To any who read this,

I opened this profile first and foremost as a way to be able to review stories that I feel show great promise and seem to get fewer reviews than they deserve. I know my strengths and my weaknesses and, unfortunately, writing and reviewing both firmly belong in the latter category.

About myself: I have Asperger's syndrome and thus don't see the appeal of social networking sites, chat rooms and other internet applications that involve direct human communication. The only reason I use this service in beyond the advantage of being able to review stories, is because it makes it easier to keep track of my favourites. I am not looking for friends.

As you can see, I am from Belgium and I have to admit that the stereotype is correct: We are indeed boring.

I am from Flemish Brabant (as you may have already deduced from my Avatar) and am 4th generation Flemish (parental line) (French before that) and my roots in these parts go back way further (centuries) on the other side. This does not make me any more fond of the Hideous black mutt-of-a-lion marring a field of Gold that is the Flemish flag, hence my avatar.

There is one Flemish political quote I like, it roughly translates to: "Of course I am not a Flemish nationalist, I am not mentally deficient".

On a related note: my favourite quote is: "Let a fool be made serviceable according to his folly."( Joseph Conrad). Unfortunately, I have yet to find a use for Bart De Wever and his ilk. Still, I would take him over the Dutch populist* Geert Wilders and his less accomplished Belgian counterparts any day.

Definition: Fascist without armed wing and (only just) intelligent enough not to officially preach violence and prone to abusing freedom of speech to air messages of hate, aimed at creating problems to which the populist can then profess to have the only solution.

0401616

PS: Don't try to contact me in any way, as you'll get no reply.

2024-11-06

Bye, Bye US democracy, it was occasionally nice knowing you.

2024-10-29

Israel has again managed to disappoint my already low expectations for their behaviour. The genocide they have been engaged in for over a year, now, in addition to 75 years of low-grade genocide/heavy-handed oppression clearly was not enough for them: After months of ostensibly baseless (as they have failed to provide any evidence to back them up) allegations against UNWRA, they have declared the only organisation that has kept their earlier efforts at genocide from being as effective as what they are doing now a terror organisation.

They should, of course, know what terrorist organisations look like from looking into the mirror every day... Why they (and Russia) are still allowed to have an embassies defiling Belgian soil, unlike Russia, are not the subject of richly-deserved, and overly lenient, sanctions is beyond me.

To my knowledge, the only good thing Israel has done in the last 30 years (and possibly since its foundation) has been to act as a punching bag for Iranian missiles (reducing the number Russia has access to).

2024-07-20

Israel has been acting like Trump for years now: Whenever you think they can sink no lower. Their latest stunt being to insist on a half-Palestinian model being dropped from an Adidas campaign because, they felt it inappropriate in light of her less-than favourable feedback on Israel's activities in Palestine. And they then had the gall to point out that the Olympics used for inspiration had been marred by the deaths of 11 Israeli participants at Palestinian hands, when over the 6 months alone, Israel has had the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians on their conscience (either directly or through starvation)...

What is worse, is that Adidas have decided to not only drop her, but actually apologise to the far-right leadership of Israel... Let's just say that I regret every buying anything from them, and will make certain never to do so again.

While I do not condone hostage taking by Palestinians, Israel has been guilty of the same, and with more people. If Jews in Europe want to know why antisemitism might be on the rise, they need only look at Israel's actions. It is wrong to judge all members of any group (whether defined by faith or some other characteristic) by the actions of a country where they are the overwhelming majority. That said, this is precisely the kind of thinking encouraged by those few but vocal members of the Jewish community who insist on treating any criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

2024-07-17

Elon Musk calling anyone else evil is hypocritical to the extreme. If this comes in response to an artist reacting to the assassination attempt on DJ Trump with "next time don't miss Trump", I would like to point out that Elon has said worse himself...

And, sorry Jack Black, but given Trump's own statements, I don't consider it inappropriate to make such a statement directly aimed at Trump, and Trump alone.

Also: If the gunman had not missed Trump, he might not have fired the other bullets and killed innocents (with questionable judgement). - XN 2024-08-03

2024-07-14

Sometimes society has to be defended from those who would abuse the freedoms granted by democracy to subvert it. Ideally, this would be done by an independent judiciary. Over the last few years, extremist elements (although, at least on the right, they don't self-identify as such), have been hard at work in places like: Israel, Russia, Hungary and until about a year ago: Poland, to name but a few.

In that context, I cannot condemn what almost happened to DJ Trump last night. As he survived, and an innocent bystander died of an errant bullet, it will, unfortunately strengthen Trump's campaign, which is already being boosted by Biden doing his work for him, with rapid-fire gaffes. Unless something drastic happens, I fear Trump will end up back in the White House, which would be the coup-de-grâce for US democracy. A democracy is guaranteed by the limits imposed upon its rulers, Trump recognises none, and the US Supreme court, which previously held him to account, is so over-stuffed with Right-wingers (who have evidently taken leave of their senses, and any common decency they ever had) are supporting him in this unreservedly.

On a side-note: If Elon Musk now officially endorsing Trump makes a difference to anyone, that means that they had not been paying attention: Musk has been a hard-line Trump-supporter since before the last elections, making only a token effort to disguise it as a desire to keep balance.

2024-07-01

Let's mark the day the US Supreme Court shed the last of its legitimacy, and dealt a crippling blow to US democracy. The day they decided those with the greatest power bore the least responsibility, and the day they paved the way for a military purge if Trump gets elected. Let's hope this year's elections lead to less of a farce, but idiocy likes company, and is currently finding a lot of it in the USA and various European countries in addition to its mainstays that are North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Syria, and the list goes on.

2023-08-26

Great, now the Spanish Football Association feels it can just is better able to tell whether a kiss was consensual than the woman on the receiving end of it. Could we, please issue a negative travel advice for Spain?

2023-02-10

Hogwarts Legacy came out a few days ago, and the less agreeable elements of the LGBTQIA (Stop adding characters, please: We get the gist. ) community are up in arms. Apart from their mistaken impression that J.K. Rowling is transphobic for not wholeheartedly going along with their every whim, they really should have a look at the character creation system in Hogwarts history, and listen to a few of the cut-scenes where the player character is referenced (spoiler alert: the pronoun 'they' is consistently used, and not just to save on time in the recording booth. Suffice it to say that this is the most trans-friendly game I have every played (and I have played, among others Dragon Age Inquisition): You chose your character's sex and voice independently of its looks, and it is specified that this only affects the dorm the character will sleep in.

Please note: Hogwarts Canonically has boys and girls dorms, with defences on the girls dorms to stop the boys from getting in, and the books themselves have Hermione say that this is an old-fashioned attitude (with the founders placing more trust in girls than boys).

As far as the notion of J.K. Rowling being transphobic go; here is where I stand:

1. To menstruate, you have to have certain female organs. Not all women do (menopause, anyone), so if the goal of the earlier comment was to be more specific, the term "people who menstruate" may have merit, but it is terribly awkward, and my personal preference would be: Women who menstruate, fertile women, or women of child-bearing age.

2. Gender and sex had always been synonyms in the English language until certain groups started claiming differently. I feel they still are, and that the new boxes these people are trying to put themselves and others in deserve a different word. Gender and sex are physical characteristics, and of those there are 3: Male, Female and somehow neither at the moment. The third group being made up of people born as hermaphrodites, or undergoing a sex-change.

As a heterosexual male, I cannot know how members of the trans community feel, but I cannot help but wonder if the problem is less about the label of male or female, and more about the implications people attach to them. I doubt a different pronoun (which incidentally (because of grammar) does not come up in face-to-face communication with the person in question anyway) will actually make these people feel any better.

3. Having a single villain who likes to cross-dress as a woman in order to lull his victims into a sense of security does not make one a transphobe, anymore than having a single black serial killer in a story would make the author racist. That would be different if all villains in this series were of this type.

By the way: The only darker skinned people in the books of Lord of the Rings (Tolkien used the word: swarthy), are the Haradrim, and on Sauron's side. That also does not make him a racist.

4. As for her expressing concerns about people who are physically male or otherwise not quite female using women's changing rooms, etc.: Everyone is entitled to their emotional baggage, not just people in the LGBTQ community, and the fact that there is one 'trans' rapist in prison in Scotland means that the idea is at least not completely without merit.

Again: Not agreeing with every point made by a group does not make you against them.

2022-11-01

So, the republican US Supreme Court (In)justices have moved to further delay Trump's tax returns, which should have been made public as early as 2016. While this is certainly a lesser crime against free will than what they have done to Roe V Wade, it is an attack on democracy. May they burn for this on earth as they will in hell.

2022-10-30

So, the Russian fleet, which has been bombarding Ukraine since day 1 of the invasion, got a taste of their own medicine and now the grain deal is off. I suppose the damage (physical, or to morale) must have been great to prompt such a response. I suppose it is in character for Russia to escalate matters beyond even direct, and deliberate attacks on civilians the moment they realise more inhumane options are open to them. Causing or exacerbating famine in large parts of Africa and other poorer regions of the world must give them a chance to "denazify" the world by eclipsing their evil legacy. If so, they are right on track: Putin may well eclipse Hitler (mind you: Stalin's body count is higher than Hitler's by dint of him staying in power longer).

2022-07-01

If the Republican (in)justices on the US Supreme court were trying to show they are less offensive than the SARS-COV-2 virus, depriving the federal level of the right to take action on carbon emissions, was a strange way to go about it. Especially strange, when under Trump, they actually stood by and let him override measures taken by states to try and tackle climate change.

While I cannot claim that this decision itself takes the USA even closer to mirroring Afghanistan, the way this undemocratic institution's venture into politics does.

2022-06-24

Just when I thought the US Supreme court could sink no lower, they had to prove me wrong. Depending on how long this farce stands, they will have the blood of between dozens and thousands of dead or maimed women on their hands.

I can only hope this wakes up the American people in a way the deaths of their children seemingly hasn't. I hope the supreme court injustices who voted for this can live with themselves, and that we won't have to for much longer.

2022-06-23

While Putin's personal war continues to rage, the US supreme court has taken it on itself to show that it is not only Russia where the justice system is in the hands of madmen. I knew the judgement of some of those on the court was suspect – a situation not helped by 2 of their number having been nominated by an egotistical lunatic / evil mastermind (scratch what doesn't fit) – but I would have thought it well within their mental capabilities – such as they are – to grasp the absurdity of this decision.

For decades, now, the USA have seen one shooting in places like schools, churches, offices. If making it harder to stop potential shoorters from bringing guns into such places unnoticed seems sensible to them, then I count my blessings the Atlantic, Ireland, the UK and the North Sea act as a buffer...

I would have said certain US Supreme Justices had gone down in my esteem, but, like Trump, the GOP, the NRA and Putin, they hit rockbottom a long time ago.

2022-05-16

Given his badly hidden admiration of Putin, it is hardly surprising that, after providing tacit support for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine; Erdogan should now decide to back Russia further by blocking Sweden and Norway's bids to join Nato. The pretense that this has anything to do with those countries not persecuting members of the Gülen movement, which he claims, without providing even a shred of proof, to have been involved a failed coup attempt is a farce.

The aforementioned coup attempt was used by Erdogan as an excuse to cement his grip on power, severely damaging democracy in the process.

The only conclusion from this is that Turkey has chosen its side, and it isn't Nato. It is a petty to use so strategically placed an "ally", but if it gains us two members who are actually willing to defend democracy, I would consider it a price worth paying.

Given Erdogan's activities promoting violence in various European countries, I would also question his right to even use the word "terrorist" to describe anyone but himself.

2021-11-06

Covid deaths have been going up slowly but steadily since early July, so obviously the pressure to lift covid-restrictions has been steadily increasing until, at the start of October, they felt the time had come to have people take off their masks indoors. The pressure in this instance came predominantly from the NVA, VB, VLD and MR, i.e.: the political right and far right.

One month on, we have seen a significant accelleration of COVID infections, hospitalisations and deaths (Go figure!). While it would be unfair to blame 100% of these avoidable deaths on Flemish nationalists, and the Liberal right, they have been going out of their way to kill more people since the start of the pandemic, and are still at it.

The fact that the Flemish nationalists (NVA and VB) and Flamo-facists (VB) have the gall to propose we move the power to manage the response to health emergencies closer to their reach is worthy of DJ. Trump.

I do acknowledge that Belgium is a ship with too many Captains, especially where healthcare is concerned, but the obvious solution is to abolish the Flemish Government, and save us a lot of money.

The same parties are currently pushing hard to keep our worn-out nuclear facilities open longer and trying to present that as a measure to fight climate change.

Add to this that the VB keep bothering me with adverts on youtube, and I can only wish them all a very merry Long covid.

2021-08-22

A leopard cannot change its spots. We will see to what extent this applies to the Taliban, but I don't hold out much hope for a longtime improvement over their first reign of terror. Who it definitely holds true for, however, is DJ Trump, whose latest reaction to the American withdrawal from Afghanistan (which was a bad idea launched by him and for which he also made no preparations.

Is this withdrawal more chaotic than that from Vietnam? NO: In vietnam, lots of American POWs remained stuck in the country because the then-president would not admit to their existence, and the opposing side blocked the budget from which the Ransom was supposed to be paid.

In truth: I believe the level of incompetence exhibited here, due to US intelligence believing their own propaganda (300,000 Afghan Troups; try 50,000) and underestimating corruption in the country is about as bad as the withdrawal from Vietnam, only this time it was over a far lower rate of attrition and fewer US-perpetrated War crimes.

Biden dropped the ball, but so did all previous US presidents, and Trump greased the ball before handing it over. Also: I cannot think of anything non-routine organised by the Trump regime that was not a shambles, either because of its execution (and sometimes intent) or because of the rampant level of corruption that marked the regime.

Differently put: Trump is the last person who should pass judgement over anyone else's actions – especially where they concern matters of government.

Based on his behaviour in office, it is reasonable to predict that Trump would have committed the same mistake, but denied the existence of US citizen's in Afghanistan and left all Afghans behind who had worked with US troups. This is, of course a guess, and we will never know – See DJ Trump, These are just two ways a sane person with a modicum of integrity might phrase a statement of opinion when facts don't allow for absolute certainty. You might try it from time to time. Doing so would leave US citizen's better informed and would still allow you to spill your mad ideas without having to lie to do it.

2021-07-25

So, it seems misogyny in sports is alive and kicking. I am referring to the Norwegian women's handball team being fined for daring to wear shorts rather than the regulation bikini bottoms during a single match. The fact that, in 2021, anyone, presumably a man, felt it appropriate to require women to wear less clothing than they want to (or more, for that matter).

Don't get me wrong: I don't care what they wear, but whether or not they wear something revealing should be their decision. This is especially true if there is no equivalent requirement for male teams in this discipline.

The Norwegian (sports and other) authorities seem to be siding with the handball players, which I applaud. That said, rather than paying the fine, I personally would have sent a package to the governing body containing a letter stating that they were welcome to shove their fine where the sun doesn't shine; a dildo and a anal lube with the suggestion that these might help with the rectal insertion.

To hammer the message home, I would also have taken a picture of the contents and posted it online on the day the package had been delivered.

2021-07-03

My opinion that Bart de Wever is not worth killing is unchanged, but announcements like thouse he made today, expressing his stated intention to fully dismantle Belgium does nothing to help me justify to myself not taking action to take his ilk out of the equation.

