: there are agreements with President Trump that must be implemented as soon as possible. Ukraine is committed to maximum productivity. This includes our agreements on air defenses and a new arms agreement with the United States. We are ready both to purchase the necessary weapons and to export high-tech Ukrainian weapons to the United States, especially drones, which have proven to be highly effective in this war as life-saving tools. Our officials have also stepped up efforts on interceptor drones. I expect additional contracts to be signed next week.

Today, I also spoke with the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov. The composition of the NSDC has been updated. And we are already preparing the first decisions by the new composition, including on sanctions. Those decisions are coming soon. We are also developing measures to boost economic relations; we will discuss the details tomorrow with Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. We are preparing decisions for Monday.

A few more important matters. Dialogue with the Russian side on prisoner exchanges is ongoing – we are continuing to implement the agreements reached during the earlier meeting in Istanbul. Our team is currently working on another exchange.

NSDC Secretary Umerov also reported that he has proposed another meeting with the Russian side for next week. The pace of negotiations must be increased. Everything must be done to achieve a ceasefire. And the Russian side must stop hiding from decisions. Prisoner exchanges. Return of children. End to the killings. And a meeting at the level of leaders is needed to truly ensure peace – a really lasting one. Ukraine is ready for such a meeting.

And one more thing. We must all remember that our state’s independence is built on the resilience and patriotism of our people, our Ukrainian heroes – heroes of different generations who have defended and continue to defend Ukraine. I thank each and every one of you who is now at the front, on combat missions, at combat posts. I thank everyone who is helping. We honor and will never forget our fallen warriors. I have signed decrees conferring the titles of Hero of Ukraine – sadly, posthumously – on Soldier Oleh Yarovyi and Junior Sergeant Vitalii Karvatskyi. They were our exemplary warriors. Both inspired their brothers-in-arms and truly had done everything to defend Ukraine.

I have also signed a decree awarding the Order of Freedom – it is one of Ukraine’s highest honors – to two boys from Berdiansk – our Berdiansk, which is now temporarily occupied by Russia. Tihran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov. They were just 16 years old. They never betrayed Ukraine and valued freedom so deeply that they became a symbol of it for many. They were killed, and the Russians have not even returned their bodies to their families. Eternal memory to them! Ukraine will definitely defend its independence.

Glory to Ukraine!

Georgia:

Day 234 of #GeorgiaProtests

The Georgian public clearly only wants new, free & fair Parliamentary elections and the release of political prisoners.

Targeted sanctions from our partners are already destabilizing the regime, and it can help us avoid whatever costs can be avoided.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 1:13 PM

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM

Georgia is at war with Russia — not with tanks, but through hybrid warfare.

A Russian oligarch and his cronies are turning Georgia into a Russian-style dictatorship.

Today is day 234 of daily, nationwide protests. We are still resisting. 🇬🇪✊

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM

The crowd in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, on day 234 of daily, nationwide protests. 🇬🇪

We’re chanting ‘until the end’, meaning until the repressive, illegitimate, pro-Russian GD regime collapses. ✊

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:03 PM

On day 234 of uninterrupted, nationwide protests in Georgia, we’re starting to march toward the Parliament, chanting ’til the end!’ 🇬🇪✊

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 11:57 AM

“Until the End!” – thousands of protesters chant, rallying to say no to the October local elections – what they believe is a Russian special operation. The vast majority of democratic voters reject it.

Day 234 of #GeorgiaProtests

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM

In June, only 20.5% of democratic electorate supported an unconditional participation of democratic forces in the local elections. 2/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM

Illegitimate President has stated that he would grant pardon to all the jailed leaders so that they could take part in the locals – obviously refused by leaders who are in jail for not granting them legitimacy to begin with. This shows that they might have bitten off more than they could chew. 3/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM

Two parties, Lelo and Gakharia, are very likely to participate, although the deadline for registration is August 4.

Peak attendance will be at the Rustaveli Avenue, of course.

Day 234 of #GeogiaProtests 4/4.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM

“Only free elections! No to Russian special operation!” — The protest rally continues on Rustaveli.

#GeorgiaProtests
Day 234

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM

⭕”Only free elections! No to the Russian special operation!” — The protest march is heading toward Rustaveli Avenue.

#GeorgiaProtests
Day 234

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:27 PM

⭕ “Only free elections! No to Russian special operations!”

📍 In Tbilisi, people are gathering near TSU. At 19:00, they’ll march to Parliament.

🇬🇪 The protest demanding new, free & fair elections has been ongoing for 234 days, every single day.

