Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

Of Budgets And Bad Faith (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker| July 23, 20252:01 pm| 158 Comments

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

Remember about a thousand years ago when Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) gave the worst SOTU response in recorded human history? The creepy affect and jarring clash of expressions with verbal content? Yeah, me neither, even though I wrote a two-sentence post about it contemporaneously.

Alabama’s hissy kitty was in the news briefly again this week due to a confrontation with Senator Chris Murphy on the senate floor. There was no audio for the clip, but it was clearly a heated discussion, with Britt aggressively jabbing her finger at Murphy.

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), now a Fox News personality, had Britt on his show to fluff Dear Leader. (With rare exceptions, Fox News programming in Trump 2.0 is like an endless cabinet meeting from Trump 1.0.) After the Trump ego-infusion was complete for the moment, guppy-faced Gowdy then played the video clip of the Britt-Murphy argument and asked Britt about it, but she declined to provide any details.

Murphy spilled the tea on a Bulwark podcast:

CHRIS MURPHY AND KATIE BRITT’S HEATED EXCHANGE ON THE SENATE FLOOR

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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) July 23, 2025 at 8:11 AM

It’s an important point. Why should Democrats bargain in good faith on budget resolutions when Trump is violating the law every day? Why would they put in the time to reach a bipartisan compromise when Republicans will retroactively cancel funding anyway?

Or, as Murphy put it to the Bulwark, why would you trade baseball cards with a friend if the friend tells you in advance he’ll break into your house and steal back his cards?

Yesterday, Bill Scher at The Washington Monthly addressed the same issue, making a compelling case for Democrats to walk away from spending bill negotiations:

Democrats Should Get Tough and Quit Negotiating Spending Bills
The Republican majority can no longer be trusted to maintain bipartisan spending-level agreements. So, Democrats should let Republicans figure out how to keep the government open.

Congressional Republicans, at President Donald Trump’s behest, have unapologetically broken faith in the appropriations process by undermining a bipartisan agreement struck just four months ago. That deal kept the government open through the current fiscal year. Since Democrats can no longer trust Republicans to keep their word, they should abandon negotiations over Fiscal Year 2026 spending and let the Republican majority figure out how to keep the government open…

Democrats should immediately announce that all talks about Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations are over. Democrats, even in the congressional minority, are willing to share the responsibility of governing for the common good. But they cannot exercise joint responsibility if Republicans not only won’t keep bipartisan agreements but are openly dismissive of them.

Scher notes that Project 2025 architect Russell Vought already telegraphed the GOP’s intent to illegally impound more funds and break bipartisan budget agreements via future recissions. Republicans are counting on Democrats’ unwillingness to force a government shutdown to pick up the necessary number of votes on a budget this fall.

According to Scher, if Dems walk away now, it would force Republicans to figure out how to keep the government open by either changing the rules to allow budget bills to pass with a simple majority (since they hold all the power) or capitulating, the former being much more likely than the latter. That sounds about right.

Sometimes the minority party is caught between what’s politically smart and what’s necessary for the public interest. This is not one of those times. Walk away.

Yep. Let them own it. But maybe first let the Trumpstein story dominate a few more news cycles because any story about arcane budgetary matters would surely rivet the public to the exclusion of all else.

Open thread.

Of Budgets And Bad Faith (Open Thread)Post + Comments (158)

Well, That Was Fun Open Thread

by WaterGirl| July 23, 202510:54 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Site Maintenance

Well that was exciting.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to say that comments were going into moderation.

I just saw those messages a few minutes ago and headed to the site to see what was up. A couple minutes later, the site crashed.

Anyway, the problem was related to plugins and we are back up now. Obviously, or you wouldn’t be reading this!

Totally open thread.

Well, That Was Fun Open ThreadPost + Comments (116)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Reasons for Hope

by Anne Laurie| July 23, 20256:28 am| 187 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

It is very, very exciting that Prince's greatest film, and the greatest concert film of all time, is coming to Imax for the first time! www.imax.com/movie/imax-p…

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— Anil Dash (@anildash.com) July 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM

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The RFS Community space is only a week old and already more than 1,000 people are chatting away & getting started on their campaign prep. It’s just so cool to see the work working.

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— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 8:15 PM

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Even the FTFNYTimes…

We've updated this file with the final estimates from the Congressional Budget Office:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/…

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— The Upshot (@upshot.nytimes.com) July 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM

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Tell your Senators and Rep they need to support this bill on unmasking ICE and displaying clear ID here: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell…

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— Scott Dworkin (@dworkin.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:09 PM

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We won’t let Republicans get away with hiding the Epstein files.

