Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

Taxes

by @heymistermix.com| February 15, 20255:07 pm| 95 Comments

I started to do my taxes but was stymied by lack of one document, so here I am. I want to report that it was very, very difficult to buy the basic TurboTax program that I’ve started using to prepare taxes. Intuit really, really wanted me to use the alternative that would have a human being help me in some way (I’m sure not very much help for like $70 over the price of their base product). But, fuck ’em, I was able to find their base $70 (plus $20 to e-file in New York) product.

The catch-22 that Republicans love is, on the one hand, keeping tax forms complex because their tax-filing-software donor class wants that, while blocking and stymying the free e-file option (which Musk wanted to kill but didn’t get done, yet).

The other thing about taxes that isn’t much discussed is that most small business people cheat on them in some way or other. These people, who are predominantly Republicans and generally resentful of “welfare queens” or whatever other bullshit is being stirred up about the undeserving poors, often work pretty hard to avoid paying taxes. Charging personal stuff to business accounts, having a spouse on the payroll who doesn’t do anything, and a hundred other cheats are common practice. I’m technically a “small businessman” and when I had an accountant, she used to laugh at my mileage reports and deductions, because they would be for tiny amounts that I could have inflated with basically zero risk.

I guess we all know this, but Musk is kind of the culmination of the long-term hatred of taxes that has occupied the Republican Party since basically the beginning of the income tax system. I’m guessing most of the small businessmen are happy to see what he’s doing, well, until the face-eating leopards come for them.

TaxesPost + Comments (95)

TikTok Embed Test

by @heymistermix.com| February 15, 20251:49 pm| 108 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

I thought this was a good video and I’m going to try to embed it:

@franchesca_leigh welcome to the #political side of TikTok #project2025 #fyp #fypシ ♬ original sound – Franchesca Ramsey

Let’s see if this works for everyone.

Open thread.

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TikTok Embed TestPost + Comments (108)

The Debutante

by Rose Judson| February 15, 202510:58 am| 195 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Mostly Open Thread, Politics, The Horrors

Vice President Vance arrived in Europe this week, making his first diplomatic outing on behalf of the new administration. He’s given two speeches: one at the Paris AI Summit on Tuesday, and one at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) last night. Both these speeches – rinsed in arrogance, studded with hypocrisies – have thrown cold water on the hopes of many politicians on this side of the Atlantic: hopes that this Trump administration would only manage to prove as damaging as the last one.

In Paris (full text here via archive.is instead of The Spectator) Vance declared that the US intended to remain the leader in AI technology and, laughably, that the Trump administration plans to invest in education and ensure that AI would always center workers, rather than “automate away our labor force.” Vance spent a great deal of his time wagging his finger at Europeans for having the temerity to regulate AI. He warned that not only did the EU risk strangling innovation in its cradle, but that doing so risked ceding the field to “authoritarian governments.” He actually had the gall to say this:

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“Now we’ve also watched as hostile foreign adversaries have weaponised AI software to rewrite history, surveil users, and censor speech . . . some authoritarian regimes have stolen and used AI to strengthen their military intelligence and surveillance capabilities, capture foreign data, and create propaganda to undermine other nations’ national security. I want to be clear. This administration will block such efforts full stop . . . .

“From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidised and exported by authoritarian regimes. But as I know, and I think some of this – some of us in this room have learned from experience, partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in, and seize your information infrastructure.”

Yes, Mr. Vice President. The US is very, very familiar with infiltration of its information infrastructure by authoritarians. Especially over the last three weeks.

But it was yesterday’s speech that really got Europeans’ backs up. They were expecting him to present them with the usual Trumpian views about how to handle the Ukraine situation and how Europeans need to contribute more to security spending. That is not what they got. Instead, they were told that European efforts to resist the rise of right-wing populism were attacks on free speech, and that their lax approach to migration suggested they no longer cared about “western values.” From the Guardian:

Vance said of Donald Trump’s re-election: “There is a new sheriff in town.” He said: “Democracy will not survive if their people’s concerns are deemed invalid or even worse not worth being considered.”