#GeorgiaProtests

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 11:49 AM

Today was an important day for Georgia; here’s why:

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

1. Day 234 of the protest with such a high turnout in burning heat on Saturday (a lot of people in Tbilisi go out of town on weekends in summer) is crazy.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Historically, Georgia has protested during autumn, winter, and spring; however, it’s the first time in probably 100 years that we’re protesting in the summer; shattering yet another propaganda narrative “gEorGiaNs caNnOt pRoTesT iN sUmmuR”.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

2. It shows that the core of the protest movement is still very much here, even though you do not see big numbers every evening.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

3. It shows that people REALLY do want free and fair elections and the release of the political prisoners.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Firstly, I think this shows our allies that we’re consistent in our request, and they should do everything within their power to speed up targeted sanctions against the regime.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Secondly, it shows our enemies that we’re here, and there is no amount of intimidation tactics that is going to work on us. There’s no compromising our souls.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

They will either have to kill us en masse, which they absolutely cannot do (we’re just too small for that), or they will eventually have to give up to our demands.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Finally, I wanted to say: thank you for your continued support! I am forever grateful to every follower and/or supporter of Georgian democracy.

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

We shall win this fight together! And once we do, I invite every one of you to Georgia to celebrate together! 🇬🇪❤️🌍

— General George Fella (@jezko.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM

This is a very significant development in the Georgian resistance that might just be the birth of the crowning element – a viable political alternative that can channel the uninterrupted protests.

Still long way to go in this direction, but fingers crossed. Tonight was a win.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:25 PM

Azerbaijan:

“Never accept occupation. That’s what we did. Don’t give up,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, addressing the Ukrainian people. He also announced that Azerbaijan is preparing legal documents to file a case against Russia in international courts.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 12:24 PM

Back to Ukraine.

Russian attack on Ukraine last night consisted of around 400 drines and 20 missiles

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:00 AM

Here’s the Ukrainian air defense tally:

Correction: Kinzhals weren’t launched – they were Iskander-M or KH-23 (North Korean) ballistic missiles.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 4:26 AM

HUR reportedly executed a complex cyberattack against Gazprom, gaining full access to its internal systems and exfiltrating hundreds of terabytes of data. Key operational networks—including SCADA, GIS, financial, legal and technical infrastructure—were wiped, Suspilne reports.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:52 AM

Ukraine has brought back 11 children from Russia and Russian-occupied territories. The youngest is 10 years old, the oldest is 17.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 6:27 AM

Shostka, Sumy Oblast:

Overnight, russian drones pounded the town of Shostka in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast. Now there are reports of at least six air bombs dropped on the town.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 4:52 AM

Kharkiv:

Czech skeptics who thought the war was a media conspiracy have been brought to Kharkiv.

A documentary film project, initiated by director Robin Kvapil, brought three Czech individuals to Kharkiv, Ukraine, who had previously believed the war was merely a media fabrication.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM

Traveling from Prague to Kharkiv, the group experienced the harsh realities of the war firsthand. They endured shelling, spoke with wounded civilians, witnessed mass graves, and spent nights in bomb shelters. Their journey also included visits to an underground school in the metro and hearing

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM

the cries of families mourning fallen Ukrainian heroes.
The participants were particularly struck by the stark contrasts observed in front-line Kharkiv. They noted, “While rockets fly in from Russia, local cafes serve avocado toast amidst the loud sounds of explosions and air defense systems at work

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM

Their profound experiences on this trip formed the basis of a documentary film.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM

These deluded Czechs are a very good example of just why we’re in the mess we’re in. Both in the US and in a lot of other places.

Zaporizhzhia Oblast:

IAEA says smoke near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was caused by a forest fire at a safe distance from the site. The agency reports no nuclear safety threat at this time.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 10:21 AM

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast:

Russian missile strike in the Synelnykove district of the Dnipropetrovsk kilked two people.

The enemy attack caused vehicles to catch fire. Residential buildings, a cultural center, a school, and a clinic were also damaged.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:43 AM

Odesa:

Russia struck an apartment building in Odesa tonight, igniting a fire that spread from the sixth to the ninth floor. At least one person was killed, several others injured, homes destroyed.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 10:36 PM

Russia struck Odesa last night, destroying multiple apartments.

A woman who escaped occupied Lysychansk was killed.

She fled once.
Russia found her again.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:28 AM

Ukrainian Navy forces destroyed a Russian sea mine that washed up on the shore in Odesa region. The device was safely neutralized by a controlled detonation.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:36 AM

The Russian occupied Donbas:

💥HUR carried out strikes against high-value Russian military targets in the Donbas region.

The targets hit include:
• three 48Ya6-K1 “Podlyot” air surveillance radar stations
• two “Nioby-SV” radar systems
• two S-300V surface-to-air missile launchers
• one P-18 early warning radar station

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 5:06 AM

Kharkiv Oblast:

A Ukrainian soldier shot down a Russian FPV drone mid-flight with a shotgun on the Kharkiv front. The drone was connected via fiber optic cable.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 11:16 AM

Rostov on Don, Russia:

Massive overnight drone attack on Russia hit Rostov region hard. Over 50 long-distance trains are stuck in extreme heat after strike damaged rail lines. In Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russian air defense hit residential buildings. Five villages lost power. MoD claims 71 drones downed.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 3:49 AM

Moscow Oblast:

Zelenograd, Moscow region 💥💥💥

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— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM

🫡

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— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron skeets or videos today. Here is some adjacent material.

Kharkiv Ecopark has these adorable cuties you absolutely have to see!

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 11:49 AM

Open thread!