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— Democrats (@democrats.org) July 22, 2025 at 4:33 PM

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Reasons for HopePost + Comments (187)

Late Night Open Thread: What Is Up With These Tech Billionaires?

by Anne Laurie| July 23, 20251:52 am| 86 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Very interesting article which does agree with my opinion of AI
flip.it/-pibbY

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— Nutria Boudin aka Greg Mayes (@nutriaboudin.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 7:49 PM

Bit of a weighty topic for the off-hours post, but it’s also a fun read. Per Rolling Stone, “What Is Up With These Tech Billionaires? This Astrophysicist Has Answers”:

Fresh off a Ph.D. in astrophysics, science journalist Adam Becker moved to Silicon Valley with an academic’s acclimation to hearing the word “no.” “In academic science, you need to doubt yourself,” he says. “That’s essential to the process.” So it was strange to find himself suddenly surrounded by a culture that branded itself as data-oriented and scientific but where, he soon came to realize, the ideas were more grounded in science fiction than in actual science and the grip on reality was tenuous at best. “What this sort of crystallized for me,” says Becker, “was that these tech guys — who people think of as knowing a lot about science — actually, don’t really know anything about science at all.”

In More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, published this spring, Becker subjects Silicon Valley’s ideology to some much-needed critical scrutiny, poking holes in — and a decent amount of fun at — the outlandish ideas that so many tech billionaires take as gospel. In so doing, he champions reality while also exposing the dangers of letting the tech billionaires push us toward a future that could never actually exist. “The title of the book is More Everything Forever,” says Becker. “But the secret title of the book, like, in my heart is These Fucking People.”

Over several Zooms, Rolling Stone recently chatted with Becker about these fucking people, their magical thinking, and what the rest of us can do to fight for a reality that works for us.

A lot of people who move to Silicon Valley get swept up in its vibe. How did you avoid it?

I did sort of see the glittering temptation of Silicon Valley, but there’s a toxic positivity to the culture. The startup ethos out here runs on positive emotion, and especially hype. It needs hype. It can’t function without it. It’s not enough that your startup could be widely adopted. It needs to change the world. It has to be something that’s going to make everything better. So this ends up becoming an exercise in meaning-making, and then people start talking about these startups — their own or other people’s — in semi-religious or explicitly-religious terms. And it was just a shock to see all of these people talking this way. It all feels plastic and fake. I thought, Oh wow, this is awful. I want to watch these people and see what the hell they’re up to. I want to understand what is happening here, because this is bad…

Underpinning a lot of that toxic positivity was this idea that if you just make more tech, eventually tech will improve itself and become super-intelligent and godlike. [The technocrats] subscribe to a kind of ideology of technological salvation — and I use that word “salvation” very deliberately in the Christian sense. They believe that technology is going to bring about the end of this world and usher in a new perfect world, a kind of transhumanist, algorithmically-guaranteed utopia, where every problem in the world gets reduced to a problem that can be solved with technology. And this will allow for perpetual growth, which allows for perpetual wealth creation and resource extraction.

These are deeply unoriginal ideas about the future. They’re from science fiction, and I didn’t know how seriously people were taking them. And then I started seeing people take them very, very seriously indeed. So, I was like, “OK, let me go talk to actual experts in the areas these people are talking about.” I talked to the experts, and: Yeah, it’s all nonsense…

show full post on front page

There’s also no particular reason to believe that the kinds of machines that we are building now and calling “AI” are sufficiently similar to the human brain to be able to do what humans do. Calling the systems that we have now “AI” is a kind of marketing tool. You can see that if you think about the deflation in the term that’s occurred just in the last 30 years. When I was a kid, calling something “AI” meant Commander Data from Star Trek, something that can do what humans do. Now, AI is, like, really good autocomplete.

That’s not to say that it would never be possible to build an artificial machine that does what humans do, but there’s no reason to think that these can and a lot of reason to think that they can’t. And the self-improvement thing is kind of silly, right? It’s like saying, “Oh, you can become an infinitely good brain surgeon by doing brain surgery on the brain surgery part of your brain.” …

So what we’re calling “artificial intelligence” is really just kind of like an advanced version of spellcheck?

Yeah, in a way. I mean, this is not even the first time in the history of AI that people have been having conversations with these machines and thinking, “Oh wow, there’s actually something in there that’s intelligent and helping me.” Back in the 1960s, there was this program called Eliza, that basically acted like a very simple version of a therapist that just reflects everything that you say back to you. So you say, “Hey Eliza, I had a really bad day today,” and Eliza says, “Oh, I’m really sorry to hear that. Why did you have a really bad day today?” And then you say, “I got in a fight with my partner,” and they say, “Oh, I’m really sorry to hear that. Why did you get in a fight with your partner?” I mean, it’s a little bit more complicated than that but not a lot more complicated than that. It just kind of fills in the blanks. These are stock responses — something that’s very clearly not thinking. And people would say, “Oh, Eliza really helped me. I feel like Eliza really understands who I am.”…

Sam Altman gave a talk two or three years ago, and he was asked a question about global warming, and he said something like, “Oh, global warming is a really serious problem, but if we have a super-intelligent AI, then we can ask it, ‘Hey, how do you build a lot of renewable energy? And hey, how do you build a lot of carbon capture systems? And hey, how do we build them at scale cheaply and quickly?’ And then it would solve global warming.” What Sam Altman is saying is that his plan for solving global warming is to build a machine that nobody knows how to build and can’t even define and then ask it for three wishes.