One positive element in his speech is that he did rule out following the Catalan route to get it. (By the way, pardoning the scum that actively sought to get people hurt by holding an illegal referendum in a meritless bid for independence from a democratic country, while trying to claim support from the EU should be a crime in and of itself.)

Refusing to join forces with the very worst scum of Belgian politics is also positive, but that is a minimum requirement of the occupation of a politician, analogous to not selling mouldy bread if you're a baker.

DJ Trump must have lowered standards on this side of the atlantic as well, if people deem this to be worthy of praise.

2020-12-27

While Boris is busy trying to sell a compromise as a victory, Trump is screwing over the party that stood by him during his failed election campaign and Putin is sacrificing his people to protect the economy, it seems the Belgian Forum of Jewish Organisations must have felt the time had come to do its part to promote disunity.

At a time when people are told they must avoid contacts, and can only meet up to 4 people in open air, and can only invite 1 person not living with them into their house, with even children under 12 being included in this, certain members of the Jewish community in Belgium have decided to show quite how tone deaf they van be.

As a reminder: The entire hospitality sector in Belgium is closed with the exception of Hotels and establishments providing takeout. This includes cinemas, and theatres. Museums are open, but with extreme restrictions. At that a time when over 80 people in a country of 11 million are dying of COVID-19 every single day, one would expect religious organisations to show some of the solidarity they so like to preach, wouldn't you. Alas: to curb the spread of corona, places of worship were closed, but certain organisations belonging to various religions took this rule to the council of state, which overturned it.

Result: An exemption was made for up to 15 attendants at religious services. (I, personally would have given them 3 and only between noon and 2 pm.)

Not content with this exemption, the Belgian Forum of Jewish Organisations (or at least David Braun) decided to reinterpret this as 152 (with one presumably being the rabbi); give them an inch... they are likely not alone with this, though...

The above would not make a significant difference, and, as such, might have been forgiven. However if they then go on to claim that 'no rules were broken' when 77 people congregated in a synagogue, because "it was not an organised service", when this, in fact would lower the number of people allowed to be present, it grates like Trump claiming to be the best friend of the LGBTQ-community. If they then go on to claim they are being targeted, suggesting such a focus is unjustified, that makes it 10 times worse.

I don't care who or what you believe in, I don't care who you love, I don't care how you dress and I don't care what you look like, but hypocrisy does get under my skin.

I realise that it is rare for people to get to chose their champions, but the Jewish community deserve better than this showing from David Braun. With friends like this, who needs enemies.

Also, don't think for a second that I'm any less upset with some members of the Catholic church for going along with the drive to get an exemption from the "places of worship must close during lock-down"- rule.

2020-09-20

Just when you think Republican villainy has reached its pinnacle, they go and dispel any lingering notions that they have standards with another feat of hypocrisy.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg's body is barely cold, and already they support DJ Trump's efforts to put another sycophant on the supreme court closer to the election than on that occasion when they blocked Obama from doing so 4 years ago on the grounds that it should not be done in the run up to an election

Hopefully, the American electorate realise that the only way they can protect their democratic rights now is to drop Republicans like a radioactive stone. Four more years of the bully-in-chief, with the support of a supreme court with 6-3 split between Democrats and republicans would have him fully dismantle the remainin checks and balances (to be restored when the next republican candidate loses, I suppose).

If having Ginsberg replaced by another democrat somehow threatened the political balance, then I would understand their desperation, but it does not. Realistically speaking, assuming Biden wins, he will only get to replace one other supreme court justice during the first term, which means Republicans would still hold the court. They essentially are trying to further skew a situation already weighted in their favour.

I would like to use more neutral terms, but in this case there is no justification for this level of duplicity - I'm not trying to be a journalist, and this opinion is my own. I don't claim to be impartial where people abusing power are concerned.

Trump's other actions speak for themselves, and don't warrant further attention, other than that I still have to find a redeeming feature in him. Given his past actions, though, he would not have enough years left in his life to even begin to make up for his misdeeds.

2020-06-21

I really hope the US electorate have noticed that DJ Trump admitted yesterday that he asked for testing to be reduced "because it made him look bad".
It is nice to hear him speak the truth for once: He cares more about how he is perceived than about their health. If this were only about statistics, it would almost be justifiable, but testing serves to help take targeted measures to slow the spread of the virus.

He claims he isn't given credit for saving thousands of lives, but the thing is that he hasn't: He may have closed US borders to Chinese and European travellers, but then seemingly thought his job was over. Ever since those measures were taken, he has been blowing hot and cold about confinement measures (see below), promoting quack remedies (proven in different indications, but since proven ineffective for COVID-19), and generally giving people bad advice (Intravenous disinfectant, antibiotics for a VIRUS or medication "if it doesn't work, it won't hurt me", anyone?).

His admission of sabotaging the response to COVID is just the icing on the cake.

His decision to hold an election rally at TULSA on the day after the celebration/commemoration of the end of slavery in the USA was in particularly bad taste. Even Moreso, if you bear in mind that he had initially wanted to old it ON that very day. That he should then start railing against people standing up of their right to be treated fairly by the police and in general, while standing in a place made infamous by the massacre of black people in the 1920's, makes it infinitely worse.

On the end of the political spectrum, there has been a vote in the European Parliament urging member states to outright ban black-face. This is a well-intended, but blind measure. In Belgium and the Netherlands, there is a version of Christmas, celebrated on the actual holy day of St-Nicholas, dedicated to children. Unlike Father Christmas in US, Saint Nicholas('Sinterklaas') comes on steamer from Spain (this should have been Turkey, but at least Spain is closer to Turkey than Lapland) along with his retinue consisting of helpers who go down the chimneys for him. Their title, for whatever reason is Piet (short for Peter, but perhaps better translated as Dick).

These helpers are the rub, as (according to the Flemish version for the last 34 years, at least) their skin is covered in soot from this exploit, which somehow wouldn't come off. Originally, these were probably supposed to be Moors, and the make-up and artwork (drawings, chocolate figures, ...) surrounding the celebration sometimes reflects this.

However, these characters are held in high esteem by children, and they are by no means presented as less intelligent than the saint himself.

Moreover, according to the Flemish tradition, the black stuff on their face is precisely that: soot, a layer that covers their actual skin, which could be any colour. The Dutch did not opt for this explanation, and, possibly as a result have viewed this as a racist tradition, which they decided to regulate a few years ago. These rules have involved reducing the amount of black paint used, to make it even more obvious that it was just brushed on, and occasionally removing such terms as 'servant' from the songs.

This has the potential to add some unintentional humour, as it turns the opening lyrics of one of the songs into "Saint-Nicholas, do come in with your Dick...".

Blackface is a tool that has been put to some quite disgusting use over the decades. It is never acceptable if the purpose is to mock a certain racial group or get out of hiring actors with the same skin tone as the person they are playing, the same goes for whitewashing (blackface without makeup).

That said, it is just a tool, and should be judged by the purpose it is put to.

Incidentally, Saint-Nicholas is a historical figure who lived in Spain, and would have had a darker tone of skin. His character (whether as Father Christmas or St-Nicholas) has therefore been whitewashed. Beware what can of worms you open.

2020-06-07

Quite a year it has been so far, and we aren't even halfway yet.

Corona kills hundreds of thousands around the world, with the real figures probably much higher. These figures may be far lower than the casualties suffered in the World Wars or during the Spanish flu epidemic (when comparing daily/monthly death tolls), but are significant nonetheless.

In light of the above, it is particularly sickening to see today's semi-dictators have picked this time to step up their game:

1. Donald J. Trump picked this year to abuse his power to have charges dropped against former collaborators of his who had confessed to the crimes in question.

2. The same man who doesn't pay taxes 'because he is smart', after spending months blowing hot and cold about corona, decided to speculate out loud about the virtues of intravenous or oral bleach to cure said disease. He pleads sarcasm, but if that is the case, he needs to work on his delivery, as he comes across as deadly serious.

3. To further confuse the message, he then consistently refuses to wear face masks, even when guidance to the populace is that they should.
I particularly like his reasoning for this: it doesn't look flattering. So other people's safety is less important than looking good: thanks for this great moral insight.

4. Even before that, he had first refused to act to bring in a lock-down, stating that it wasn't his job, only to later state that lock-downs DID need to be approved by him.

i.e.: He leaves the unpopular decisions to the governors, but popular/pleasant decisions do have to bear his signature.

5. At one point Trump even instructed a curb on drug tests to keep the figures artificially low. He seems to have backed down from this as SOME checks.

6. With the Corona crisis ongoing, Donald, and his consiglieri Giuliani decided the time was right for a little advertising, applying the Marketing model to medicine, pushing a drug that had not been effective for the treatment OR prevention of COVID 19, but does come with potentially serious side-effects. (For those who don't know: the Marketing theory says: A product or service does not have to be good, as long as you promote it in the right way).

To be fair to Trump, it is true that he imposed travel bans fairly early on, but there are 2 reasons why that does not constitute good handling:

- The choice of targets for these measures was clearly political, and not based on science: Targeting the whole of China, when practically no cases had been discovered outside of Wuhan, and then including the EU, but not Britain until a few days later. Trump has made no secret of his hatred of the EU, and Great Britain (through Brexit) is one of his weapons of choice. This token delay was unequivocally aimed at strengthening the notion in Britain that they can get special treatment from the USA, and don't need the EU.

- One (potentially) correct decision does not make for a successful policy, especially when bearing in mind points 2 through 6.

7. When people take to the street in peaceful protest near the White House, he deems it acceptable to have them teargassed before curfew, without any warning, just so he can hold the Bible upside down in front of a church and make deceiving statements about the protests in question. This cynical behaviour is what you would expect from his good friend/soulmate Kim Jong-Un, but not from the leader of a supposedly democratic country.

8. In Europe, Belarus to be precise, the president (who, while ostensibly elected, needed massive electoral fraud and extensive intimidation of the opposition to "win" several successive elections and thus is a dictator) suggested treating COVID with VODKA. This is less deadly than drinking bleach, but the alcohol content of vodka is insufficient to disinfect your hands, rendering it practically useless for this purpose.

9. In Brasil, Bolsonaro took several pages out of Trump's book, and then took it several steps further by actually banning any confinement measures, but has taken it one step further by actually stopping figures from being announced, and removing death certificates from public record, in order to be able to more credibly lie about the death toll of the disease.

10. As the icing on the cake, the same mr. Bolsonaro, is pushing a relaxation of confinement measures while the daily death toll is still rising.

Sometimes I wonder if there actually is much in the way of intelligent life on earth, and things like the very incomplete list above don't help the case for human intelligence, or decency.

2020-02-01

So, the under 40% of those registered for the Brexit referendum who voted to leave got to celebrate last night. I hope they don't end up regretting too much putting the British Trump in power to do it... but realistically, they will.

At the same time, Republican senators have decided they don't mind the erosion of the very safeguards that stop the USA from becoming a dictatorial system, and Trump thanks them by rolling back restrictions on anti-personnel mines. Clearly not enough civilians are having their feet blown off by the things anymore. I suppose time will tell just how many of these mines will malfunction and remain functional after they ares supposed to have become inert.

This decision comes in the wake of various decisions to lift environmental protection in the USA, limit emissions of US cars and ostracise American LGBTQ soldiers. It really feels like big T is trying to go back to his youth (in the 60's). Add to this that the hypocrite is trying to convince youngsters to join US armed forces when he, himself went out of his way to avoid serving.

Oh, and let's not forget his disastrous intervention in Iraq, which strengthened an Iran-aligned regime that had been on the way out, and strengthened anti-US sentiment in the region. Trump tries to pretend he showed restraint in not retaliating against Iran, but the truth is that he could not afford to, and even had to cover up American injuries not to appear weak.

True, Iran made an equally spectacular own-goal by downing an airliner, which it looks like they are going to pin on the soldier who pushed the button, but had not received the support he needed to make the right call. Still, this would not have happened hat Trump not been his typical, tactless self: bullying may get things done, but it also breeds resentment, and an overt execution on foreign soil is never going to go down well.

By the way, when are we going to find out just how much money he got out of paying the US treasury over the last 20 years?

2019-08-27

So, the Amazon rain forest is burning, and what does Bolsonaro care about: His EGO.
I hate being so specific, but if a politician lies, and badly at that, like Trump, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Putin, Maduro, Duterte, Nigel Farrage, Marine Lepen, Geert Wilders and Boris Johnson, they don't get to demand apologies for pointing this out.

I think 'liar' is a kind way of describing a duplicitous and sexist populist who goes out of his way to ensure maximum destruction of the rain forest and then points the finger at NGOs trying to help people he obviously does not care about.

I don't care if he doesn't personally start the fires; if you endorse the idea (usually indirectly) that destroying the rain forest for some short-term gains is fine, then you are complicit in the results of this. If you then send a token force to fight the fires and accuse any trying to help of colonialism in order to delay any further action, then this should at least be considered criminal negligence.

This Trumpian attitude of Bolsonaro's is sickening, and is dooming us all. The rain forests are only lush because of fragile balance between a number of organisms only found in that vegetation. Take that away, and you are left with very bad soil indeed. No amount of reforestation – in Brasil or elsewhere – will undo the damage being caused now, particularly if Bolsonaro is allowed to continue.

If the Bolsonaro wants an apology, he can have mine: I apologize for not relieving the Brazilian people of the responsibility to dispose of their own filth. I will acknowledge that one of them made a valiant attempt, which unfortunately failed. Hopefully none else will have to risk his freedom to rectify that situation.

2019-06-07

Politicians are apparently above the law. I knew this tended to be the case in Belgium, but it seems two high-court justices have decided not to hold Boris 'Trumpson' Johnson with regards to the blatantly mendacious claims about the cost of EU membership for Britain, which he had written on hulking great bus and paraded across the UK for months.

While I personally personally would rather the UK maintain close ties with the EU (possibly by staying), that does not mean they have to adopt our bad habits.

2019-03-31

It seems like we are living in a time of conflicting and incompatible solutions to 'urgent' problems, real or perceived.

First you had Brexit, which at the time of writing seems to have been whittled down to 3 options: Hard Brexit, Theresa's Brexit, and No Brexit, with a fourth politically-suicidal option of delaying Brexit by revoking Article 50 now and invoking it again in, say 6 months. This last option would offend roughly 90% of the British public in the short term. In the long run, it may be the only option that has a chance of working without wrecking the British economy, and without having to tell future British children that their government was fed-up with having the EMA on its soil.

Another such debate is: Nuclear power or No nuclear power. In light of accelerating climate change, some measures may be needed to keep CO2 emissions down, and – on paper at least– nuclear power can be a part of that. For this reason, there are many "experts" (if you stretch the concept) who believe that it has to be part of the energy mix.

Needless to say, I am against on account of its dismal safety rating (if you bear in mind the consequences of things going wrong), its price tag, the lack of open and honest communication about the "next generation" reactors (Thorium or otherwise), and the waste problem, which involves the need to construct storage facilities that have to remain intact for 1000 years.

Many politicians, however, like nuclear energy because it is something they can understand: you have a centralised facility that strictly produces electricity (and heat that a smart person would want to harness...), which is then transported to energy consumers. Compared to this, most renewable energy sources are complicated, requiring planning permission for a larger number of sites, often spread out, or changes to our sewers and other waste disposal systems.

