Ilona

Working to #rebootdemocracy at home and abroad.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

"The UFC event captures something about this moment in our history.

After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump."

https://t.co/4JB8V0GX4L

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

BREAKING: Tensions Are Escalating In Albania.

After days of protests over a controversial luxury resort project, demonstrators in Rrjoll, northern Albania, tore down fencing surrounding the construction site.

Protesters say land belonging to roughly 200 local families was confiscated to make way for the development.

The confrontation comes as environmental and anti-corruption demonstrations continue to spread across the country.

This is no longer just a dispute over a resort.

It’s becoming a broader fight over land rights, political influence, and who benefits from Albania’s development boom.

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

And it only cost $14 Million of your tax dollars.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

MAJOR BREAKING: In a now deleted post by former MMA fighter Daniel Cormier, he posted screenshots of Eric Trump trying to get an insider scoop on whether any of the MMA fights at the White House are rigged so that he could try and illegally make money off of them..

Below is the Direct Messages that Trump allegedly sent Cormier. There is no reason to doubt the legitimacy of these messages.

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Here is a compilation of Trump falling asleep over the past year.

He is now 80 years old.

[Olena Halushka @OlenaHalushka]

Nineteen russian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed drones are raining down on Kyiv right now. This is horrific.

The UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra has been targeted. A thousand years of Ukrainian history, faith, and culture are once again under attempted destruction.

Why would people who claim to be Christians ever align with russia?

Photo: Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

[Ilona @VodkaMango]

The irony is fathoms deep

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

Good to see MAGA people admitting that Tulsi works for the Russians

[Ilona @VodkaMango]

Hot take

[Andrew—#IAmTheResistance @AmoneyResists]

Iran decimates Trump for his pathetic UFC brawls at the WH calling him out for giving the people nothing but cheap spectacles and distractions to keep them from seeing how he is a complete and total FAILURE as a leader.
#BreadAndCircuses

[Meaghan Mobbs @mobbs_mentality]

For nearly a millennium, Christians have prayed at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

Empires rose and fell. Wars came and went. The monastery endured.

Tonight, flames rise over one of Christianity’s holiest sites after a Russian strike.

This is not a war over territory - Russia is assaulting memory, identity, faith, and civilization.

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

DHS approved running statewide voter rolls through an immigration status database on June 4. Operational by June 30.

They're also exploring using Postal Service mail ballot data to generate federal investigative leads.

Courts haven't ruled yet. They're building it anyway.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

It's hard to fathom how deeply evil this is, and that we have people running our country who get sick pleasure from sending women fleeing violence in Iran to an African country in the middle of a brutal civil war.
https://t.co/JaN8z2LFI2

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

President Trump had 22 medical specialists assess him as part of his latest checkup, according to a medical report recently released by the White House, who also declined to identify which physicians assessed him. https://t.co/RooASN5kaj

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

It dropped so quickly from the news but we shouldn't forget that Trump outright pardoned a murderous narcotrafficker who used the resources of a foreign government he controlled to smuggle cocaine and other drugs into the United States for years.

[DBerber 🇺🇦 @Berber_Doris_]

🇷🇺 Ein ehemaliger Moderator des ruzzischen Wirtschaftssenders RBC fasst die Stimmung auf dem Internationalen Wirtschaftsforum in St. Petersburg (SPIEF) zusammen. RBC ist das größte Finanzfernsehen in Ruzzland – quasi das Moskauer Gegenstück zu Bloomberg. Direkt nach dem Treffen teilt er diese Metapher, die zwar den Absturz perfekt beschreibt, aber auch das ganze Dilemma der ruzzischen Gesellschaft offenbart:
„Ich habe alle vier Tage des Wirtschaftsforums miterlebt und möchte zusammenfassen, wie das Ganze gewirkt hat.
Es wirkte so, als würden wir uns alle in einem fallenden Flugzeug befinden. Wir sind die Passagiere. Und wer ist "wir"? Die Ökonomen, die Unternehmen, die Investoren und sogar die Beamten. Sie alle sind Passagiere in der Kabine eines Flugzeugs, das sich im Sturzflug mit der Beschleunigung des freien Falls nach unten bewegt.
Und während wir da so sitzen, diskutieren wir untereinander leidenschaftlich darüber, was wir tun könnten, um dieses Flugzeug irgendwie zu stabilisieren.
Aber die Sache ist die :
Die wahre Macht sitzt vorne im Cockpit. Und diese Kabine ist komplett schallisoliert und absolut undurchdringlich für all die Passagiere hier hinten. Uns allen bleibt im Grunde nur noch eines übrig: Hoffen und beten, dass der Pilot des Flugzeugs das Steuer endlich wieder fest in die Hand nimmt und es zu sich heranzieht. Nur das kann uns alle retten. Deshalb ist das Einzige, was uns zu tun bleibt, einfach nur zu beten.“

Die Metapher zeigt zwar, dass die ruzzische Elite genau weiß, dass Ruzzland wirtschaftlich und politisch im freien Fall ist. Aber das bittere Schlussfazit entlarvt die totale Passivität:
Statt das Cockpit zu stürmen und den Wahnsinn da vorne im Keim zu ersticken, wird am Ende nur darauf gehofft und gebetet, dass der Diktator von alleine den Kurs ändert. Ein Zeugnis absoluter Ohnmacht, aber eben auch fataler Tatenlosigkeit.

#StandWithUkraine #Russland #SPIEF

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

In Moscow, for the first time in 23 years, the concert on Red Square for Russia Day has been canceled.

Probably because Zelenskyy didn't allow this one 😁

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

VOLKER: Ukraine is world leader in modern warfare right now. We all need to learn from Ukraine, and it should be a ticket for including Ukraine in Western defense structure, defense industry, NATO and EU, because we need what Ukraine has figured out. We have to do this together.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

HODGES: I think Ukrainians prepared to go as long as necessary to win, because they know what happens if they stop. Nobody trusts that Russia would ever live up to any agreement.

That’s been massive failure of United States that our lead negotiators, two real estate guys, are frequently in Russia, but they still have never made it to Ukraine.

So, I think, that’s not going to be the path that gets us to an outcome that is sustainable and that Ukrainians can live with.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

This is Olha, she was 22-year-old. Russia killed her yesterday in overnight attack on Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region 🕯💔

She was seven months pregnant. Olha’s husband is currently serving in the Armed Forces, defending Ukraine.

​Olha worked as a psychologist at "Shans" (Chance), a local comprehensive rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, where she dedicated herself to helping children.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Trump wants federal control over state voter rolls so he can purge voters and manipulate the outcomes of elections.

This is what rigging an election actually looks like: