Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

Open Thread: Trump Vs. the WSJ

by Anne Laurie| July 21, 20254:47 pm| 110 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Trumpery

NEW: Judge Darrin Gayles, who will preside over Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal may be having deja vu: He presided over Trump's ill-fated 2023 lawsuit against Michael Cohen.
Trump ultimately dropped that case to avoid being deposed.
www.politico.com/news/2025/07…

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— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) July 21, 2025 at 12:52 PM

Politico, “Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal now has a judge — and it’s not Aileen Cannon”:

… Trump sued Cohen in April 2023 seeking a $500 million payout for claims that Cohen violated his attorney-client relationship with Trump and enriched himself off their relationship. Six months later, Trump abandoned the lawsuit, just before Cohen’s lawyers were set to question him under oath.

Trump’s new lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch seeks an even more audacious sum: $20 billion. Trump says the newspaper defamed him by reporting last week that Trump may have sent Epstein a suggestive birthday card more than two decades ago. Trump filed the lawsuit on Friday, and Gayles was assigned to preside over the case on Monday.

But as with the Cohen case, there’s an open question of whether Trump’s new lawsuit is more of a political stunt than a serious attempt to litigate the issue. If Trump pursues the case, he would open himself up to answering questions under oath about his connection to the disgraced financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Trump’s decision to file the case in southern Florida led to suspicions he was hoping to draw U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, his own appointee who helped him escape criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. But Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito — the same lawyer who led the ill-fated Cohen suit — filed the case in the Miami division of the federal judicial district of south Florida. Cannon sits in the Fort Pierce district, making it unlikely she would have been selected under the court’s assignment process.

Gayles, a George Washington University law graduate who made history as the first openly gay Black man appointed to the federal bench, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. One reason: His judicial background tilts bipartisan. He was appointed to state-court judgeships in Florida by two Republican governors, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, before Obama nominated him to his current role…

Speaking at an American Bar Association conference in March, Gayles lamented the decline in public confidence in the judiciary. He gave a few reasons for that decline, including the Supreme Court’s frequent reliance on its “shadow docket” to issue short-form emergency rulings. He also blamed the practice of litigants strategically filing lawsuits in certain districts in hopes of drawing favorable judges willing to issue nationwide injunctions. And he lamented expectations that judges will rule based on the president who appointed them.

“We all have to do better and push back. We are independent, we make decisions on the facts and the law,” he said.

Gayles also denounced attacks on the judiciary that go beyond mere criticism and put people in danger. “We’re not infallible. Sometimes we get it wrong because we deal with a lot of very difficult, complicated issues,” he said. “It’s the nature of the criticism. If it’s done in a way that subjects us to harm, that’s problematic.”…

Open Thread: Trump Vs. the WSJPost + Comments (110)

GOP Destroying Rural Health Care: If Only Dear Leader Knew!

by Anne Laurie| July 21, 202511:48 am| 313 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Politics, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

If only the Czar knew.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 1:16 AM

There’s a lot to unpick in this piece. It’s clear that most of the ‘surely Trump did not intend to do this to *us*, his loyalest supporters’ crap is kayfabe (not least from the WaPo), but then there’s the wishful thinking about possible replacements by people who desperately need accessible medical care… “A clinic blames its closing on Trump’s Medicaid cuts. Patients don’t buy it” [gift link];

CURTIS, Neb. — The only health clinic here is shutting down, and the hospital CEO has blamed Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation. But residents of Curtis — a one-stoplight town in deep-red farm country — aren’t buying that explanation.

“Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” April Roberts said as she oversaw lunch at the Curtis Area Senior Center.

The retirees trickling in for fried chicken and soft-serve ice cream will be hit hardest when the clinic closes this fall, Roberts fears. Seniors who sometimes go in multiple times a month to have blood drawn will have to drive 40 miles to the next nearest health center. Sick people, she worries, will put off checkups and get sicker…

Curtis has become an early test case of the politics of Trump’s agenda in rural America, where voters vulnerable to Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” law are reluctant to blame the president or congressional Republicans who approved it. Many people in Curtis have directed their frustration at their hospital system instead of their representatives in Washington.

Democrats and health care advocates are pointing to the town — population 806 in the last census — as a first casualty of Republicans’ health care overhaul. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and others have referred to the town on social media as a model of what’s to come for rural hospitals around the country. Close to half of rural hospitals nationwide already lose money, and analysts expect Trump’s tax and spending law to add more strain.

Community Hospital, the nonprofit that runs the clinic known as the Curtis Medical Center and a couple of other facilities in the region, plunged into the center of that national story when it announced on July 2 — one day before the bill’s passage — that a confluence of factors had made its Curtis outpost unsustainable. It cited years-long financial challenges, inflation and “anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid,” the public health insurance program for lower-income and disabled Americans.

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On Thursday morning, 73-year-old Sharon Jorgensen was scared that the clinic had already shut its doors: She called and couldn’t get someone to pick up. She needed a blood draw, so she went to the health center to see if someone was still there.

It was open, after all. And now staff had a date for the closure.

“We have until Sept. 30,” Jorgensen told another local, 63-year-old Jo Popp, on her way out of the small brick building. “I have to find a doctor. I don’t have a doctor!”

Popp would have to start taking a day off work for checkups, because of the drive. But she said she would try to follow the clinic’s nurse practitioner — one of three people on staff — wherever she went…

The clinic has been here longer than many people in town can remember, and people are struggling to make sense of the shutdown. The changes coming for Medicaid are complicated, and some won’t take effect for years, which makes the timing even harder for residents to understand.

Many know that Trump’s bill will impose work requirements for Medicaid recipients, which seems reasonable to them, and some think — inaccurately — that the legislation was designed to end Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants. (An earlier version of the bill penalized states for using their own funds — separate from Medicaid — to insure the undocumented; that provision was stripped from the final bill on a technicality.)

Community Hospital was already losing money, and officials said they are trying to make sure they remain financially viable for the 30,000 people they serve throughout their facilities. But the timing of their decision to announce the Curtis closure has stoked suspicions in town, leaving some residents convinced their health provider is using the president as a scapegoat…

Rural health care facilities run on thin margins to serve small communities in far-flung locations. And they tend to have more patients on Medicaid, many of them self-employed farmers, small-business owners and seasonal workers more likely to need public insurance. Hospital groups and executives have warned that some rural hospitals that long operated at a loss won’t be able to stay open much longer, now that the Medicaid cuts have been voted in…

The idea that Republicans cleverly delayed all the pain in their megabill until after the election is untrue. As @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social shows, 1/3 of the Medicaid cuts are in place today. Several hospitals have closed programs, cut staff, or shut down. The pain is here.
Important story:

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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 9:47 AM

GOP Destroying Rural Health Care: <em>If Only Dear Leader Knew!</em>Post + Comments (313)

Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker| July 21, 20259:10 am| 178 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment

Is this the week when the Epstein story starts to go away? The internal logic of conspiracy theories suggests not. Bondi, Patel, Bongino, et al., spent months on the campaign trail and their early days in power tossing big, bloody chunks of red meat to the conspiracy kook base. Now, having failed to deliver, they look meat-adjacent to that same audience.

The scandal’s longevity probably depends in part on more salacious details dribbling out. So far, there’s the WSJ report on Trump’s contribution to the pervy birthday book and the People story about Trump and Epstein illegally hosting young women at a Trump-owned casino.

More is almost guaranteed to come out, thanks in part to the administration’s ham-handed attempts to control the story, e.g., the dodgy promise to release a redacted version of the grand jury transcripts, which will only raise more questions for a future news cycle, and the exposure of Epstein files to hundreds if not a thousand-plus government employees assigned to comb through material to flag any mention of Trump.

The clouds of squid ink Trump and minions are emitting in an attempt to seize control of the news cycle don’t appear to be effective so far. We’ll see.

