Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

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

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Bark louder, little dog.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

When I was faster i was always behind.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

This fight is for everything.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The revolution will be supervised.

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

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,211: Another Drone Swarm in the Small Hours

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Russia has unleashed more drone swarms on Kharkiv tonight/this morning.

❗️Russia is attacking residential areas of Kharkiv with drones!

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM

Explosion in Kharkiv ‼️ it’s the second Russian drone attack on our city tonight.

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM

One of the Russian drones that struck Kharkiv tonight ignited the roof of the apartment building

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM

These drone strikes follow Russia spending much of the day attacking Kharkiv with drones.

They also hit more civilian facilities in Odesa this evening:

Apartment building is on fire following the russian attack on Odesa

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 7:39 PM

President Zelenskyy returned from the G-7 meeting. He went to pay his respects to those murdered by the Russian strikes on civilian residences in Kyiv on 17 June.

After returning from Canada, Zelensky paid tribute to the victims at the site of the strike on the apartment building in Kyiv.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 5:08 AM

President Honors the Memory of Those Killed in the Russian Attack on Kyiv

19 June 2025 – 11:20

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy honored the memory of those killed at the site of the Russian attack on a residential building in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv.

The Head of State laid flowers at the destroyed section of the apartment building that was struck by Russia in the early hours of June 17. The attack claimed the lives of 23 residents.

Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko reported to the President that search operations at the site had been completed. More than 400 rescue workers and over 200 units of equipment were involved in responding to the aftermath of the attack. According to him, 500 residents have submitted applications to document the loss of their homes.

Head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, reported that more than 1,000 people had sought assistance from the district headquarters. All necessary support is being provided to them.

Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration – Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, Oleksii Kuleba, reported that technical inspections of the building are currently underway. If a full reconstruction proves impossible, residents will receive compensation for the destroyed housing.

That night, Russia launched a combined massive strike against Ukraine, using 440 Shahed drones and 32 missiles. In Kyiv, buildings in eight districts were damaged as a result of the attack.

The strike killed 28 people in the capital. 142 residents were affected, including six children.

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

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Open Thread: One Step Forward, Half-Steps Backwards…

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We will never let the extremists cancel our history.

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— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 9:41 AM

James Brown's Say It Loud (I'm Black & I'm Proud)(1968). His record company wanted him to change it to "I'm Black BUT I'm proud," but James refused, knowing that changing "AND" to "but" destroyed its meaning. Also, James said, "That song cost me a lot of my crossover audience…I don't regret it."

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— Black Music Project (@blackmusicproject.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 1:56 PM


===

At a Juneteenth sleepover, campers commune with ancestors
A South Carolina park was once a town founded by freed people. Now visitors sleep there to get close to history www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/…

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— Carceral Abolition (@carceralabolition.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 2:54 AM


===

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Open Thread: ICE Melting Down, Just A Bit?

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fwiw, tea leaves of doing this imho is that ICE knows that denying members entrance to facilities is a losing issue for them.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 10:48 AM

Scrabbling for figleaves…

… Under the annual appropriations act, lawmakers are allowed to enter any DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” to inspect them as part of their oversight duties. The act outlines that they are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”

The agency’s new memo also seeks to differentiate ICE field offices from detention facilities, noting that “ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities” and therefore do not fall under the appropriations act provision.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called the move “unprecedented” and an “affront to the Constitution and Federal law.”

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even U.S. citizens – for days at a time. They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie,” Thompson said in a statement.

Previous DHS language for lawmaker visitations said “ICE will comply with the law and accommodate Members seeking to visit/tour an ICE detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight.”

The recent memo now says the department “will make every effort” to comply with the law and accommodate members, while listing circumstances like “operational conditions, security posture, etc,” that could impact the time of entry…

I mean this is continuing confirmation, imho, that the massive public pressure campaign is tanking morale internally.
Homan, et. al doing these sort of appeals to humanity really gives away the game a bit.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 1:58 PM

You can see the ICE agents in their minivans then the LAPD cars in the back appearing to block the Dodger Stadium parking lot entrance.
When I asked an LAPD officer if they are blocking ICE from entering the parking lot she said “put it this way. The Dodgers don’t want them coming in.”

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— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 2:56 PM

Cops not letting ICE in? Perfect.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 3:10 PM

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Excellent Read:‘The Struggle to Fulfill Juneteenth’s Promise and Reckon with Its History’

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“The Juneteenth story is much more than one day, or one city. But this is where it started.”
From @josephinelee.bsky.social in 2024: Join us in getting to know the Galveston icon they call "Professor Juneteenth" …

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— Texas Observer (@texasobserver.org) June 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM

Around Galveston, Sam Collins III is better known as Professor Juneteenth.

For the past 20 years, Collins, 53, has devoted his life to educating the public about Juneteenth—the commemoration of June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger and his troops landed on the island. More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Texas was then the last bastion of legal slavery. Granger read the orders freeing 250,000 enslaved Texans across Galveston, before traveling inland to proclaim freedom and the promise of “absolute equality”at plantations across Texas.

Today, Galveston is an open classroom for Juneteenth’s legacy, largely due to Collins’ efforts. He’s organized community members to get Juneteenth-related historical markers, murals, statutes, and public exhibits established. Collins worked together with Fort Worth’s Opal Lee to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021. But he says that his work, as well as the promise of Juneteenth, is unfinished. He’s now trying to expand the story of Juneteenth’s legacy and bring it back home to Galveston with plans for an International Museum of Juneteenth in the port city. (A museum is also in the works up in Cowtown.)…

As a child, Collins attended parades and festivals in Galveston and nearby in his smaller hometown of Hitchcock. Celebrations were about family and community, but it wasn’t until he was older that Collins started learning more about the holiday’s history. In 2006, he gathered what he found and hosted his own Juneteenth celebration at the Stringfellow estate in Hitchcock, a former plantation that Collins had purchased and repurposed as a family home and space to present Black history. Six-hundred people attended that celebration.

That same year, Ronald Meyers, a Mississippi doctor who had since 1999 been championing a federal Juneteenth holiday, reached out to Collins for help. Through the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, Meyers worked with Opal Lee, who became the foremost representative of the national campaign, and Collins. Meyers died in 2018, before he saw his work realized. “He drove all across the country and sacrificed a lot of his personal resources, but his role in the movement has been forgotten,” Collins said.

It’s why Collins makes sure to mention Meyers and others who have fought for Juneteenth recognition. As early as 1879, Robert Evans, a Black state legislator from Navasota tried to get Juneteenth recognized as a state holiday. But that was two years after the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction and, along with it, the promises to protect the rights of Black Americans. It wouldn’t be until about a hundred years later, following the civil rights movement, that calls to fulfill the promise of “absolute equality” would be collectively renewed. Juneteenth finally became a Texas holiday in 1980.

Despite the work of Meyers, Lee, and Collins, among others, it would be the 2020 mass protests against racist police brutality that spread following the murder of George Floyd that would push the federal government to recognize Juneteenth. “That started a social movement, an uprising and awakening of consciousness. The National Juneteenth Observance Foundation had been trying to get recognition for 26 years, but no one was paying attention, until after what happened to George Floyd,” Collins said. After more than 150 years, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth bill in June 2021…

Quoting Frederick Douglass, Collins said that it’s an ongoing struggle to achieve “absolute equality,” just as it’s an ongoing struggle for Americans to reckon with their past. “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground,” Douglass said at a speech in Canandaigua, New York, in 1857. “They want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.”

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Simon Rosenberg Sees Emerging Opportunity, and I Make Some Lists

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Simon Rosenberg had a lot to say on his substack this morning, and I have turned some of that into lists that might be useful as we communicate with people who might not be as politically engaged as we are.

Simon Rosenberg sees what’s happening as an emerging opportunity.

According to Rosenberg, in recent days we’ve all been reminded that:

  • sometimes the wheels on the bus go round and round,
  • and sometimes they come flying off.
  • Trump has always been a ridiculous and cartoonish figure.
  • The Emperor never had any clothes.
  • He was always the old man behind the curtain and never the Wizard.