But they really believe that this is coming. Altman said earlier this year that he thinks that AGI is coming in the next four years. If a godlike AI is coming, then global warming doesn’t matter. All that matters is making sure that the godlike AI is good and comes soon and is friendly and helpful to us. And so, suddenly, you have a way of solving all of the problems in the world with this one weird trick, and that one weird trick is the tech that these companies are building. It offers the possibility of control, it offers the possibility of transcendence of all boundaries, and it offers the possibility of tremendous amounts of money…

There’s a lot of delusional thinking at work, and it’s really, really easy to believe stuff that makes you rich. But there’s also a lot of groupthink. If everybody around you believes this, then that makes it more likely that you’re going to believe it, too. And then if all of the most powerful people and the wealthiest people and the most successful people and the most intelligent-seeming people around you all believe this, it’s going to make it harder for you not to believe it.

And the arguments that they give sound pretty good at first blush. You have to really drill down to find what’s wrong with them. If you were raised on a lot of science fiction, especially, these ideas are very familiar to you — and I say this as a huge science fiction fan. And so when you start looking at ideas like super-intelligent AI or going to space, these ideas carry a lot of cultural power. The point is, it’s very easy for them to believe these things, because it goes along with this picture of the future that they already had, and it offers to make them a lot of money and give them a lot of power and control. It gives them the possibility of ignoring inconvenient problems, problems that often they themselves are contributing to through their work. And it also gives them a sense of moral absolution and meaning by providing this grand vision and project that they’re working toward. They want to save humanity. [Elon] Musk talks about this all the time. [Jeff] Bezos talks about this. Altman talks about this. They all talk about this. And I think that’s a pretty powerful drug. Then throw in, for the billionaires, the fact that when you’re a billionaire, you get insulated from the world and from criticism because you’re surrounded by sycophants who want your money, and it becomes very hard to change your mind about anything…

So what you’re telling me is that I’m not gonna get to live on Mars.

Yeah, that’s right. You’re not going to. But you shouldn’t be disappointed because Mars sucks. Mars fucking sucks. Just to name a few of the problems: gravity is too low, the radiation is too high, there’s no air, and the dirt is made of poison…

What can we do about all this? Are we all just basically fucked?

Well, look, the billionaires have an enormous amount of power and money, but there’s a lot more of us than there are of them. Also, we can think critically, and so I think there’s a few different things that we can do. In the short term we need to organize. One of the things that these guys are completely terrified by — and it’s one of the reasons they love AI — is the idea of labor organization. They don’t want workers rising up. They don’t want to have to deal with workers at all, and so I think labor organizing is really important. I think political organizing is really important. We need to build political power structures that can counterbalance the massively outsized power of this really very small community of individuals who just have massive amounts of wealth. And I know that that sounds kind of facile, but I really do think it’s what we have to do, and historically it is how [people] have always combated the very wealthy and their fantasies of power…

And then in the longer term — hopefully not that far away, if we get to a place where we have political power to balance these guys out — I think we’ve got to tax their wealth away. They did not earn that money alone. They needed the infrastructure and community that the rest of us provide and they also, frankly, needed a lot of government investment. They are the biggest welfare queens in existence, right? Silicon Valley got enormous amounts of government spending to benefit it over the years, both on infrastructure and in buying products and whatnot. The government built the internet. The government was the biggest client of Silicon Valley back when it was first starting up through buying computer chips for the space program. The government built the space program without which you wouldn’t be able to have something like SpaceX. So I think it’s time to stop giving them handouts and start saying, “What we invested, the bill has come due.”

Launch this fucking guy at the sun.

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— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:58 PM

Late Night Open Thread: <em>What Is Up With These Tech Billionaires? </em>Post + Comments (86)

War for Ukraine Day 1,244: Crunch Time

by Adam L Silverman| July 22, 202510:07 pm| 13 Comments

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

Just a quick note: there’s video circulating of Russians executing a Ukrainian civilian who was riding past their position on a bicycle in Torske, Donetsk Oblast. You DO NOT need to go look for it or watch it. Just make note of what the Russians did from these two sentences. This Russian war crime did not go unpunished. Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade has ISR on the three Russian soldiers. They maintained the surveillance, found them, fixed them, and Ukrainian artillery and attack drones finished them.

Last night Andrya asked:

I couldn’t figure out how to interpret the material re: backsliding from democracy. Is Zelenskyy really following the path of Victor Orban? That would break my heart. Has he lost control of (some of) his underlings? Is this russian propaganda? I’m really confused.

⚡️ BREAKING: Ukraine’s parliament passes bill destroying independence of key anti-corruption bodies.

The bill was passed with the support of 263 lawmakers, while 13 voted against it and 13 abstained.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) July 22, 2025 at 6:42 AM

From The Kyiv Independent:

President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 22 signed into law a bill that effectively destroys the independence of Ukraine’s two key anti-corruption institutions, according to opposition lawmakers and watchdogs.

Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) approved amendments that grant the prosecutor general new powers over investigations led by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and cases led by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

The step comes as Ukrainian authorities ramp up pressure against the two agencies established as part of the anti-graft reforms after the EuroMaidan Revolution.

The bill was passed with the support of 263 lawmakers, with 13 voting against it and 13 abstaining. As the legislation made its way to Zelensky’s desk for his approval or veto, protestors gathered in Kyiv and other major cities across the country to demand the president veto the law.

The protests were still underway when Zelensky signed the bill.

The law has already been published on Holos Ukrayini (Voice of Ukraine), a Ukrainian newspaper that publishes laws passed by parliament when they enter into force the following day. Protests continued into the night as the law officially entered into force on July 23.

Under the new bill, the prosecutor general has the authority to issue directions in NABU’s investigations — or even reassign them outside the agency. It would also allow the prosecutor general to delegate SAPO’s powers to other prosecutors.

Among other new powers, the prosecutor general could also close NABU’s investigations at the legal defense’s request.

In a video address delivered after midnight on July 23, Zelensky said he had met with the heads of NABU, SAPO, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

“The anti-corruption infrastructure will work. Only without Russian influence — everything needs to be cleansed of this. And there must be more justice,” Zelensky said.

“Of course, NABU and SAPO will keep working. And it is important that the Prosecutor General is determined to ensure that in Ukraine the inevitability of punishment for those who go against the law is really ensured. And this is what is really needed for Ukraine. Cases that have been pending must be investigated.”

The president did not directly address the demonstrations, but noted that it had been an “emotional” day.

Ruslan Kravchenko, appointed as Ukraine’s prosecutor general last month, has been described by experts as a figure close to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Watchdogs have warned that if adopted, the amendments would hamper the two agencies’ investigations into authorities or individuals close to the president.

The changes would amount to the “destruction of NABU and SAPO’s independence and practically subordinate their activities to the prosecutor general,” NABU said in a statement ahead of the vote.

“Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure, built since 2015, will be destroyed,” the agency added.

NABU Director Semen Kryvonos condemned the legislation, saying it threatens Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Speaking at a press conference after the vote, he voiced hopes that Zelensky would veto it.

“This is effectively the end of the work of two independent institutions,” said Oleksandr Klymenko, head of SAPO, during the press conference.

Anastasiia Radina, head of the anti-corruption parliamentary committee, was reportedly the only lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People parliamentary group to publicly speak out against the legislation ahead of the vote.

“I ask you, colleagues, not to deceive yourselves and the people that you are voting for some mild strengthening of the prosecutor general, and not for the dismantling of NABU and SAPO,” she said.

“After the amendments that the committee added to this bill today, contrary to the rules, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office becomes a fiction for budget funds.”

The amendment bill was pushed through with unusual speed, as it was cleared by the committee, passed by the legislature, and signed by Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, all in a single day.

The news comes amid mounting warnings from activists about an escalating crackdown on anti-corruption bodies and NGOs.

On July 21, several law enforcement agencies — including the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the State Bureau of Investigation — carried out sweeping searches of NABU and SAPO.

Fifteen NABU employees are under investigation on various grounds. The SBU justified the raids by citing suspected Russian infiltration and administrative misconduct, with allegations ranging from traffic violations to treason.

One NABU employee was detained on charges of spying for Russia, while another is accused of involvement in drug trafficking and ties to pro-Russian groups.

More at the link.

To answer Andrya’s specific question, no, I don’t think President Zelenskyy is becoming Orban. I do think that he and his natsec team, let alone his political team, are under incredible pressure from international partners, because of domestic politics, and, of course, trying to manage all of it and the war. That’s not an excuse or a justification for what he, his party, and their parliamentary allies just did. It is just reality. I don’t know whether this is a necessary action regardless of the politics or if there is something else going on. Time will tell if this is a counterintelligence effort/mole hunt or something else.

Regardless, the political fallout and opposition was immediate:

President Zelenskyy signed the bill into law.

It’s a complete failure.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 5:14 PM

I strongly oppose shutting down NABU, even if a russian spy were discovered within its ranks. While it’s crucial to cleanse governmental bodies of spies and russian influence, dismantling an entire institution is not the answer.

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 3:38 PM

We wouldn’t abolish the police force if a spy was found there, would we? Proud of my fellow Ukrainians for resisting this monstrous law.

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 3:38 PM

And we’ll know soon enough if President Zelenskyy and his government can survive the domestic political fallout.

Here is his address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump. (emphasis mine)

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The Anti-Corruption Infrastructure Will Work, Only Without Russian Influence – It Needs to Be Cleared of That – Address by the President

23 July 2025 – 01:33

I wish you good health, fellow Ukrainians!

It’s been a long emotional day. We held a meeting with our negotiation team. Rustem Umerov will lead the delegation at the next meeting with the Russian side. We have agreed on what exactly the agenda of the meeting should be and which topics are key for Ukraine. The release of our people from Russian captivity must continue. And it’s exactly right now that the necessary procedures for a new exchange have already begun – tomorrow we are expecting our people to return. I truly hope everything goes well for us tomorrow. We are doing our best, including with the help of our partners, international mediators, we are doing our best to secure also the release of civilian hostages and the return of our children abducted by Russia. The task is to work towards a ceasefire. This is what the whole world is urging Russia to do. The task is to work on organizing a leaders’ meeting. This is something that could bring us closer to peace. Ukraine has never wanted this war. And it is Russia that must end this war that it started itself. I am grateful to all our partners who are helping. Our delegation includes everyone capable of addressing every necessary detail. There were also important decisions today regarding our defense aimed at increasing the safety of our cities and our communities. We now have new contracts for interceptor drones. It’s in addition to the drone production volumes we’ve already purchased, including from partners. There are four more significant contracts worth over UAH 3 billion. Our military, along with the Ministries – primarily Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and First Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov – are working on this; and there must be more defensive drones. We are also securing all necessary contracts for frontline drones – the ones that are most effective. And we will definitely continue our deep strike program – I have approved new volumes. And, of course, this is a major contribution: Russian logistics, Russian military facilities, everything that works for aggression – these are all legitimate targets.

There were reports from the front – especially our Pokrovsk direction and some other areas in the Donetsk region. The situation is difficult, but I am grateful to each of our units for their resilience, for clearing our land of occupier, and for real results in defending our state, our cities, and our people. Defense is not a ritual word – it is concrete defense of Ukraine’s frontline positions, the protection of people’s lives, and the concrete defense of the Ukrainian national interest to end the war with dignity, in a way that preserves Ukraine’s independence. And that will happen. I thank everyone who is fighting and working for the sake of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian people. I thank all those who are helping.

One more thing.

I spoke with NABU Director Semen Kryvonos, SAPO Prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, and Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk. We discussed various challenges, all of them. The anti-corruption infrastructure will work, only without Russian influence – it needs to be cleared of that. And there should be more justice. Of course, NABU and SAPO will work. And it is important that the Prosecutor General is determined to ensure that in Ukraine the inevitability of punishment for those who go against the law is actually ensured. This is what Ukraine really needs. The cases that have been lying dormant must be investigated. For years, officials who have fled Ukraine have been casually living abroad for some reason – in very nice countries and without legal consequences – and this is not normal. There is no rational explanation for why criminal proceedings worth billions have been “hanging” for years. And there is no explanation why the Russians can still get the information they need. Important is – without Russians. Important is – to have an inevitability of punishment and that society really sees it.

And one more point – so that there are no fakes or information manipulations. Unfortunately, we lost our combat aircraft today – a French machine, a very effective one – one of our Mirage jets. The pilot managed to save himself, and this was not a Russian shoot-down. We will make our army stronger.

Glory to Ukraine!

Georgia:

Day 237 of #GeorgiaProtests

Most Georgians are mentally preparing for an intense autumn.

The discontent is deeper than ever – public normalization with the regime didn’t happen.

Many see the 8-party alliance as finally the political force that can channel the protests to victory. 1/2

📷 MOSE

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:44 PM

There’s also the sham local elections on October 4 that is rejected by the majority of democratic voters.

And the visa-free suspension issue…

Tonight, regime prisoner student Zviad Tsetskhladze’s magazine was presented to protesters at Rustaveli.

“Revolution,” reads the magazine Cell 101. 2/2.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:44 PM

For the 237th consecutive evening, the main avenue in Georgia’s capital is blocked. ✅🇬🇪

Protests continue in 8+ cities.

Our goal: ending the illegitimate, pro-Russian regime.

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM

🆘 Two Russian-born political prisoners in Georgia, Artem Gribul and Anton Chechin, have announced a dry hunger strike — they are refusing both food and water. Both face 8–20 years or life in prison. Both had drugs planted on them.

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— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 9:04 AM

Artem’s demands:

1. Allow media to attend and film all court proceedings.

2. Investigate police abuse based on their official complaints.

3. Improve conditions for Anastasia Zinovkina: access to food, health, and transfer to a cleaner, brighter, more spacious cell.

— Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 10:19 AM

🔴 The Revenue Service has expressed its readiness to lift the seizure of Gazeti Batumelebi’s (Batumelebi & Netgazeti) accounts and allow the organization to repay its debt in installments, contingent upon reaching a tax agreement.
❌ However, as of now, no formal communication has been established.