War for Ukraine Day 1,241: The ReasonsPost + Comments (11)

Saturday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  July 19, 20258:33 pm| 156 Comments

This post is in: John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"

Spent about eight hours today and no matter how much sunscreen you wear, the sun still beats you up. I have not much to say.

I will note that if the NY Times is to be believed, Donald Trump spent fifteen years banging models and raping teens procured by Jeffrey Epstein. For all the MAGA folks out there, to give you a frame of reference, fifteen years is three times the length of the confederacy. Honestly though, we fucking knew all this in 2016.

In other news, Maxwell fucked around and found out, attacking Steve one too many times today, and he proceeded to brutalize him and then trap him under the dining room table and chairs and kept him there for a solid half hour. He just sauntered around in a circle, always keeping and eye on Maxwell, and giving him the paw of understanding if he tried anything fishy.

That’s it for me.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (156)

Amy Sherald, Unabashed Black Artist

by Anne Laurie|  July 19, 20256:19 pm| 37 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, KULCHA!, Post-racial America

‘Amy Sherald’s more recent works have a winning clarity of composition: a single figure, thrown against a coloured background, and realised in such a way as to make us ask what it costs to present oneself with this degree of polish.’
Eleanor Nairne at the Whitney: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4…

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— London Review of Books (@lrb.co.uk) July 19, 2025 at 11:20 AM

I really envy the people who will be able to visit the Whitney Museum in NYC for this exhibit. Eleanor Nairne on “Amy Sherald’s Subjects“:

At his final​ White House Correspondents’ dinner, Barack Obama joked that he had been grizzled by the presidency while Michelle had barely aged a day. ‘She looks so happy to be here … That’s called practice. It’s like learning to do three-minute planks.’ Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama speaks to the effort of looking relaxed in the public eye, not least because, of all Sherald’s paintings currently on display at the Whitney survey of her work (until 10 August), it’s the only one behind glass and the only one with its own room and security guard. Sherald usually gives her works enigmatic titles – Well Prepared and Maladjusted; The Lesson of Falling Leaves – but here we have simply Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, three generations distilled into one persona.

Sherald was commissioned to paint the portrait in 2017, after the end of Obama’s second term. It was an intriguing choice at the time. She was in her early forties, had only recently been able to give up her job as a waitress and was barely known to the art world. Her painting career had been stalled by the need to care for ailing relatives and her own diagnosis of congestive heart failure (it isn’t often you see an organ donor thanked in a catalogue). Michelle’s husband, by contrast, picked for his portrait the artist Kehinde Wiley, who had already been the subject of a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum and whose work had sold to institutions including the Met.

Sherald’s star had begun to rise after she won the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian in 2016. The prize painting, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance), is displayed in an early room at the Whitney and it gives a sense of why she might have had an edge over more established artists for the presidential commission. It shows a young woman, perhaps only a girl, wearing a polka-dot shift dress, white gloves and a red pillbox hat. She holds an oversized tea cup and saucer, lending a note of whimsy to the painting, but everything else suggests furious restraint. Sherald portrays her sitters with a particular tautness. She also has a feeling for vivid colour. Miss Everything is a vision in vermilion and turquoise. Sherald pays meticulous attention to the seams of her gloves and the pompom on her hat, but the girl’s skin is painted with shades of grey in what has become the artist’s signature technique: rendering Black skin as grisaille in order to make us think again about notions of colour and race. Like most of Sherald’s figures, Miss Everything casts an appraising look at the viewer. The overall effect is one of graphic self-possession.

Sherald almost always paints Black subjects, most of whom are strangers she approaches in the street. Together, they select an outfit from the sitter’s clothes (this is another key aspect of her work: her lively interest in the ways we fashion ourselves). Long before she was commissioned to paint a celebrity, Sherald understood that anyone who feels scrutinised in public is likely to use appearance as a kind of armour. After the clothes comes a photography session, which produces the source material for the painting – an image already shaped by hours of posing for the camera (it isn’t surprising that her portraits often feature on magazine covers)…

On entering the exhibition, the viewer immediately encounters a curved wall on which are hung five of Sherald’s most striking paintings, all the same size and placed unusually low: Sherald says she wants visitors to meet her subjects’ gaze. Every detail bristles with life: the fine halo of soft black fur against the salmon pink background in Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured), the woven gold of the straw hat in Mother and Child – details that testify to Sherald’s fluency with her materials.

Alice Neel liked to say that she painted all of a person: ‘What the world has done to them and their retaliation’. The opposite might be said of Sherald: she seems less concerned with the bruised interior than with the exterior shell we create under duress. When Ta-Nehisi Coates edited an issue of Vanity Fair in September 2020, he commissioned Sherald to make a cover painting of Breonna Taylor, who had been killed by police earlier that year. Sherald worked with Taylor’s family to create an idealised portrait, a painting of her subject in the future conditional. This is Taylor the way she might have been and would have liked to have been seen, dressed to impress in shades of Tiffany turquoise with fabulous hair and an engagement ring that may have been on its way…

Amy Sherald, Unabashed Black ArtistPost + Comments (37)

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