I just get the sense now that the buffoonish, dangerous, sundowning man we all see is now being seen by far more people.

A door is opening, people are waking up to the awful reality of Trump and not the right wing noise machine version of him.

You never know in politics what is the trigger that causes things to change, for new understandings to emerge. I have always believed that there was a limit to how fast some of his weak supporters would have buyer’s remorse, and come to realize they got played. In fact I’ve been surprised how quickly and consequentially his numbers have come down. Down, however they are, even on what was his greatest strength – immigration.

Which is why we need to keep working as hard as we can people. He is stumbling, failing, getting panicky, looking weak and pathetic.

An opportunity is emerging for us and we need to seize it.

That was from yesterday.  This is Rosenberg today.

I made some lists from what Rosenberg wrote, because as text it was overwhelming and my eyes were glazing over.

What Trump Has Done

A quick summary – other than breaking a lot of things and enriching himself Trump has very few wins he can point to right now.

  • His economic strategy is slowing the global and US economies,
  • has caused our credit rating to be downgraded,
  • threatens the fiscal integrity of the United States,
  • raises prices on everyone and does not cutting them,
  • and will cause tens of millions to lose their health insurance,
  • tens of millions more will see their health care costs rise
  • and the overall health care system will be dramatically weakened.

What Trump Promised

  • He promised to end the Ukraine war,
  • bring peace to the Middle East,
  • end the Gaza conflict,
  • 90 trade deals in 90 days,
  • rip Greenland from Europe,
  • make Canada the 51st state

In reality, none of that has happened.

  • global leaders are not bending the knee
  • and some are even mocking him to his face while visiting the Oval Office.
  • He keeps losing in court again and again, badly,
  • and judges are growing far more ambitious in their rulings.
  • He had to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home.
  • His bestie Elon tore into him, trashed his terrible budget bill
  • and [Elon]called on him to be replaced as President.
  • No one came to his birthday parade.
  • Rs keep losing and underperforming in elections.
  • His cowardice and indecision has become a global meme.
  • His budget bill is wildly unpopular, and struggling to get through Congress.
  • What may be the largest protest movement in American history has formed against him.
  • It has become impossible to hide the buffoonery of his Star Wars bar cabinet.
  • He looks terrible.
  • His ties are longer, his pants higher and his Truths more unhinged.
  • He fled the G7 on Monday.
  • Respected elected officials in America are getting arrested, charged, assaulted and assasinated.
  • Marines are on the streets of an American city.

Everything he is doing appears designed to make China and Russia – not America – great again.

The circle of defiance to Trump’s agenda of sabotage, plunder and betrayal keeps growing and growing. The world, the American people and reality itself just aren’t bending the knee. Our democracy is proving more resilient and our people more patriotic than he expected. This thing simply isn’t working as this delusional, vainglorious, sundowning old man thought it would.

We, all of us, clearly do not understand how STRONG AND MIGHTY he is.

And now I’ll repeat what Rosenberg wrote yesterday

I just get the sense now that the buffoonish, dangerous, sundowning man we all see is now being seen by far more people.

A door is opening, people are waking up to the awful reality of Trump and not the right wing noise machine version of him.

You never know in politics what is the trigger that causes things to change, for new understandings to emerge. I have always believed that there was a limit to how fast some of his weak supporters would have buyer’s remorse, and come to realize they got played. In fact I’ve been surprised how quickly and consequentially his numbers have come down. Down, however they are, even on what was his greatest strength – immigration.

Which is why we need to keep working as hard as we can people. He is stumbling, failing, getting panicky, looking weak and pathetic.

An opportunity is emerging for us and we need to seize it.

Open thread!

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War for Ukraine Day 1,210: The Cost

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A painting by Ukrainian artist NEIVANMADE. The words "NEVER AGAIN" are repeated over and over, from left to right and top to bottom, in a faded, washed out black against a white background. Red, the color of blood, runs and drips down across 2/3rds of the painting. "WHILE YOU TOLERATE TYRANTS" is written/painted in the bottom white corner below the three rows of "NEVER AGAIN".

The pollen counts here are out of control and my sinuses are killing me, so I’m just going to run down the basics tonight.

The cost:

We all prayed for Dmytro Isaenko, 31, as his parents watched, helpless, in front of the collapsed building, waiting for firefighters to find him under the rubble yesterday.

The miracle didn’t happen. Dmytro’s body was found later that evening.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 7:02 AM

Twenty-four innocent lives cut short by russia — again.
And the world’s most powerful, who could stop this horror, are either fueling it by choice… or frozen in fear and moral paralysis.
This bankruptcy will not bring peace.
It will multiply wars. And deaths.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 4:35 AM

Death toll from Russia’s missile and drone attack overnight on Monday-Tuesday has climbed to at least 30 people killed, 188 injured, says the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. On Kyiv, 28 killed, 134 injured; 23 victims killed in the strike on a nine-story building in Solomyansky district alone.

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— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) June 18, 2025 at 10:13 AM

An Odessa family who traveled to Israel for their critically ill child’s treatment was killed during an Iranian missile attack.

On the night of June 14, one of Iran’s ballistic missiles struck a residential building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM

The family had only been living in the building for a few months, and their trip to Israel was a last hope for their child’s recovery.

The victims were identified as 30-year-old Maria Peshkuryova, her 7-year-old daughter Nastia Buryk, who was undergoing treatment for a severe form of cancer,

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM

Maria’s 60-year-old mother Olena, and two nephews, 9-year-old Kostiantyn and 7-year-old Illia.

Nastia’s father, a soldier, remained in Ukraine serving in the military while simultaneously raising funds for his daughter’s treatment.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM

These are some of the unintended cascading effects of the Israel-Iran war of 2025.

President Zelenskyy did not make an address today, nor hold a press conference.

Symbolic equation: G7 -Trump +Zelensky = ?

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 4:07 AM

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It’s Been Nearly Four Years With No Ads on Balloon Juice!

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Balloon Juice went ad-free nearly 4 year ago, and I know that I am not the only one who is really happy we did that.

Can we take a quick trip down memory lane so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel?

2021

If you’re the guy whose name is on all the bills, ditching the ads and losing $1,000 a month would have to feel a bit like jumping off a cliff without a net.

So here’s what it will take for me to feel good about having asked John Cole to do just that:

– $6,000 in one-time donations now – that would sit in an account, unused, as a safety net, to take the uncertainty out of the equation for Cole.

– no subscriptions, just recurring donations every month from those who can afford it, to pay for hosting and subscriptions etc.

– we need about $1,000 in recurring donations every month for that.

Safety net

Having the safety net has already helpful, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had a site fundraiser and for various reasons we have been whittling away at the safety net rather than putting up a site fundraising post.

So it would be super helpful if we could put some money back into the safety net, with one-time donations.

You can donate to the safety net with Patreon, Venmo, Zelle, and paper check.  Even PayPal if that’s your preference, but please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.

Monthly expenses

We need about $1,000 in recurring monthly donations for the monthly expenses.   Same donation options –  Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and paper check – except I think Patreon doesn’t allow one-time donations.  (Please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.)

Fine tuning!

Not everyone can afford even $5 or $10 a month, but this is a community and those of us who can afford that have been helping make the site better for everyone.

If you have signed up for a monthly donation but you’re in a different financial position than you were when you signed up, please feel free to cancel your monthly donation, with our sincere thanks for having supported the site for nearly a year!

If you keep thinking you’ll set up a monthly donation, but haven’t gotten around to it, or if the timing is right for increasing your donation, this would be a great time to do it.

If you want to support the site with a one-time check, send me an email message I will send you Cole’s address.  (P.O.box)

Memory Lane

In case you want to relive the good times, here’s the post from me on Nov 3, 2021.

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?

Followed by this post from John a couple hours later:

So I Guess We are Going Ad Free (With Venting and Explanation)

 

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo or Zelle

If you have any questions, let me know!

It’s Been Nearly Four Years With No Ads on Balloon Juice!Post + Comments (42)