This is particularly appealing to Bart "there-is-no-alternative" De Wever and his ilk. Of course, looking for alternatives would be tiring, and they will often argue that newer renewables are unproven (though, somehow the even less proven Next generation nuclear reactors, which don't even exist in prototype form, yet are fine). Thorium, like nuclear fusion, has been failing for 60 years or more, and what expensive failures they have been so far! Still, it only has to work once, if they manage to reproduce that success reliably, so I will be watching with interest as they continue to flounder.

On a less serious note, another issue has been brought up on a European level: Summer time saving. As with the Nuclear Debate, and Brexit, there is at least some consent that a change would be preferable (these twice-annual changes to our bio-clock are quite draining). What we cannot agree on is whether we should opt for Summer time or Wintertime.

Thus far most "Specialists" have been pleading for perpetual wintertime, or even double wintertime. Their reasoning being that people need light early in the morning. To me, this just means that these people don't have nine-to-five jobs. (or 8:00 to 16:30 in my case)

The problem with wintertime is that you get more sunlight in the mornings (when you can only use it to get to work) at the expense of sunlight hours after work, when people actually get to do something with it (other than walking, cycling, driving,... to work). I cannot help but feel that this is the wrong trade to be making in the interest of work-life balance.

At least on this problem, there is room for compromise: instead of Wintertime versus Wintertime 1 H, we could have Wintertime 30 min. In my opinion, this is a worse deal than perpetual summertime, but vastly superior to perpetual wintertime.

For the record, if it looks like they are actually going to push double wintertime through, I would be forced to add the politicians supporting this on my list of people whose death I would celebrate (if it came quickly enough), alongside: Nigel Farrage, Marine Le Pen, Bart De Wever, Every single candidate of the VB, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Nicolas Maduro, Tayip Erdogan, Thierry Baudet, Bashar al Assad, ... .

2019-02-15

What a week:

First Labour decides bringing down the Tories is more important than preserving the UK economy, and continue their unlikely alliance with the Hardcore brexiteers against an orderly transition. No matter how you look at it, this is an awful lot of grief to put a country through where only 38% of those eligible actually voted for the thing they so want to deliver "because the people have spoken".

Then Donald Trump, bold as brass, announces his intention to carry out a coup. Because, obviously, a president's flagship policy failing to be fully implemented surely constitutes a 'state of emergency'.

Well, I have news for Trump: even if the "state of emergency" did get accepted, AND THAT's A BIG IF, a state of emergency generally is meant to be a temporary thing. For it to work, Trump would have to maintain the state of emergency until the wall is completed.

The purpose of a state of emergency is to allow a country to act quickly and decisively when confronted with crisis, FOR THE DURATION OF THAT CRISIS. It does not protect decisions made during that time from being repealed afterwards.

Additionally, taking money away from e.g. the armed forces will not make him any friends, and comprehensively bypassing all democratic institutions for personal prestige will make him a pariah anyway.

I can only hope I'm right, and that US democracy (such as it is) fights back against this president who did not even win the popular vote. If they don't, they are as bad as all non-hardline brexiteers for not banding together in the face of avoidable adversity.

2018-10-07

The movement for the protection of Racists, gun fanatics, billionaires; and mostly themselves has struck again: installing a suspected sexual predator as president is bad enough (and that one is on the American people, and its First-past-the-post system), he will be gone in 6 years and a few months at worst. Nominating someone with a similar list of allegations against him, after a farce of an investigation by the FBI (with the aforementioned insult to Humanity leaning on the investigators to rush things), is something else.

This man, who is as fit as a supreme judge as Donald J Trump is as a President, will most likely hold the position until is long-overdue demise. That could be decades away, over which time he will make it his mission to institutionalise Homophobia, and support for rapists (to the point of forcing women to bear and raise their (the rapist's) ill-begotten progeny, likely reminding them of the manner of their conception every time they look at them).

Other than Trump, and every woman who voted in favour of Kavanaugh, the person I am most angry at, is the one Democrat who selfishly voted in favour because he (stupidly, in my mind) had the notion it would help his re-election. Let me be clear: no shot at a 4-year term is worth handing an appointment FOR LIFE to one of the worst pieces of scum available. The electorate he was trying to seduce, however, will not vote for a Democrat if their main concern is keeping the current Crook-in-Chief from meeting a strong opposition, they will vote Republican.

Maybe, Kavanaugh will drop dead in a way that takes Trump with him, that's the only positive outcome I can see, and it had better happen soon, because his attitudes toward presidential powers could make the world a far worse place.

2018-09-01

Trump strikes again: after repeatedly endorsing the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, both in general, and on specific, symbolic issues (Jerusalem, anyone), he has decided to stop funding Palestinian education (as organised by the UN), in effect driving palestinians even more into the arms of Hamas.

This is yet another example of Trump's general notion that you resolve a conflict by stoking it first. History proves him wrong, but as it won't directly kill American's, the 'great unifier' doesn't care...

At the same time, he's re-branding and revamping NAFTA. The publicised parts of the deal with Mexico seem reasonable (on the surface), but by no means required Trump's special brand of theatrics. The demands made of Canada, especially with regards to dairy products, are ludicrous, though:

Canada sponsors its farmers in return for measures to combat a market surplus. The USA have made no such efforts, and under Trump's leadership aren't likely to, but they still want acces: typical Trump: a country takes measures in the interest of sustainability (of a sector or of the way the environment is used), and Trump sees only a potential weakening of said economy and wants to move in and take advantage.

Differently put: he wants Canada to subsidise American produce!

As such, I would be very disappointed if Canada were to make concessions on that point.

I'm not qualified to make any statements on intellectual property rights in the Pharmaceutical sector, but believe that all is fine as long as all competitors are treated equally, and some time is given to the developers of pharmaceutical products to recover development costs. The provision of affordable healthcare should be one of the main prioritie, though.

Trump has repeatedly shown that he does not care, though, going as far as putting people benefitting from medical crises in charge of fixing them, and taking mony from already underfunded programs. But why should he: he has the billions to spend on his own healthcare, and such can keep promoting opiate addictions.

The third point, the attack international arbitration systems, is just an attempt by Trump to increase his power to affect individual trade deals. No ifs, no Buts.

Of course, it doesn't matter at this point whether a deal with Canada is reached or not, nor even what it looks like; either way, his EGO wins, and some voters will actually like that. As such, the ball is squarely in Trump's court.

2018-07-28

Carlos Puigdemont is back in my country. He is one of a very short list of pleople I'm less keen on having within a 100km radius of my person than Trump.

During his speech from his balcony in Waterloo, he once again denounced the imprisonment of co-conspirators in his independence referendum, claiming that there was no basis in law, nor a valid political reason to lock them up. I beg to differ:

These people live in a democratic country, in which, need it be said, their choices in the polling booth help shape policy. A country that respects their freedoms and culture.

Two privileges they don't have are: the power to impose their culture on others, and the power to reject their responsibility to the nation (particularly with regards to the levying of taxes), and it is these they tried to obtain by means of an ILLEGAL referendum. Why was it illegal? Because they were asking people to vote on something that wasn't theirs to grant.

In the buildup to this act of open rebellion, and coup, they sowed devision, and stoked the fires of nationalism (which rarely ends well). And it is because of this: the incitement, as well as the attempted powergrab, that these members of Puigdemont's party have been imprisoned, and why Puigdemont himself is still wanted.

The thing that makes me hate these people even more is that they dragged the EU into this. They seem to believe that just because they don't want to leave what may (hopefully) become the United States of Europe, doesn't mean we suddenly have to agree with everything else they do.