The blistering and confrontational remarks were met with shock at the conference and were later condemned by the EU and Germany, while drawing praise from Russian state television. They signalled a deepening of the transatlantic chasm beyond different perceptions of Russia to an even deeper societal rupture about values and the nature of democracy.

Vance said: “If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people … If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people.”

There is nothing America can do for you. This speech was reportedly met with shocked silence by the audience in the hall. Today, however, people are talking, especially after Vance went to meet with leaders of Germany’s hard-right Alternative für Deutschland party yesterday, snubbing other German political leaders in the process.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said that “[The Americans] try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends,” but reporting from Reuters indicates that she has called a meeting of EU foreign ministers for Sunday “to share information and take stock of the latest contacts with United States administration representatives and with Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference.”

The president of Switzerland, Karin Keller-Sutter, tried to explain away Vance’s criticism by saying that he had a point if you squinted: “[Vance] also affirmed a very liberal principle that I share: you must not simply share the opinions of others. You must also fight for them to be able to express them.”

The Debutante 2

Others were more forceful in denouncing Vance’s remarks, particularly the PM of Poland:

The Debutante

This morning, President Zelensky of Ukraine addressed the MSC as well. “Yesterday here in Munich,” he said, “the US vice president made it clear [that] decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending. . . . Now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on an issue that threatens it.” He is proposing a pan-European armed force to preserve the peace. His speech received a standing ovation, though it remains to be seen whether there will be any practical follow up.

Over here in the UK, many commentators in the press are righteously appalled by what Vance had to say. Patrick Wintour of the Guardian called the speech a call to arms to hard-right populists:

Yes, the 22 minutes were full of laughable hypocrisy, distorted portraits of European democracy and insensitivity to Europe’s trauma with fascism, but for what it said about the chasm in values between most in Europe and the Trump administration, it was hard to overlook.

It was not just a collection of cheap shots in a culture war, while a real, life-and-death military war was largely ignored. It was a call to arms for the populist right to be able to seize power in Europe, and a promise that the “new sheriff in town” would help them to do so.

International relations experts, including Phillips O’Brien of the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland, begged people to wake up:

People who tried to talk around Vance’s speech yesterday are denying the truth. Washington is trying to legitimize right-wing authoritarianism across Europe (think Orbanizing the continent). It would be the end of democracy. I pray Vance’s move backfires.

— Phillips OBrien (@phillipspobrien.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 1:44 PM

Alexander Clarkson of Kings College London was even more blunt:

Invoking a “special relationship” with the US that hasn’t been taken seriously by US policymakers for years will do nothing to stop a MAGA US from pulling out of Europe.

An inability to cope with the realities of a post-American global order will undermine the UK’s ability to survive it

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— Alexander Clarkson (@aphclarkson.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 11:21 AM

It is surreal to watch German and UK commentators discuss the US under Trump a if it is still a coherent geopolitical actor even as the Trump/Musk administration shreds the basics of state capacity from IRS to the nuke program at home or bullies Canada and prepares strikes on targets in Mexico

— Alexander Clarkson (@aphclarkson.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 11:27 AM

But what about the people who matter? you ask. What about the actual policymakers in our Labour government?

Take a wild goddamn guess.

The Debutante 1

That headline is from yesterday. Starmer could take spine-stiffening lessons from Susan Fucking Collins, I swear.

Thanks to Vance’s debut on the world stage, The Horrors are now front and center worldwide. Here’s hoping Europe can pull together.

I’m sure Adam will have a more informed take on all this tonight, but if any of you other expats or commenters from abroad have seen other reactions, feel free to share those below. Otherwise, open thread.

(Confidential to Tony Jay: Good to see you in the overnight thread! Hope you’ll come visit me when they bang me up in the enemy alien internment camp later this decade.)

The DebutantePost + Comments (195)

Reminder: Zoom today with Author Elle Reeve 3:30 Eastern

by WaterGirl| February 15, 20259:09 am| 9 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

I have sent the zoom link to everyone who RSVP’d by email to me. But it’s not to late to decide to join us.

If you RSVP’d by email but didn’t get a link, it’s not personal, just send me another email.

If you haven’t RSVP’d because you haven’t read the book, please join us anyway for what will surely be a great discussion.

To RSVP, send email to WaterGirl at balloon-juice.com

Info from a previous post below, in case you haven’t seen any of the previous announcements.

Announcing two Balloon Juice zooms with Elle Reeves to talk about her book.

Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

First zoom: Saturday, February 15 at 3:30 pm Eastern time. Charlottesville in 2017.

Second zoom: Saturday, March 1 at 3:30 pm Eastern time. Insurrection on Jan 6, 2021.

We won’t just look backwards, we’ll talk about what we can learn from the those events that we can use going forward.

To attend, please RSVP by email to WaterGirl at balloon-juice.com

Who is Elle Reeve, and why would you want to read her book?

Let’s see. For starters, Cole has known Elle Reeve for a long time, she’s written a terrific book, and we’re lucky that she is up for having a couple of book club zooms.

We also know she’s smart, because when I asked her to send me a blurb that I could use for this post, she enlisted a friend of hers to write it for her. Self-promotion is hard; outsource whenever possible!

“Named one of the best books of 2024 by The Washington Post, Elle Reeve’s Black Pill is a wild ride into the dark heart of political discourse on the internet and how it has come to be a decisive factor in our current politics. Over a decade of reporting, Reeve unearths hundreds of as-yet-unseen documents and exposes some of the most notorious leaders of American far right groups in dozens of hours of exclusive interviews. This unique raft of reporting goes deeper than ever to explain just how these nefarious forces conspired to propel Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and drove real-world political action in Charlottesville in 2017 and at the January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C.

With this clarity comes a more nuanced understanding of not just how it all happened, but also how those who oppose creeping fascism can fight back.

Reeve’s unique voice, sharp observations, and penchant for dark humor are propulsive. Black Pill is an essential and entertaining read for anyone interested in how we got to this moment in American political history, what might happen next, and how to affect change.

Excerpt from Vanity Fair.

Link to the Washington Post review.

NYT Book Review. (If You Want to Understand Why Democracy Is Under Attack, Read This Book.)

Excerpt in Book Riot.

Reminder: Zoom today with Author Elle Reeve 3:30 EasternPost + Comments (9)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Broken & Borked

by Anne Laurie| February 15, 20258:32 am| 147 Comments

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

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)

Oh pic.twitter.com/LlWYL9Lmvk

— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 14, 2025

It may not be the end of the world, but you can see it from here…

Republicans are stealing from you to cut billionaires' taxes.
They are risking nuclear disaster to cut billionaires' taxes.
They are slashing Medicaid and SNAP to cut billionaires' taxes.

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— James Downie (@jamescdownie.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 9:34 PM

BREAKING
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson just issued an order preventing the Trump administration from:
1. Deleting CFPB data
2. Firing CFPB employees
3. Transferring money from CFPB's reserve fund
Right after the order was issued, nearly all CFPB employees were placed on administrative leave

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— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Broken & BorkedPost + Comments (147)

Grim Grey Dawn Open Thread: What the Fck Is A Vaccine Skeptic?*

by Anne Laurie| February 15, 20255:31 am| 159 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Grifters Gonna Grift, Trump Crime Cartel

Breaking news: The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. https://t.co/WvAcxPZX3G

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 13, 2025

just thrilled that a drug addict with brain worms, a face that looks like a 1978 Rawlings catcher's mitt, and a voice that sounds like he has been sucking on the muffler of a 1947 Jeep Willys for three decades "getting me healthy."

— John Cole (@johngcole.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 11:26 PM

Albert Burneko, at Defector:

At darker moments, contesting this kind of stuff in the wake of the 2024 election—and all the shameless, shameful, unforgivable work the American media did to produce that election’s outcome—feels as absurd as demanding the cannibal presently eating your legs use a knife and fork. In less dark moments, that contestation feels like just about the only form hope can take. The language still exists. Maybe someone will need it, someday, to accomplish some good in the world, while the world still exists. If that’s ever to be possible, then our language has to retain some usefulness, too. It has to be tended…

What is skepticism? In my lifetime as a word-nerd, I have known “skepticism” to refer to a sort of stubborn insistence upon rigor and evidence in place of things like dogma and “common sense.” A skeptic, by those terms, is someone who questions what they are told. Crucially, a skeptic actually questions, as in seeks answers. A person who merely refuses to learn what can be known is not a skeptic, but rather an ignoramus; a person who raises questions but does not seek their answers is not a skeptic, but a bullshitter. A person who rejects empirical knowledge, who refuses the answers that exist while requesting ones more to their liking that flatter their preference for unfounded contrarian gibberish and conspiratorial paranoia, is not a skeptic. They’re the exact opposite of that: a mark. A sucker. A credulous boob…

How does a shit-for-brains like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come to be described as a “vaccine skeptic” in the New York Times, in 2024, when he absolutely is not one, and when there is also no such thing as one? As a copy matter, “skeptic” certainly costs less column space than engaging with the question of whether Kennedy’s anti-vax fear-mongering reflects the cynical calculus of a scumbag grifter or the sweaty but sincere raving of a dumb guy with grave mental illness, or both, or what. On the other hand, “skeptic” is one character longer than “denier,” which is without question the more factually upstanding term here, as it merely describes what Kennedy does—he denies the efficacy of vaccines—and makes no claims about the basis of that denial.

Surely the incurable politeness of America’s boneless legacy press plays a role in this. “Vaccine denier” simply is not flattering to Kennedy; “vaccine skeptic” makes him seem … well, like the kind of person that antivaxxers like to think they are: serious, flinty-eyed question-askers, rather than stubborn assholes stamping their feet and refusing to learn what can be fully known because they want some special hidden truth of their own. At any rate, “vaccine skeptic” certainly is nicer and less contentious than calling Kennedy a motivated bullshitter, a peddler of antiscientific garbage, the type of dogshit-brained imbecile who will stiff-arm all that can be learned from centuries of medical research and practice because he preferred what he learned from a 25-second TikTok video made by a spiral-eyed homeschool casualty who’ll be hospitalized next month with an illness that hasn’t sickened a human being since the Bronze Age. That laundering does him a favor he doesn’t remotely deserve, but it is especially egregious now that Kennedy seems very likely to end up holding a powerful position in national government. It’s that last bit, as much as his famous name, that wins Kennedy that favor; if this clammy lummox is going to be in charge of something important, then the Times must do its customary job of dressing him for the part…

Grim Grey Dawn Open Thread: <em>What the F*ck Is A Vaccine Skeptic?</em>Post + Comments (159)

War for Ukraine Day 1,086: President Zelenskyy Politely Tells Trump & the Congressional Delegation To Pound Sand

by Adam L Silverman| February 14, 202510:22 pm| 41 Comments

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

Presiden Zelenskyy had a busy day at the Munich Security Conference. He met with Vance’s delegation, with a “bipartisan” congressional delegation (CODEL) from the House of Representatives, and sat for a press conference.

🇺🇦 Zelensky and the U.S. Vice President made statements after their meeting in Munich. J.D. Vance emphasized that Ukraine and the U.S. aim for lasting peace, not a new conflict in Europe in the coming years. Zelensky thanked the U.S. for its support and noted that a clear plan is needed to stop Putin

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Someone on the CODEL tried to get President Zelenskyy to sign over 50% of all Ukraine’s future mineral rights to the US.

there are so many things wrong with this

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— Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) February 14, 2025 at 12:49 PM

He declined to acquiesce to their wishes.

President Zelenskyy also had this to say about Trump’s “peace” efforts:

Zelensky says “I don’t want to be person who helped Putin occupy my country.” Says he needs the U.S. to support Ukraine, not to mediate between Ukraine and Russia.

Grandpa Winston would have been chasing them all in the streets of Munich right now, a broken chair leg in one hand, a cigar clenched between his teeth, cursing furiously under his breath.

— Illia Ponomarenko (@ioponomarenko.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 2:10 PM

JD Vance is actually right — Russia is not the biggest threat to Europe.

What’s even bigger as a threat is irresponsible and infantile demagogues running for quick and easy-peasy solutions to matters of war and peace.