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— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) July 22, 2025 at 12:28 PM

1/ During the court hearing in the case of Mzia Amaghlobeli — where the prosecution delivered its closing statement — prosecutor Tornike Gogeshvili said the state is open to discussing a plea deal if initiated by the defence. He added that Irakli Dgebuadze has also consented to such an agreement.

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:11 AM

2/ However, following the hearing, Amaghlobeli’s lawyer, Maia Mtsariashvili, told reporters that her client does not consider herself guilty and rules out any possibility of a plea deal.

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:11 AM

3/ Accepting a plea agreement would require Amaghlobeli to plead guilty to the charge of assaulting a police officer

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:11 AM

The regime in Georgia has just frozen the assets of our Droa party and our Chair Elene Khoshtaria. 1/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

This is a continuation of the mass financial terror orchestrated by the Georgian Dream that aims to suffocate dissent and force democratic voices into inaction – whether it’s draconian, Kremlin-inspired legislation to ban all foreign funding, the arbitrary freezing of assets of funds that 2/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

aid protesters, or the extortionate fines imposed on individual protesters for simply protesting (GEL 5000, or 4 times the national median monthly income).

The regime also aims to hinder Elene Khoshtaria’s effectiveness as one of the very few leaders who aren’t jailed. 3/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

The freezing of Droa’s and Elene Khoshtaria’s assets comes in immediately after Elene Khoshtaria’s crowdfunding request and the successful July 19 march organized by 8 democratic parties. The public assessed the march as the first instance when protesters came out in large numbers for 4/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

a gathering called for by political parties, and even cheered for the speeches of political leaders. This hadn’t happened in 🇬🇪 in years, and it is widely seen to be the emergence of a trustworthy, viable political framework that can successfully channel the uninterrupted protests towards victory. 5/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

The official reason given for the Droa party’s account freeze is a GEL 50 (USD 18) fee for the procession of a 2021 local election result appeal by Droa in Nadzaladevi district of Tbilisi. The party was not informed or warned about the upcoming account freeze; it was directly enforced. 6/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

We ask our partners for a prompt assessment of the situation, targeted sanctions against the regime (which are already visibly unsettling their power vertical and enablers), non-engagement with the regime, calls for new, free and fair Parliamentary elections 7/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

as the only solution from the ever-deepening crisis, and support for CSOs and independent media in Georgia. 8/8.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:47 AM

Luka Jabua, a prisoner of conscience who was arrested for participating in the protest, turned 21 yesterday, July 21.

📷 Mindia Gabadze/Publika

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 3:24 AM

It’s hard to be going through total exposure of who’s who in society.

It’s hard to know that people closest to you also need guarantees and deadlines because they lack vision and discipline.

You feel like the last one standing.

Thankfully, though, there are thousands of “last ones” like you.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM

Germany:

The number of Russian sabotage attempts in Germany has doubled over the past year, according to Martina Rosenberg, the director of German military counterintelligence.

Is this the famous final wake-up call for Europe, or nah?

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 8:52 AM

Poland:

Poland has urged its citizens to urgently leave Russia by any means available.

www.gov.pl/web/rosja/in…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 12:26 PM

Back to Ukraine:

The cost:

The oldest civilian prisoner in Russian captivity, 74-year-old Oleksandr Markov, has died.

He was arrested in Enerhodar in May 2024, and in March 2025, the occupation authorities sentenced him to 14 years in prison for “treason.”

Captivity kills.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:59 AM

The reason:

💙💛 A Ukrainian soldier finds out the gender of his future child right in the trenches.

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 10:28 AM

Kyiv:

We’re soon going to find out whether Zelensky has fallen for all the hype about himself.

— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM

Several hundred people gathered in a square near the Presidential Administration in Kyiv in protest at parliament’s passing a law that essentially places two formerly independent anticorruption bodies under the control of the presidentially appointed Prosecutor General.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 1:20 PM

Crowd here looks closer to 1,000. Mainly younger people.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 1:48 PM

Maidan veteran told me this feels like the night before maidan

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— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM

something extra de-realizing when it’s a hot summer evening in your favorite city but then there’s a war and you’re standing with a poster protesting an insane bill, surrounded by ppl of your age, like will there ever be a generation of Ukrainians who don’t have to fucking fight to live normally

— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM

Sumy:

❗️While recovery teams are still working at the site of previous strikes, Sumy is once again being attacked by russian drones. Some areas of the city are without electricity following the attack.

— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 5:20 PM

One woman died, and several other people were injured in russian drone attack on Sumy today.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 11:10 AM

There was no quiet in Sumy last night, as russia attacked residential areas of the city with aerial bombs, injuring three civilians, including a child.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:13 AM

A resident filmed the moment of a Russian UAV attack on Sumy. According to the regional administration, there were two strikes — one near a healthcare facility and another near a children’s playground. Apartment buildings were also damaged. One of the UAVs was loaded with shrapnel.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 8:44 AM

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC IMAGERY!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

🚨 Russian strike hits school, hospital, and homes in Sumy, 1 killed.