I could fill pages with my rant, so I'll cut it short. These are the three main outcomes of this situation that wouldn't turn my stomach:

1. Puigdemont and his accomplices end up spending a considerable amount of time in a Spanish prison (preferably dying there), while Catalonia remains part of Spain, and as such the EU.

2. Puigdemont and/or his accomplices die in prison, but Catalonia gets its independence as a Pariah state, faced with 20% tariffs on any of its products until they turn back to Spain in desperation which takes them back in return for some hefty concessions.

3. Puigdemont and/or his accomplices die in prison, but catalonia gets its independence of Spain and gets to join the back of the cue to rejoin the EU in return for taking over at least 75% of Spanish souvereign debt.

In the meantime; could someone please remove this piece of scum from Belgian soil? Many thanks in advance.

b.t.w.: concerning the previous entry: I wonder if the US definition of "non tariff trade barriers" is the same as the EU one, as I have a sneaky suspicion that Trump inlcudes any and all environmental, Health-and-safety or public health related requirements that differ from the regulations (insofar as they exist) in the states in that concept... And I can only hope Juncker does not.

2018-07-26

Jean-Claude Juncker went, saw and bamboozled: following a meeting with Donald John Trump, both came out with a delightfully vague statement of intent that seems to be reviving the prospect of TTIP. The BBC seems concerned that Trump-supporters will see this as a vindication of the Great Moron-in-Chief's anti-diplomacy, and they may be right. Still, given the gullible nature of said strata of US nitwits, it's safe to say they would see victory in any defeat, but anyway, back to the facts:

- Trump won the electoral college with a promise to scrap TTIP, and has since gone on to express his hatred of the concept of free trade. After all, it seems to be his unshakeable belief that he is the only one who knows anything about trade and that doing one's homework has never yielded any good decisions.

First order of business, when the second unelected US president in 20 years entered the whitehouse was to pretty much scrap all trade deals of note that involved the USA. So, in order to try and finish off free trade, he started a trade war on two fronts: one with the EU (which he hates, and the feeling is mutual), and another with China, which he disrespects (again, the feeling is most likely mutual). This would be bad news for the UK, as it means a trade-deal with the US would essentially boil down to trading one free-trade area for another, only without the ability to influence its legislation. Junkers goes over, meets with Trump, and all of a sudden, Donald states a preference for free trade with the EU. I see 5 possible explanations, which aren't mutually exclusive:

1. Trump has lost the thread (as with Putin), and will soon make another U-turn putting him back on a ramming course with the world. Incidentally, it is this kind of event that has ensured that most people now know that Trump's statements at diplomatic events tend not to be worth the air expelled to make them.
2. Trump has decided that he cannot win what he really wants (unlikely)
3. Trump has decided to cut Britain some slack (Highly unlikely)
4. Trump is using this to distract people from the Mueller investigation
5. Trump has smelled a press opportunity, which he hopes his flunkies can exploit to secure a continued (and possibly strengthened) majority in the Senate.

Whatever really happened: Trump did not win a victory for the American people today, whether it will be one for him personally remains to be seen.

2018-06-20

Donald J Trump has decided he will soon take action to rectify a situation he created. We'll se whether it means getting rid of the US's Passive-type Concentration Camps for Children...

On the same day, the USA have ceded their place on the UN human rights council, citing bias against Israel amongst other complaints. To support the 'bias against Israel' argument they claim that the council has initiated more procedings against Israel than against the rest of the world combined. This might just be true (I haven't checked), but if so, I can see 3 really good reasons for this:

1. Israel is a prolific human rights violator, both actively and passively. That's not a matter of opinion, it is fact.

2. The states have blocked pretty much all attempts at actually condemming them for it in any way, shape or form. Which has meant that a series of events that normally would have resultad in a single procedure, have had to be repeated over and over in the vain hope that some statement could be made.

3. Israel is a massive target with:

Its complete and utter lack of respect for its neigbhours. The often borderline genocidal, megalomaniac psychopaths it tends to be ruled by. Its cynical attitude towards the palestinians, and any who try to help them. (Bulldozing playgrounds built with Belgian Development money: Really manly, Benjamin; Great way of making friends)

On a side note: Maybe the states want to think about what happened in the run-up to the Korean war, and specifically: how come the USA and its allies were able to operate under the UN Flag. To save you the trouble of checking:

The USSR was boycotting the UN when the resolution was passed, leaving them unable to veto the motion.

This means that Maybe, just Maybe the USA want to consider not withdrawing from the UN altogether. ... On the other hand, this would mean we would be able to make progress on Israel at last... On second thought: Trump, you really want to show you're a big man, just go for it. Pretty please, give us an opening to put the Zionists in their place. With luck, we'll be able to show more consideration to the regular Jews in Israel than their military and politicians have shown the Palestinian people.

2018-06-08

So Boris Johnson believes Britain should negotiate Brexit Donald Trump Style. I can picture that now: 100 miles of traffic jams at Dover and Folkestone, and similar tailbacks at all other ports with connections to Europe, because some genious decided to let them figure out for themselves what procedures to follow. On the news, you would see a buffoon with a rather distinctive haircut proclaiming that everything was going as intended... Essentially a carbon-copy of what happened with Trump's Travel Ban.

As for his argument about few companies using the landborder with the republic of Ireland; there are (at least) three problems with that:

1. The nature of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is quite devisive; and I can guarantee that the introduction of a hard border further stoke tensions between Catholics and Protestants'.

2. A lesser concern is that accepting a hard border would mean screwing over anyone living on the border, which is not going to go down well.

3. While the DUP don't want any kind of border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, they are unlikely to thank the Tories for allowing a hard border to be created with the Republic of Ireland.

On a side-note, I must say, I, myself, applaud Boris' dedication to splitting the Tory party over Brexit. Indeed, in a First-Past-The-Post type of sort-of Democracy, the split of any cynical, old and nasty party may create breathing room for more constructive elements to thrive.

In other words: Boris, please keep at it! Just make sure you have a plan-B for when they kick you out, because organisations don't appreciate having saboteurs in their ranks.

2018-04-29

The inevitable has happened: Donald "the Joker" Trump has claimed the credit for the thawing in relations between North-Korea and its southern neigbour, patting himself on the back for using the right diplomatic approach to the situation.

I would be lying if I said that I believed that none would believe this claim, but that doesn't mean it has merit.

For a start, nothing has definitively changed:
The nuclear facility being dismantled by the North is known to have been damaged by their tests, and so likely unusable anyway. Making this a very cheap concession, especialy because, if no deal is reached, they can just state that they wanted to move to a new and improved facility, WHICH THEY HAVE DONE BEFORE.

Then, there is the fact that Donald John Trump has used the bluntest implement available to him. This may be effective in some cases, but there is a price to pay.

1. The states have lost a lot of their international credibility as a source of stability and a viable partner.
2. The kinds of statements Trump has been making tend to lead to a polarisation (not just domestically), but also internationally, which tends to limit the options for diplomatic resolutions of future conflicts.
3. All this noise has distracted the world from the island the People's Republic of China (spot the two lies in the name) has been building and fortifying in the East-China sea.
4. The US commander in chief has made a habit of stirring up international trouble whenever some inconvenient revelations were made at home. This means that we cannot take any warning he gives us seriously (we being Nato and the EU). A broken clock is right twice a day, but assuming it doesn't have a dial for the seconds, that gives it a 0.13888...% accuracy. Trump's record is almost as bad.

The list of arguments goes on, but the Charlatan in Chief,(a.k.a. 'his Royal Trumpness' and 'the worst president ever to set foot in the whitehouse') isn't worth any more of my time. In any case, if his style of diplomacy is indicative of Trump's way of raising children, I wish to extend my condolences to his children.

2018-03-14

After a black day, comes more grief: Rest in Peace Professor Hawkins.

A pitty that currently the only ray of sunshine on this day is the departure of one of Trump's cronies (for failing to get security clearance). It's telling that he was deemed even less trustworthy than Trump...

2018-03-13

A Dark day if ever I've known one: lots of small atrocities all on one day:

1.Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues his genocyde of the Khurds, and looks to be gaining ground. The fact that our former Turkish allies are likely to lose some troups does not weigh up against that maniac's continued existence and the loss of innocent lives guaranteed to be caused by the Turkish Palpatine act-alike's hunger for power.

2. Lavrov opens his mouth and continues his tradition of lying whenever cameras are on. Russia was behind this N-th attack on foreign soil and they don't even try to lie convincingly.

On a related, and depressing note: it seems that many people (notably in Turkey and Russia) are so brainwashed that they don't even ask questions when presented with news readers telling them how to interpret the news, rather than just giving them THE NEWS, and using FACTS rather than spin to help people form their own opinion. B.t.w.: Also, if a Newsreader in Belgium were to make the speech given by at least one Russian news reader today, he would be out of the job, and hopefully dead,

before the night was out. If anyone is betraying Russia, it is Vladimir Putin, and hopefully the Russian people realise this before he dies of natural causes.

3. An attack on the Palestinian prime minister. No further comment, but in general, Israel would do well to determine where its borders are and to STAY WITHIN THEM. All terror attacks committed on American and allied targets in the name – and against the spirit– of Islam can justifiably be laid at their feet.

4. Donald John Trump (the Nitwit-in-chief)/(unelected)president of the USA seems to have sacked the penultimate COMPETENT member of his staff and replaced him with a Yes-man. The only bright side of this is that he may at last have overplayed his hand, only time will tell.

I also feel that I should give my congratulations to the Chinese Communist party for signing away the last defense they had against oppression and corruption, such as it was, last week. A 'President for life' could, after all NEVER turn into another MAO (Mind the sarcasm).

Oh, while we're on the subject of bad decisions, When is our gouvernment at last going to deport Puigdemont. There is a nice cell waiting for him in Spain, and I don't want to keep him from it for too long. It is past time that he faces the consequences of his actions.

2017-11-05

While I'm grateful to Puigdemont for surrendering to the police, I would have much preferred it if he hadn't soiled our country with his presence.

To any who considere prosecuting the bastard undemocratic' or 'unfair' I would like to point uit the following:

1. He violated the constitution of his country. The very constitution that allowed him to stand for office in the first place! This is an abuse of trust as well as hypocrisy at the very least.

2. The polarisation he caused by forcing through an action HE KNEW would never be accepted by the rest of Spain has lead to people losing track of the changes they actually want. I mean: rather than focussing on what policies they actually want, the conversation has been reduced to a debate on the merit of giving more power to local politicians versus having some manner of uniformity on a higher level.

3.The Catalans were by no means being oppressed before the 'referendum'. And given what they did, it is only reasonable that they be taught the consequences of their actions.

4. As it was the Catalans who chose to provoke the Spanish state (particularily knowing the scumbag currently that is Rajoy) any violence used to stop an illegal referendum from going ahead is entirely THEIR OWN FAULT.

5. Puigdemont dragged the EU into this, falsely claiming, as did the Scotts and the Brexiteers that they could remove a level of gouvernment but still enjoy the benifits.

6. Puigdemont is a reprobate: By making his announcement in Dutch (and Dutch only), he has tried to stir separatist sentiment on my side of the language barrier. Please find below my response to this course of action, in my mothertongue, which is Dutch, if you're wondering.:"Puigdemont, België is een drietalig land. Als je een geladen politieke uitspraak doet in slechts één van deze talen, dan heeft dat gevolgen, temeer omdat het niet je moedertaal is."

Given all this, as well as my personal distaste for populists, I cannot in good conscience ask for anything short of a custodial sentence for Puigdemont. Don't get me wrong, however: I hate Mariano Rajoy just as much, and for similar reasons. Both Puigdemont and Rajoy are populists, relying on polarising statements to remain in the saddle.

As it stands though, I have more sympathy for the Spanish cause as it is willing to accept a status-quo as opposed to insisting on a course of action that will leave the catalans seriously out of pocket, the Spanish with an expensive border to guard, Europe with yet another existential crisis and Putin with a smile on his face...

2017-06-03

So Donald J. Trump thinks the USA was the laughing stock of the rest of the world because of its participation in the Paris Climate accords?

Well, we do tend to make fun of Americans, mostly because the word maverick doesn't have the same ring in Europe.

But what we really find hillarious about the States is that, they will still sing the praises of their electoral system even though, in the last 16 years it gave them 2 presidents who lost the popular.

I suppose that it's kind of reassuring that these presidents lost because both were truly awfull (Sorry Trump, but there is no way you can still salvage your legacy, you will go down as the worst US president since the civil war, if not at home, then certainly abroad).

It's really a pity that it is later generations that will have to clean up after both presidents have died (which should be some time in the next decade).

2017-02-26

So the mask has come off, ... to reveal an identical face. Trump has been in power for a month and six days and in that time has:

1. alternated between praising and deriding: NATO, any and all security forces in the states and non-nato allies the world over

2. rushed a proliferation of illconceived, poorly executed presidential decrees predicated on "ALTERNATIVE FACTS" (that's lies to the rest of us).

3. had his spokespeople lie (unconvincingly and using the aformentionned lies) about facts that, franky, did not even hurt his image (like the turn-out for his inauguration).

4. put his campaign manager (Steve "Himler" Bennan) on the national security council, while taking steps to stop the military and intelligence agencies from talking to eachother. -Which is a surefire way to facilitate terror attacks by the way, as border controls are less effective than good communication between agencies.

5. offended at least 2 different allied nations in Europe (France and Sweden) as well as the EU at large

6. backed up claims that terror attacks went un- or underreported, by producing a list featuring attacks that got WALL TO WALL COVERAGE on the BBC, CNN and other news agencies.

7. expressed contempt for the legal profession

8. praised products "made in the USA" that are in fact only assembled in the states and would suffer immensely from the introduction of higher tariffs

9. put people in charge of departments they DESPISE (Education, Revenue and customs, the Environment agency, ...)

10. continued to spout xenophobic rhetoric. (Most terror attacks on US soil in the last century (and even just the last decade for that matter) have been carried out by people who considered themselves christians) SO WHY DOES BIG D KEEP TALKING ABOUT DEALING WITH "MUSLIM TERRORISTS".

11. given US coal mines 'Carte Blanche' to dump their waste in American rivers again

12. abused the White Hous Twitter-account to advertise his daughter's brand (AND NOT BY ACCEDENT EITHER, as he posted it on his personal account first!)

13. tried to doom future generations by tearing up hard-fought climate agreements,

14. and last but not least, he has continued to attack the media over the use of anonymous sources, WHEN HE USES THEM ALL THE TIME!!! (most recently with his "friend JIM")

If this is a sign of things to come, then I hope the clown-in-chief gets impeached, because that may be the only way the states will still be standing in four years.
The only consolation is that the GOP is likely about as happy with Trump as I am –if only because he is damaging the image of the White House and consequently, the USA as a whole.

In any case, whatever your religion, pray for US Democracy, because it likely hasn't been tested quite like this since the American civil war, and if it falls, may others will follow!

Signing off (hopefully for a long time – or until Trump's funeral or impeachment, and I REALLY DON'T CARE WHICH COMES FIRST!)

ps: I forgot one small ray of hope: Trump's appointment to the Suppreme Court has in the past resisted the idea of presidents overstepping the mark. If he proves to be more decent than the rest of Trump's crew, he may just give aformentioned imbecile some grief.

2016-11-09

So now the Americans have taken leave of their senses.

Donald John Trump, like George W. Bush Jr., is the worst possible person available for the job of President of the USA.

Beyond his penchant for lying, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, he lacks any sort of grasp of the CONCEPT of diplomacy.

Combine this with his unwillingness to listen to his advisors, and you have someone who WILL make a worse president than a 16-year-old heroin-addict.

In addition to his staggering incompetence and rampant dishonesty, he also makes George W Bush look like Mahatma Ghandi.

In short: only the KKK, Israel and Putin would have had to work together to find a worse candidate, and I can only hope the economy keeps him too busy to deal with climate change, international politics and border security. If he does find the time, we are doomed!

B.T.W.: If the scumbag ever comes within 10 meters of my house, I will split his head with a fire axe! That said, I'd rather he stay on the other side of the Atlantic, a
sentiment that is likely shared by all democratically elected officials (i.e. anyone but Putin, Erdogan,...) given how his last foreign turned out for his host!

On a side-note: comedians will rejoyce at having another clown in charge, but imitators will have to pick on cronies as TRUMP is a carricature of himself.

On a another side-note: if Trump meant any part of his acceptance speech (which I highly doubt), this would be the fastest U-turn by an American president in my lifetime. Alas, 't was likely but Trumpy mcTrumpson putting on a mask.

24/10/2016

The Wallonian parliament deems it needs TWO MONTHS to read over a document it has had in its possession for over a year.

I suppose it isn't unreasonable for them to want to wait for a verdict from the German supreme court, but given the damage their little stunt has caused to Belgium and the EU, I suggest we make them spend those two months in solitary confinement!

If they want to split Belgium, they are doing a brilliant job! Congrats, Magnette, you have just done Bart De Wever's work for him!

16/10/2016

Sometimes I'm glad that I have no Idols and generally view politicians with distrust as idols, and politicians in general can really disappoint you. Case in point: CETA and the Walloon refusal to sign the deal.

I generally vote left of centre, but right now, the Walloon counterparts of those very same parties are choosing to pull a Farage/Trump/Cameron and organising a publicity stunt at the expense of the common good. By blocking CETA – something made possible by the devolution of international trade to Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels (worst mistake since the start of devolution) – the PS, ECOLO and CDH have put the government of less than half (population wise) of what is already a small country on the map whilst undermining the credibility of Europe as an economic entity.

This initiative has provided Brexiteers with free publicity.

Almost as bad is the fact that this is providing a nice smokescreen for NVA which has decided to pull a Cameron and seek the return of powers which rightly belong on the European level. Still, they at least are open about their acts of sabotage.

Sometimes I whish just killing the lot of them would solve matters! Unfortunately there are always power hungry, morally deficient, corrupt and borderline incompetent scumbags waiting in the wings, just look at Donald Trump.

2016/09/16

The world has gone even more mad than usual: Donald Trump trails Hillary Clinton by mere percentage points even though he has repeatedly shown that he is a diplomatic disaster waiting to happen who wouldn't know reality if it came up and bit him, and that is before we get to his policies.

And now the other end of the political spectrum is lobbying for Edward Snowden to be pardonned as he "exposed human rights violations". Edward snowden is no more a whistleblower than Kejip Erdogan is. He leaked files without any regard for the consequences and did it to raise his own profile. Worse: his leaks have put lives at risk and sabotaged international diplomacy.

I would be calling for his execution if I weren't opposed to capital punishment for any but the worst threats to our society (Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Nick Griffin,Kejip Erdogan, ...). Still lifelong exile to a semi-dictatorship seems a fitting punishment for his crimes. I do hope Julian Assange ends up joining him (the S*bag).

Whatever Snowden's precise motives, his actions justify any punishment he faces, particularily because his efforts to expose "breaches of privacy" have essentially strengthened the worst offenders in this regard (Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and their ilk), and are continuing to do so.

17/07/2016

Three and a half years on and the world has managed to reach a new low: not only are Bart De Wever, Marine Le pen, Sarah Palin and Geert Wilders still alive and popular, but just yesterday Turkey passed up its best chance at regaining its democracy. Worse than that, the political consensus seems to be that we should be glad that Erdogan is still breathing and raping the Turkish democracy. To quote Star wars (episode 3): "So this is how democracy dies, to thundrous applaus". True: the Turks weren't clapping, but from the cheers in the street one would think they had just averted a major catastrophe...

This is almost as sickening as the BBC labeling a 50% turnout for a referendum that will affect the world for decades to come "high", or Russia annexing the Crimea and invading parts of the Ukraine.

The only things I can think off that would hurt the cause of democracy worse are: the PLC (China) annexing Taiwan and/or Donald Trump becoming American president.

Hopefully I won't ever have cause to update this profile again.

May the lives lost in the fight against the wannabe dictator Erdogan never be forgotten (Ps: DAESH (a.k.a. ISIS/ISIL or IS) fighters don't count as terrorists don't have a cause).

2013/01/06

The Bastard I refered to in the beginning of this text has surpassed himself, and not in a good way. De Wever may be intelligent, but I think his mental faculties are beginning to slip. Now that the elections are over he doesn't have to pretend that he isn't a populist AND IT SHOWS.

Like all politicians, he is particularily adept at using somewhat controversial statements to distract from his own shortcomings, but now he's crossed the line by no longer checking the credibility of his claims. Case in point: during his annual speech, our king warned the public of a rising popularity of populist rhetoric. No parties were named, because most parties are guilty at one level or another. However, De Wever, sensing an opportunity, made some bold statements about how the power of the king needed to be curtailed to stop him from meddling, in effect pleading for a constitutional monarchy. Now, not a week later, he has vowed to turn Belgium into a confederation, making it out to be a huge change.

Now I know that Studio Brussel recently started a campaign to raise awareness of the problem (I even bought one of their pins), but still that is no reason for him to feign dementia (if he is feigning). You see, Belgium has had a constitutional monarchy ever since the late king Boudewi(j)n

(sorry don't know the proper English spelling of the name) ascended to the throne in the 1950s!

As far as the idea of a Confederacy of Belgium is concerned, WE HAVE BL*Y WELL HAD ONE FOR WELL NIGH 20 F*ING YEARS!

Sorry for the expletives, but I had to get this off my chest and Flemish Television is virtually impossible to reach.

23 september 2011

Will you look at that: our SERIOUS political parties have finally ditched both the Flemish saboteurs and the rats from Brussels and suddenly they start to make progress. It only took them like 15 MONTHS to figure out that this was the only way forward, I came to that realisation after about 30 seconds of furtive thinking. Now, if only they could ditch their pride and vaunted principles, they might be able to save a lot of money in three easy steps:

1. Lay off a couple of hundred politicians in Brussels by merging separate councils (a.k.a baronies).

2. Start coördinating any decisions relating to mobility in Brussels and the rest of Flemish Brabant by means of a single work-group.

3. Make the State of Brussels responsible for all garbage collection as well as the cleaning of all streets. I know that someone must have thought that the 19! councils were better equipped to do this job and if this were any other state, I would agree. The (Capital) state of Brussels, however, consists almost exclusively of built-up areas, which are so closely packed, that this is entirely impractical.

23 June 2011

Still no improvement. Over a year without a federal government and I can only say that I hope that we aren't paying the political parties for failing to compromise. Worse news: piece of populist scum known to the world as Geert Wilders is still at large, having been cleared of inciting hatred, when he's done nothing but. Luckily, populists are known as the worst bunch of back-stabbers known to man, so he will be removed from politics, it's just a matter of time.

First Post (date?)

As you can see, I am from Belgium and I have to admit that the stereotype is correct: We are indeed boring. Take for instance our latest collective effort to make the Guinness book of World Records: the longest time in between governments. I have lost count, but we have held it for months!

Signing out

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