***

Have y’all watched “Adolescence” on Netflix? After hearing a lot about it from friends, I finally did. It’s a four-part series and incredibly disturbing. The acting was amazing.

Not for the first time, it made me grateful that my childhood and young adulthood occurred before social media came on the scene. Not just so there’s no record of my antics at the Purple Porpoise in Gainesville, Florida in 1988, but because my age cohort and I weren’t so publicly and irrevocably exposed to all of the judgments of our peers in real time. That does a psychological number on a person!

I parented a teen after the advent of social media, so I have some clue about the effects, but even then, I understood it was only a surface understanding. It felt like there was a language the “digital natives” spoke that completely eluded me, even when I tried to understand it. At the time, I thought that was normal enough — my parents didn’t understand the world I grew up in either, not in the same way I did.

In retrospect, I believe the difference is much more profound than I realized. The corporate manipulation my generation (and those that preceded it) endured was child’s play compared with the methods used by the current crop of frog-faced oligarchs to exploit us now. Dog help us all if they succeed in deploying AI “friends” to address the “loneliness crisis” tied to their products.

I feel like an old cloud-shouter for even bringing it up, but this is some scary shit, y’all. Also, if elected your benevolent queen for a day, my first order of business would be to make an example of people like Andrew Tate on live TV, perhaps using a panini press.

Open thread.

Odds & Ends (Open Thread)Post + Comments (178)

Late Night Weekend Epstein Update Open Thread: Bring On the MAGA Revolt

by Anne Laurie| July 21, 202512:38 am| 91 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

In terms of actual political signs and repercussions, the most striking aspect of the WSJ thing to me is that the story being published at all is another honking signal that Trump is weak

— Nute (@nutedawn.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 10:20 AM

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Term 1 Trump was probably the weakest president in the modern history of the office. His people invested a *lot* of time and energy this time trying to project him as strong, with some success. This really takes an absolute sledgehammer to that premise though

— Nute (@nutedawn.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 10:22 AM

From Wired, “Bring On the MAGA Revolt”:

… Since attorney general Pam Bondi released a memo declaring there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” from the Epstein case files, the fallout has left Republicans apoplectic.

Trump, after promising his supporters for years that he would release the list and information about what really happened when Epstein died in a Manhattan detention facility in 2019, is now dealing with something far greater than a failed campaign promise: It’s a MAGA revolt.

In recent days, members of Trump’s core base, from influencers to activists, have turned on the administration. Laura Loomer—a conspiracy theorist with a direct line to the president—called on “Pam Blondi” to resign. “Someone needs to be fired for this,” Loomer wrote to her 1.7 million followers. Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate conspiracy theorist, called for a formal commission. “I will not rest until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files,” he said at the Turning Point USA conference over the weekend, a major meetup for younger members of the base.

While Trump and his staff may publicly insist there’s nothing to see here and that there is no problem with his core base of supporters, Trump’s advisers and Republican strategists believe otherwise.

A Trump adviser, who requested anonymity to discuss their thoughts and internal deliberations about this, said there’s a legitimate fear in the president’s inner circle that the Epstein revolt among the base could create “a headwind going into the midterms.”

“Nothing that we do is going to satisfy the base,” they tell WIRED. “Even the best-case scenario, an unsatisfactory answer. So by putting wind in the Epstein sails from the beginning, we have created this problem for ourselves. An own goal, if you will. Which we can’t undo.”…

We cannot, we MUST NOT forget that, behind this very public discussion are real women, human beings, who suffered incredible pain because of Epstein and his buddies, and they suffered more pain trying to make sure the public knew what he did. We cannot forget about them in this online discourse.

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— AltSSA (@altssa.altgov.info) July 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM

Rolling Stone, “Inside Trump’s Frantic, Failing Mission to Crush the Epstein ‘MAGA Rebellion’”:

It was a week from hell that nearly broke Donald Trump’s administration. By the time it was over, the president had sustained more blowback and political damage for his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files than he did for bombing Iran last month.

“The week was a big kick in the balls,” a senior administration official bluntly notes. “It was a lot to deal with, and there were many emotions.”

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The end is nowhere in sight, as the president’s supporters — from MAGA influencers and Republican politicians — continue to raise hell over the Justice Department’s memo announcing the administration’s belief that Epstein killed himself in prison, and that it was effectively closing its case on the convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker. The melodrama has clearly eaten away at the notoriously mercurial president’s patience. “They won’t shut the fuck up about it,” Trump privately vented — referring to conservative influencers and media types lashing out over the Epstein memo — according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Anyone who knew anything about Trump’s base could have predicted the still-ongoing tumult. Nevertheless, Trump has managed to power-walk himself backward into a worst-of-both-worlds scenario in which his seemingly ad hoc crisis management has only made things worse — despite his administration’s best efforts to put out the fire…

But one thing many Trump advisers can agree on is that the president isn’t doing himself any favors with his personal communications blitz to put the Epstein business to rest.

Over the weekend, after the president introduced his since-repeated claim that the Epstein files were authored by “Obama, Crooked Hillary,” and other Trump enemies, and therefore it should not be a matter of concern to his base, one Trump administration official conceded: “He is making it very hard for some of his biggest supporters to not think that maybe he really is in the Epstein files.” …

FBI agents assigned earlier this year to review investigative files in the criminal case against notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were instructed to “flag” any documents that mentioned President Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Durbin said Friday.

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— Joe Sonka 😐 (@joesonka.lpm.org) July 18, 2025 at 1:12 PM

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Reup: Congratulations to Pam Bondi for creating an additional 1,000 people who know what is in the Epstein files.
Really superb work!
www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/18/p…

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— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 8:41 PM

Charlie Warzel, at the Atlantic — “Nobody (Not Even Trump) Can Control the Epstein Story”: [gift link]

… Whatever happens next will be a defining moment for Trump. However strange it seems to measure the Epstein conspiracy theory against, say, the president’s approach to tariffs or his bombing of Iran, this is the stuff Trump’s mythology is based on. Trump has positioned himself as an outsider who shares enemies with his base—namely, elites. It hasn’t mattered to his supporters that Trump is an elite himself; the appeal, and the narrative, is that Trump wants to punish the same people his supporters loathe. In appearing to bury the Epstein list—which, again, may or may not exist—by calling it a “hoax” and pinning it to his “PAST supporters,” Trump is pushing up against the limits of this narrative, as well as his ability to command attention and use it to bend the world to his whims. If Trump and the MAGA media ecosystem can successfully spin the Epstein debacle into a conspiracy theory that helps them, or if they can make the story stop, it would suggest once again that his grip on the party and its base is total: an impenetrable force field no bit of reality can puncture.

What if they fail? Maybe this is what it looks like when Trump loses his vise grip on his supporters. But this is late-stage conspiracism: a noxious mix of real events and twisted theories egged on by shameless attention merchants and fed into an insatiable internet until it spins out of control, transcending fact and fiction and becoming unstoppable. What if the desire for answers isn’t about justice, truth, or even politics at all? What if the Epstein dead-enders could never be satisfied, even by the publication of a client list? What if they would continue to allege further cover-ups, that the conspiracy was still alive?

All the anger may just be the result of an addiction to an information ecosystem that has conditioned people to expect a right to “evidence” that justifies any belief they might hold. To believe such a thing would suggest that the epistemic rot, reality decay, and culture of conspiracism are not by-products of a specific politician or political movement, but something deeper—something intrinsic to the platforms, culture, and systems that define our lives. It would suggest that the fever will never break.

Earlier this week, I wrote about Epstein, making a timeline for my own clarity. It was originally appended to the piece but was too long. So here it is on my personal site, if useful. pbump.net/timeline.html

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— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) July 18, 2025 at 7:02 PM

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Release the Epstein files now!

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— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 2:11 PM

Sharing is caring! — In SFGate, Drew Magary has a wonderful, succinct summary — “Jeez, I wonder why Trump won’t release the Epstein files”:

When Donald Trump doesn’t want to talk about something, that usually means that we need to talk about it. That’s especially true of the president’s most recently adopted third rail, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump would really like everyone to shut the f—k up about his old friend and has communicated those feelings with that classic Trump subtlety that we all know and adore:

“STOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!!”

But why does Trump suddenly have a bug up his ass about Jeffrey Epstein? More important, why should you pay attention to THIS Trump scandal when every other Trump scandal comes and goes like a summer afternoon rainfall? Why shouldn’t you just go eat a Pop-Tart instead, given that you’ll likely accomplish just as much in doing so?

Well dear reader, I’ve taken it upon myself to gather up what credible intel I can find on the Epstein matter, and now deem it worth your time. I’ve even gone to the trouble to present my findings to you in that classically digestible format: the FAQ. So sit down, grab that Pop-Tart (brown sugar would be my rec) and get ready to throw it back up.

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
A former teacher who switched to a career in finance at Bear Stearns. From there, Epstein became a boutique financial consultant (and likely inside trader) who only accepted billionaires as clients. But Epstein’s rise among society’s elite can likely be owed to far darker forces than market manipulation. In 2019, he was charged by the feds with trafficking underage girls with the intent of sexually assaulting them. Epstein also pimped victims out to some of his most powerful friends and clients. Perhaps in tribute to Diddy, Epstein hosted these group assault “parties” in lavish settings, including in Manhattan, in Palm Beach, aboard a private jet that went by the nickname the Lolita Express and on his own private island. While Epstein’s closest associate and lover Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein run this illicit sex ring and luring in victims, the man himself was never convicted in that matter. This is because he died in his jail cell while awaiting trial. Authorities ruled the death a suicide…

Are we moving on?
We are not, and we strangely have Trump’s supporters to thank for that. After breaking with Trump on his Big Butthole Bill, Elon Musk straight up tweeted that Trump’s name was on Epstein’s client list. After Bondi buried the files, Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, was so pissed that he ghosted work the next day and then got into a big ol’ row with Bondi about it when he finally showed back up at the office. Bongino’s direct boss, FBI Director Kash Patel, was rumored to ponder submitting his resignation over the matter (he didn’t, eventually falling in line). GOP members of Congress are pissed at Trump, with House Speaker Mike Johnson going so far as to call for their release, although in the squirreliest, most Mike Johnson manner possible:

“But at the same time Johnson publicly called for the files to be released, he opposed a procedural motion advanced on Tuesday by Democrats that would have set up a House vote to release them,” the Washington Post reported.

Fun times for Magic Mike www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/u…

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— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM

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You know the wheels are coming off of the Epstein files scandal when the X bots are confused.
A MAGA bot network on X is divided over the Trump-Epstein backlash www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne…

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— Ann Werner Writes Great Novels (@mswerner.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 12:35 PM

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@raskin.house.gov on why Biden didn't release the Epstein files: "The DOJ under Biden brought the prosecution against Maxwell, so obviously Biden wasn't trying to suppress anything. The GOP stories make no sense. They say Biden & Obama made this stuff up about Trump but then they never released it?"

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— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 10:49 PM

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Do not give up prematurely on the idea of hounding him from office

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— Robert Black (@hurricanexyz.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 1:05 PM

Late Night Weekend Epstein Update Open Thread: Bring On the MAGA RevoltPost + Comments (91)

Sunday Night Open Thread

by John Cole| July 20, 20258:10 pm| 60 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Spent another day working on the soccer fields for the camp starting, had a little dinner, and I am pooped. I am absolutely not up on the news at all- have the Republicans figured out a way to blame Trump’s behavior re: Epstein on Democrats yet? And if so, who was the willing journalist to peddle it- Tapper?