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— UNITED24 Media (@united24media.com) July 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM

ALL CLEAR!!!!

Kramatorsk:

Morning in Ukraine. Russia dropped an aerial bomb on a residential building in Kramatorsk. A child was killed.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:03 AM

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC IMAGERY!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

Horror in Kramatorsk. Police try to bring back a boy killed by a russian bomb. They can’t.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 9:52 AM

ALL CLEAR!!!!

Odesa:

🇺🇦🔥 Tonight, our city of Odesa was subjected to yet another terrorist attack by russia. Once again, the targets were civilians and their property.
One woman was injured. A 25-story building, a supermarket, a sports hall, and an administrative building were damaged.

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:24 AM

💔 The pain today is sharp and lively, but after it, like after a long thunderstorm, morning will surely come, when children’s laughter will once again drown out the echoes of explosions, and the scent of lilacs will once again become the main note in the air of Odesa.

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM

Odesa after last night’s russian attack

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 7:59 AM

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC IMAGERY!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

In Odesa, on the Black Sea coast, men are cheerfully inspecting a UAV, likely a Russian Shahed.

All necessary safety measures are in place — swim trunks, flip-flops, and gloves.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM

ALL CLEAR!!!!

Kherson:

Kherson: the only Ukrainian regional capital fascist Russia managed to capture in 2022. The Kremlin declared it forever Russian – but Ukraine liberated it after 8 months of occupation. Now, the closest city to the front, it bears the brunt of fascist Russia’s malice and savagery.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 4:40 AM

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

A new Patron video:

@patron__dsns

Ситуація вигадана🤭#песпатрон

♬ illegal – haf

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

The situation is made up🤭#песпатрон

Open thread!

War for Ukraine Day 1,244: Crunch TimePost + Comments (13)

Interesting Read: ‘Their killings sparked a racial reckoning. Here’s what’s happened since’

by Anne Laurie| July 22, 20256:19 pm| 50 Comments

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

A former Louisville police officer convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a police raid in which she was killed was sentenced to 33 months in prison, according to news reports, a ruling that came after the Trump administration said that the case should not have been prosecuted.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) July 21, 2025 at 6:32 PM

From the Washington Post, “Nine people have been convicted of at least some charges in connection with the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery”: [gift link]

Five years ago, the high-profile killings of three Black Americans sparked a national reckoning over racial inequality and police conduct.

In the spring and summer of 2020, protesters flooded the streets demanding justice for the victims. Two of the deaths were caused by police officers, prompting calls for accountability and an end to police brutality and practices that protesters said were abusive.

To many Americans, the three unrelated cases were symptomatic of the unique threats and risks that face Black Americans. Ahmaud Arbery was chased by three armed White men in pickup trucks while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in February 2020 and was shot to death. Breonna Taylor was killed by a White police officer that March while in her bed in Louisville during a botched police raid. And George Floyd died that May in Minneapolis after being pinned to the ground under the knee of a White police officer as he gasped for air…

Hankison is one of nine people who have been convicted of at least some charges in connection with the three deaths. Many jurisdictions passed police-accountability laws after the killings of Floyd and Taylor, both of whose families sued and received large financial settlements. But some of those accountability measures have been rolled back, and the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has moved away from federal investigations of police.

Here’s a rundown of what has happened in the aftermath of all three killings:

Ahmaud Arbery, 25
Travis McMichael; his father, Greg McMichael; and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted on multiple charges in Arbery’s death, including state felony murder and federal hate crimes, and sentenced to life in prison. The McMichaels’ sentences included no possibility of parole…

Georgia lawmakers passed hate crimes legislation and repealed the citizen’s arrest law, which had been used to justify the 25-year-old’s shooting death.

Breonna Taylor, 26
Two former Louisville police officers have been convicted in connection with the botched police raid that led to Taylor’s death on March 13, 2020.

show full post on front page

Hankison was found guilty in November of violating Taylor’s civil rights. Jurors found he used excessive force by firing 10 shots through Taylor’s apartment window and door, both covered with shades and curtains. He was acquitted on a charge of violating the rights of three neighbors.

Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in August 2022, admitting that she helped falsify the search warrant used in the raid and lied to investigators to cover up the act. She is awaiting sentencing and is expected to testify against fellow Louisville officers Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, who were also charged with falsifying the search warrant affidavit. Their trial date has not yet been set. Goodlett faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison; it’s not clear whether the Justice Department will change its posture in her, Jaynes’s or Meany’s cases, as it did in Hankinson’s…

Louisville city officials reached a $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family, agreed to pay $2 million to Walker and approved “Breonna’s Law,” which bans local police from using no-knock warrants. In 2021, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed a bill into law limiting their use.

George Floyd, 46
Four former Minneapolis officers have been convicted in connection with Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death. Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, was sentenced to 22½ years on a state murder count and 20 years on a federal count of violating Floyd’s civil rights. He is serving the sentences concurrently as part of a federal plea deal and is in a federal prison in Texas, according to federal inmate records…

The city of Minneapolis in 2021 agreed to pay $27 million to Floyd’s family to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit. The city in 2023 reached a nearly $9 million settlement with two people who filed suits accusing Chauvin of pressing his knee into their necks during arrests years Floyd’s death.

After Floyd’s killing, lawmakers across the country passed hundreds of ordinances, including bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, although some were rolled back amid fear of increased crime. A national police reform bill failed in Congress. In Minneapolis, city officials funded alternatives to policing, such as behavioral crisis response teams, a community safety center and a community commission on police oversight…

Interesting Read: <em>‘Their killings sparked a racial reckoning. Here’s what’s happened since’</em>Post + Comments (50)

Open Thread: Lemonade

by Anne Laurie| July 22, 20253:58 pm| 127 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Trumpery

Trump Approval – White Americans:
February 7, 2025:
🟢 Approve: 61%
🔴 Disapprove: 39%
July 18, 2025:
🔴 Disapprove: 50%
🟢 Approve: 50%
– YouGov –

— Polling USA (@usapolling.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 10:51 AM

===

The GOP slipping into negatives in white approval is very very bad for them when it happens.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 11:08 AM

I read a science article recently saying that lemonade can be particularly rehydrating because its acid content encourages salivation. When it comes to stressful politics, sometimes mockery is the best refresher. Tom Nichols, at the Atlantic, on “Presidential Pettiness” [gift link]:

… From his first day as a candidate, Trump has appeared animated by anger, fear, and, most of all, pettiness, a small-minded vengefulness that takes the place of actual policy making. It taints the air in the executive branch like a forgotten bag of trash in a warm house on a summer day—even when you can’t see it, you know it’s there…

Trump’s second term has been a cavalcade of pettiness; his lieutenants have internalized the president’s culture of purges, retribution, and loyalty checks. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s insistence, for example, on renaming U.S. military bases after Confederate leaders has led to clumsy explanations about how the bases are now named for men who had names that are exactly like the 19th-century traitors’. This kind of explanation is the sort of thing that high-school teachers get from teenage smart alecks who think they’re being clever in class.

My colleague Shane Harris recently reported an appalling story about how former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sponsored a rescue dog to become a working animal at the CIA. He named the dog Susan, after his late wife, an animal lover who volunteered at a local shelter. Clapper was looking forward to attending Susan’s graduation ceremony at a CIA facility—but the agency, taking what it believed to be Trump’s lead, barred him from even setting foot on CIA property. (Trump despises Clapper, and blames him for what Trump calls “the Russia hoax,” among other slights against the president.) As Shane wrote: “The upshot is that an octogenarian Air Force retiree who spent half a century in his nation’s service was not allowed to attend a party for a dog he essentially donated to the government and named after his dead wife.”…

Now Trump’s attention seems to be on strong-arming the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians football and baseball teams into reclaiming their old names, the Redskins and the Indians. It’s possible that Trump is responding to some hidden groundswell of nostalgia. He’s also not the first president to get fired up about Washington’s home team: Obama was clearly interested in getting rid of the Redskins name, and undoing anything Obama did is something of a Trumpian rule.

More likely, however, Trump is focusing on this small issue in the hopes of picking a racist scab that will occupy the attention of his base—because much of that base right now is deeply angry about a supposed cover-up relating to Trump’s former friend and the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet again, when trying to throw red meat to the faithful, Trump picked something small and silly. Trump rules by appeals to grievances—rather than focusing on substantive national problems—because at least some of the MAGA movement revels in that kind of cruelty. This culture-warring behavior helped get him elected, and Trump’s voters have been willing to join him on these capricious roller-coaster rides for the first six months of his second term. But roller coasters don’t have actual destinations, and sooner or later, even the most dedicated riders will want to get off.

As a sidebar, more good news for Team Sane:

he'd be big mad about this but he's kinda busy atm having a meltdown about epstein.
he'll get back with u later.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM

Open Thread: LemonadePost + Comments (127)

Petty moves from a petty man.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

So very ready.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Of Budgets And Bad Faith (Open Thread)

Well, That Was Fun Open Thread

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Reasons for Hope

Late Night Open Thread: What Is Up With These Tech Billionaires?

War for Ukraine Day 1,244: Crunch Time

The Anti-Corruption Infrastructure Will Work, Only Without Russian Influence – It Needs to Be Cleared of That – Address by the President

Interesting Read: ‘Their killings sparked a racial reckoning. Here’s what’s happened since’

Open Thread: Lemonade