— Illia Ponomarenko (@ioponomarenko.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM

Here’s the video of his press conference:

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General views from Munich
– No indication that Trump team has a plan
– Broad concern over US posture in Europe becoming part of a Ukraine deal
– Fear that Trump might visit Moscow on Victory Day
– Scepticism about feasibility of European troops in Ukr, esp impact on NATO defences

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 5:57 PM

The other point is that there is scepticism among many well informed officials that Putin is willing to compromise on his maximalist demands from last June. Implication is either Trump gives him everything – which Ukr & Eur couldn’t accept – or talks fail. Trump could then abandon Ukr or up pressure

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM

JD Vance, vice president of a regime currently overthrowing its own democracy, lectures Europe on the “retreat” from “some of its most fundamental values”.

He cites the Romanian Constitutional Court annulling its recent presidential election.

He doesn’t mention this was because Russia interfered.

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— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 8:52 AM

JD Vance had dedicated his entire Munich speech to lecturing Europeans on “the threat from within” and maintaining “values”. He criticised Europe for defending the integrity of elections.

Let’s be clear. The Trump Administration is attempting to spread its populist authoritarianism across the West.

— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 8:59 AM

JD Vance’s Munich statement was the most horrifying foreign policy speech of the Trump Administration to date.

He ignored the topic of Ukraine and instead spouted MAGA imperialist propaganda, telling Europeans to stop protecting their elections & welcome unregulated tech interference in democracy.

— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 9:14 AM

Boris Pistorius, German Defence Minister, responds to Vance:

“This is not acceptable… Democracy doesn’t mean that a vociferous minority will automatically be right. They cannot decide what truth is…. I am happy to live in Europe, where democracy is defended against internal & external enemies.”

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— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 11:39 AM

I struggle to express just how *weird* Vance’s #MSC2025 speech was. This is a transatlantic security conference, happening while there is a war in Europe, and the US is announcing a partial withdrawal from European security. And the US VP speaks about (alleged) threats to free speech in Europe??

— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 10:03 AM

Like, really?!

“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor”
“What I worry about is the threat from within – the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the USA.”

— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 10:07 AM

He could have spoken on Ukraine. Or on the need for Europe to do more on defence (he was actually quite eloquent on this last year). Or on China. But he went for internal domestic European politics. It’s genuinely odd.

— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 10:07 AM

Spiegel: “Security policy, the topic of the conference, was virtually absent.”

www.spiegel.de/ausland/j-d-…

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— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 10:15 AM

Reaction by German defence minister

bsky.app/profile/rike…

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— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 11:31 AM

⚡️’It doesn’t advance American interests’ — JD Vance walks back WSJ comments on US troops in Ukraine.

Even though Vance refused to say that deploying U.S. troops in Ukraine was off the table, he later accused the outlet of “twisting (his) words.”

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) February 14, 2025 at 8:58 PM

Whether they sound like doves or sound like hawks, the first thing to keep in mind about the Trump administration is that it is led by incoherent fools that are incapable of formulating anything close to a strategy

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— Alexander Clarkson (@aphclarkson.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 3:25 AM

Is it January 2029 yet?

NPT’s fate was sealed with the Budapest Memorandum followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 10 years later in 2014.

Everyone learned a lesson: you cannot count on the West’s promises. If you give up nukes, (and all the rockets and planes Ukraine gave up), don’t be surprised if you’re invaded.

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— Toomas Hendrik Ilves (@ilvestoomas.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM

The message of the Budapest Memorandum: “If you’re a small state, obtain nuclear weapons as quickly as you can, and under no circumstances relinquish them.”

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 2:05 PM

Georgia:

Day 79. New elections for 4 reasons: the electoral fraud, U-turn in foreign policy that runs counter to many regime supports, systemic torture, and the impossibility of solving this crisis otherwise. They have no economic or repressive resources to stabilize a dictatorship.
Someone showed up with 🇩🇪.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM

“We will not stop. Call elections!”

“Listen to the voice of the people. The people demand their voice be heard!”

“Georgia, rise up! Rebel!”

“We do not tolerate oligarchy, we crave democracy”

#GeorgiaProtests
Day 78

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 1:09 PM

New and new and new Chinese surveillance cameras all around Tbilisi, and in particular on Rustaveli. Soon the dictatorship will have live footage of our x-rays too. #terrorinGeorgia

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:27 AM

I spotted some Valentine’s spirit at the Rustaveli protest. #GeorgiaProtests

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM

“False witness, executioner” – Protesters brought mirrors to the rally on Rustaveli Avenue for police officers to look at themselves.

#GeorgiaProtests

Day 79

📷Basti Mgaloblishvili, Makuna Gochiashvili

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:05 PM

⭕️ The court denied the motion to annul Mzia Amaglobeli’s pre-trial detention. She remains in custody, hospitalized since February 4 due to deteriorating health.

⭕️ Today is the 34th day of her hunger strike.

#TerrorInGeorgia
#ProtestsInGeorgia
#MediaUnderAttack

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— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) February 14, 2025 at 7:59 AM

1/ The Batumi City Court judge Levan Kolbaia did not accept for consideration the lawsuit in which lawyers requested the cancellation of Mzia Amaglobeli’s pretrial detention as a preventive measure.

#TerrorinGeorgia

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM

2/ Mzia Amaglobeli’s lawyers filed a motion to cancel the detention yesterday, February 13, citing several pieces of evidence.

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM

3/ Mzia Amaglobeli is accused of assaulting police officer Irakli Dgebuadze. Mzia slapped the Batumi police chief. She faces 4 to 7 years in prison for this.

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM

4/ In their identical testimonies, four police witnesses describe how the incident unfolded and how Irakli Dgebuadze’s ear and cheek turned red.

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM

5/ Mzia Amaglobeli has been on a hunger strike for 34 days, protesting injustice.

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM

Gldani (Tbilisi) prison guards beat Davit Gujejiani, a man in a wheelchair, to his death, family reports. #terrorinGeorgia

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 7:02 AM

President Salome Zurabishvili having a conversation with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha at #MSC2025 🇬🇪🇺🇦

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— Katie Shoshiashvili (@kshoshiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 6:53 AM

106 years ago, on February 14, 1919, the first democratic, universal (including women), proportional Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. 106 years, Soviet occupation, and continuous Russian takeover later, we are being tortured as we want free and fair elections.

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:17 PM

Back to Ukraine.

The cost:

“Today marks two years since my daughter Alisa was abducted and taken to the occupied territories. Two years without any news about her or direct contact. It seems like this is something you can never learn to live with or come to terms with. 👇

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM

The only thing that saves me is the fight. And justice will prevail. If not now, then years later.”- Oleh writes on Twitter. I just wanted you to read it

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM

⚡️Ukraine secures return of 8 children from Russian-occupied territories.

“All the children were separated from their families due to the war and occupation, and some lost their parents,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Feb. 14.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) February 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Ukraine successfully brought back eight children who had been forcibly taken to Russian-occupied territory, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, reported on Feb. 14.

“Among the returned children are siblings,” Lubinets wrote. “All the children were separated from their families due to the war and occupation, and some lost their parents. In general, we managed to return children from Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblast.”

Since February 2022, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or to Russia itself, according to a Ukrainian national database, “Children of War.”

Lubinets estimated that Russia has unlawfully deported up to 150,000 Ukrainian children, while the Children’s Ombudswoman, Daria Herasymchuk, puts the figure at 200,000–300,000.

Ukraine considers these abductions a war crime and argues that they meet the U.N.’s legal definition of genocide. Russia often claims it is relocating children to protect them from conflict zones. According to the Ministry of Reintegration, the government has managed to return 388 children so far.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, citing their involvement in the unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children. Russia dismissed the ICC’s decision as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory. oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

The lights are all blinking red.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Taxes

TikTok Embed Test

The Debutante

Reminder: Zoom today with Author Elle Reeve 3:30 Eastern

Announcing two Balloon Juice zooms with Elle Reeves to talk about her book.

Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

Who is Elle Reeve, and why would you want to read her book?

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Broken & Borked

Grim Grey Dawn Open Thread: What the Fck Is A Vaccine Skeptic?*

War for Ukraine Day 1,086: President Zelenskyy Politely Tells Trump & the Congressional Delegation To Pound Sand