I have been very much enjoying my back yard this summer. Because of all the rain and my laziness, it is completely overgrown and I am totally cook with it, because the entire place is just teeming with life. Oddly enough, some of the overgrown stuff are wildflowers I planted years ago that never did anything until this year. In one gaze today, I saw multiple birds, two rabbits, a squirrel, two chipmunks, a groundhog in near his hole near the abandoned property next door, and another rabbit in between those properties. On top of all that, I had hummingbirds in my gladiolas, which always makes me happy.

Oddly enough, I have seen no action from the bulbs that HinTN or Mike and others sent me. Maybe they need another year.

I have two doctors appointments tomorrow- my annual physical and an eye doctor visit, and I have really grown to hate going to the doctor. I mean it sucks for all the obvious reasons, but now that I am in my mid 50’s, it’s never good news. Like, the best case scenario is “Everything is just as shitty as last year or slightly less shitty. Good Job!” But more often than not, it’s time for them to tell me which bulkhead on this sinking ship we need to close off now.

It’s just grim, always.

I know he is cancelled, but this is just so accurate:

“That’s just something you do now until you and your shitty ankle die” has resonated since my second shoulder surgery.

On the upside, I am excited to get a referral to an ENT.

Alright, I am tapping out.

Sunday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (60)

War for Ukraine Day 1,242: Russia Has Begun the Next Wave of Strikes As Night Turns to Morning in Ukraine

by Adam L Silverman| July 20, 20257:44 pm| 10 Comments

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

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The russian drones continue setting Ukrainian homes on fire. The russian military keeps burning people alive in their sleep, also targeting first responders rushing to save lives.

This is what hell looks like when the good choose not to stop — but to appease and reward — the evil.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 10:08 AM

Monitoring channels report that russia has launched drones from 6 different directions. We expect over 500 drones to attack Ukraine tonight ‼️

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 1:15 PM

Air raid alerts are up for all of western and central Ukraine at 2:00 AM local time in Ukraine/7:00 PM EDT, as Russian drone swarms and ballistic missiles seek their civilian Ukrainian targets.

Shahed drones, TU-95ms bombers, MIGs airborne. A sleepless night ahead again.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 5:46 PM

Kyiv metro stations right now‼️ People are hiding from russian drones and missiles.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM

I expect the alerts will go up over the rest of Ukraine in short order.

There is no address from President Zelenskyy today, so we’ll go right to Georgia after the jump.

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Georgia:

Day 235 of #GeorgiaProtests

By now, I’m absolutely sure that nothing will ever stop us until victory. And continuity has likely been the key factor here.

📷 Zuka Khidasheli / Radio Liberty

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM

Three important internal developments in the Georgian resistance in the last several weeks:

1. First contours of a political alternative that can channel the protests, and restored public appreciation of political parties leading & addressing rallies; 1/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM

2. The daily consistency of protests for 235 days now ensured cold-blooded patience/determination and the basal discipline of the Georgian society. We no longer hear “if I come out today, then what, what are you offering me” from those people who’d only come out at larger rallies announced; 2/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM

3. The numbers are still very much there too – in winter, in summer, in freezing rain, in hellish heat.

#GeorgiaProtests 3/3.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM

Back to Ukraine.

“Children are taught in russian, using the ru curriculum and textbooks

One such book portrays Ukraine as little more than a Western invention created to spite russia, and argues that human civilisation would have possibly ended had 🇷🇺 not invaded 🇺🇦 ”

www.bbc.com/news/article…

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 20, 2025 at 9:29 AM

From The BBC:

Being taught to love Russia starts early for children in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine.

At a nursery school in Luhansk, more than 70 youngsters line up holding a long black and orange Russian military banner in the shape of a letter Z, the symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Across the city, seven little girls jump up and down and gesture in front of a Russian flag to the brash song “I am Russian” that blares out of loudspeakers. When the music stops they shout out together: “I’m Russian.”

In an occupied town called Anthracite, nursery school children have made trench candles and blankets for Russian soldiers.

It is all part of a campaign that seeks not only to erase Ukraine’s national identity, but also turn young Ukrainians against their own country.

To do that with children you need teachers, and as many Ukrainian teachers have fled, the government in Moscow has begun offering lump-sums of 2m roubles (£18,500) to Russian teaching staff willing to relocate to occupied parts of Ukraine.

The biggest and most powerful Russian organisation involved with children is Yunarmia (Youth Army).

Affiliated with the Russian defence ministry, it accepts members as young as eight. It operates across all of Russia, and now has branches in occupied areas of Ukraine.

“We’re providing children with some basic skills which they’ll find useful should they decide to join military service,” says Fidail Bikbulatov, who runs Yunarmia’s section in occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine.

Bikbulatov was deployed from Russia’s Bashkortostan, where he headed the “Youth Guard” division of the ruling United Russia party.

The EU has sanctioned Yunarmia, and Bikbulatov personally, for “the militarisation of Ukrainian children”. Yunarmia is also targeted by UK sanctions for being part of Russia’s campaign of “brainwashing” Ukrainian children.

Yunarmia is not alone. Other Russian state-sponsored organisations that have moved in include “Movement of the First Ones” and “Warrior”, a network of centres for “the military and athletic training, and patriotic education of young people” set up on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders.

These groups organise competitions such as Zarnitsa games rooted in the Soviet era, where Ukrainian children are required to demonstrate “general military literacy, knowledge of Russian statehood and military history, firearms firing skills”.

As the children progress through the education system, they are taught in Russian, using the Russian curriculum and textbooks that justify Russia’s war against Ukraine.

One such book portrays Ukraine as little more than a Western invention created to spite Russia, and argues that human civilisation would have possibly ended had Russia not invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Lisa, who attended a school in occupied Donetsk, says students there were forced to take part in events celebrating Russia and the USSR.

“When they were preparing a parade of some sort, I, the whole of my class and the whole of my year were forced to attend every weekend and train. We had to hold posters. I could not say no, it wasn’t my choice. I was told I had to do it to graduate,” Lisa says.

“Every time lessons started, our teacher made us stand up, put a hand on our hearts and listen to the Russian anthem, which she made us learn by heart, too.”

Lisa now lives in the US and has been posting about her experiences on TikTok.

GOP (Possibly) in Disarray Open Thread: Who’d Be A Senator Now?

by Anne Laurie| July 20, 20253:33 pm| 126 Comments

This post is in: Local Races, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics

Since nobody here is liable to have a subscription to Puck, figured I’d share a recent story they chose to title “The Senate’s Midterm Paralysis Problem” [gift link]:

In Washington, midsummer marks the unofficial start of the next year’s midterm election cycle—peak persuasion season for party leadership, donors, and strategists to lock in the incumbents and fresh recruits they’ll want on the congressional battle map the following November. This year, however, everything feels especially up for grabs. In the Senate, retirement rumors are flying as Republicans sweet-talk their colleagues to hold strong in must-protect seats. Meanwhile, Democrats are working valiantly to persuade potential high-profile candidates to run—hoping to defend their numbers and expand the Senate map.

For Republicans, of course, the biggest wild card is Trump, himself. As in past years, the president is wielding his endorsement power to extract maximum leverage over the field, ensuring candidates don’t stray from his MAGA agenda. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, for one, has already elected to retire in 2026 rather than suffer the indignity of a Trump-backed primary challenger. But the contingent nature of Trump’s support has also injected uncertainty into the party’s 2026 planning in multiple states.

In Louisiana, I’m told that Trump is unlikely to endorse Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to impeach the president in 2021 and has done little since then to make amends privately, even though he’s voted in lockstep with Trump’s agenda. For now, however, Trump is unlikely to endorse a primary challenger against Cassidy either—he understands that angering more senators won’t help him on the Hill, especially when he already has skeptics in Tillis, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins.

Meanwhile, Trump has made it clear that he will not endorse any House member from a remotely competitive district who is giving up a seat to run for statewide office, I’m told by multiple sources. That could complicate things in Michigan, where Rep. Bill Huizenga is looking to jump chambers, and in Kentucky, where I hear Trump isn’t thrilled that Rep. Andy Barr, who occupies a safe seat that Trump won by 11 points, is running to replace McConnell. (Rep. Mike Lawler, who had considered a run for governor in New York, is now telling people that he’s going to stay in the House.)…

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Among the most contentious battles will be the Republican primary in Texas, where Trump has yet to decide whether to support incumbent Senator John Cornyn or back far-right firebrand Ken Paxton, whose wife recently revealed she is divorcing him on biblical grounds. At an Oval Office meeting last week with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the staff of the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC to elect Senate Republicans, White House aides said that Cornyn will not get an endorsement unless it’s clear he can wage a competitive race, as was first reported by Punchbowl. Cornyn, a more moderate figure who cosponsored a bipartisan gun safety law after the Uvalde school shooting massacre, is considered a stronger general election candidate but is unloved by the MAGA base, and Trump sees no upside in angering those voters unless he absolutely has to. The Senate Republican apparatus remains firmly behind Cornyn. The Senate Leadership Fund is launching television and digital ads in the state to promote Cornyn’s vote in favor of Trump’s agenda, including the One Big Beautiful Bill…

The Senate map still favors Republicans in 2026, but a few recent developments haven’t broken their way. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu have both declined to run for the Senate, making those races much more difficult for Republicans to pick up. And North Carolina, where Tillis is retiring, could be a toss-up—even if many Republicans think a MAGA-approved candidate will perform better.

Among the variables plaguing the North Carolina race is whether Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, decides to enter the fray. A native Tar Heel, her candidacy would almost certainly clear the field, but most Republican sources I speak to believe she’s unlikely to run. For one, she’d have to actually move to North Carolina from Florida. She has also decided against running for Senate in both Florida and North Carolina in the past…

In the meantime, Republicans are doing everything they can to induce Collins to hold her seat. Her allies pointed me to a new super PAC supporting her that has raised $5 million. Her personal fundraising numbers, due on Tuesday, will also provide an important signal. “I will paint her house, wash her dishes, and mow her lawn if that means she runs for Senate,” a G.O.P. operative who works with Senate candidates told me, arguing that Collins is the only Republican that can win Maine. That’s why Trump is continuing to let her vote how she wants and isn’t giving her grief for when she votes against him. The smart money says she runs: Collins may be 72 years old, but she still loves the job. Why give Democrats the satisfaction of retiring?

Things may play out differently in Iowa, where rumors had swirled for months that Senator Joni Ernst won’t run for reelection. More recently, Ernst named a campaign manager, Bryan Kraber, who announced that she will do her “roast and ride” tour of Iowa this fall. But her heart doesn’t seem in it, Republicans have observed. Colleagues are begging her to run, I’m told, but those same colleagues have screwed her over repeatedly—passing her over for a leadership position and bullying her into supporting Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, despite her deep reservations about the sexual assault allegations against him…

GOP (Possibly) in Disarray Open Thread: Who’d Be A Senator Now?Post + Comments (126)

Quinerly on Tuesday Morning Open Thread: One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy (Nov 11, 2025 @ 7:34pm)

Jackie on Open Thread: Get the Tissues (Nov 11, 2025 @ 7:34pm)

bbleh on Together We Can Be a Force for Good (Nov 11, 2025 @ 7:33pm)

Geminid on Together We Can Be a Force for Good (Nov 11, 2025 @ 7:32pm)

RevRick on Together We Can Be a Force for Good (Nov 11, 2025 @ 7:30pm)

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

People are complicated. Love is not.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Petty moves from a petty man.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I really should read my own blog.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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GOP (Possibly) in Disarray Open Thread: Who’d Be A Senator Now?