Ik heb nog niet naar Beautiful People gekeken, maar ik heb het ervaren in de echt (toen als jong Britse ambtenaar, et onlangs samen met @dzyrl.bsky.social). Ik hoop dat zo'n optimistische moment nog mogelijk is in het politiek, maar soms twijfel ik eraan. "Never glad confident morning again!"
"Trump declared Zelensky is 'a dictator', πΊπ¦ started the conflict, πΊπ¦ not be allowed to enter NATO, Trump belittled Zelensky in the Oval Office, his pause in intel. & military supplies to πΊπ¦ allowed π·πΊ to gain territory. Trump declared he 'got along very well with Putin.' This time, Rutte didnβt laugh."
Never pass up an opportunity to alarm people by noting that Blanche DuBois is thirty years old.
This summary post is so tame, compared to the details in the article. This is bleak, bleak, bleak.
But there, I guess, I am being "just rewrite the Federal Constitution" guy... it's a bit like the EU - all the paths to the logical reform are blocked, what if we tried an illogical one?
Within that, it's a reasonable proposal - but (en tant que Engelstalig Belg) still fundamentally bases the electoral calculation on the idea that everyone is either FR or NL-community, which just seems to me not tenable in the context of Brussels today, let alone over the 20 or 30 year horizon
Moderately. It's very difficult to sketch out a plan that isn't either "rewrite the whole constitution" (a suggestion from the audience) or "just force parties to work together better" (another suggestion from the audience), given how many counter-acting forces there are in Bxl and at Fed level.
Funnily enough, this was part of the discussion at the event last night - that the idea of separate NL and FR lists in Brussels is based on a 1970s vision of everyone in Brussels identifying more with their community than their region, which just isn't true
Image of FDCO announcement appointing Dame Caroline Wilson to UK Ambassador to the EU
Interesting choice - Dame Caroline Wilson, who was previously Europe Director in the FCDO during part of the Brexit years and later UK ambassador to China, will become the next UK Ambassador to the EU:
They may not consider you Flemish but Belgian has a certain breadth to it...
A study of social media content 18-24-year olds see in #Finland, #France and #Romania shows that algorithms overwhelmingly feed them right-wing political content - whether or not the users are interested.
Three country average for right wing content was 58% - in Finland, 67%!
yle.fi/a/74-20214134
Can't leave VAT out of this equation, in terms of tax comparisons.
This has always been vital for social cohesion. But in a world as dangerous and volatile as ours it becomes an emergency. The blunt truth is that in the coming decades geopolitics will test the strength of our communities like never before. Not least because hostile states will actively seek to divide us as part of their hybrid strategies. Social cohesion is therefore not just a good in and of itself. It is also a vital front in the resilience of our national security. To put it simply: if we are to be strong on the global stage, we must have strong and united communities at home. And so, to weather the storms of this volatile world, it follows that our βsocial contractβ must now also be strengthened.
The emerging 2026 argument is for understanding social cohesion as a key part of national security, and a key front for hostile actors.
"Social cohesion is therefore not just a good in and of itself. It is also a vital front in the resilience of our national security".
450 jaar Akte van Redemptie! Vanmiddag opende wethouder Robert Barker in het Atrium van het Haagse stadhuis een tentoonstelling over het belang van dit document voor Den Haag (en Nederland!). Sinds 1576 beschermt de Akte van Redemptie het Haagse Bos, de Koekamp en het Malieveld. 1)
At the launch of this proposal for reforming the Brussels electoral system by Re-Bel. Overall, itβs a reasonable tweak but still largely ignores the bigger issue of Brussels being multilingual not bilingual - this surely needs to be addressed to get to a sustainable solution.
Totally. And the language too: "national insurance" (UK), "mutualities" (the health care providers in Belgium) - it's meant to equalise risks and be a shared enterprise - not for one group to win and another to lose. As soon as you start down that path, the argument is over.
Putin wins
![Quote from the FT: Italyβs industry minister Adolfo Urso has called for the immediate suspension of the EUβs carbon emissions trading system to help cut soaring energy prices.
βThe suspension of the ETS [European trading system] should be considered precisely as an emergency response to the conflict, pending a more thorough revision of the system,β Urso told an Italian newspaper.
The ETS requires polluting industries to purchase permits for their carbon emissions. Urso had called for its suspension before the war erupted, but said the issue was more urgent now because of the current surge in energy prices. Scrapping the system, he said, would cut the cost of Italyβs gas-reliant electricity production by β¬25-β¬30 per megawatt hour.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mnvjwteg3g2igchbvqnqksos/bafkreibyl2xvauzvlaeypggm6wlp33y5pywcl3shrwdu2zgq5ie7m4ggge)
Quote from the FT: Italyβs industry minister Adolfo Urso has called for the immediate suspension of the EUβs carbon emissions trading system to help cut soaring energy prices. βThe suspension of the ETS [European trading system] should be considered precisely as an emergency response to the conflict, pending a more thorough revision of the system,β Urso told an Italian newspaper. The ETS requires polluting industries to purchase permits for their carbon emissions. Urso had called for its suspension before the war erupted, but said the issue was more urgent now because of the current surge in energy prices. Scrapping the system, he said, would cut the cost of Italyβs gas-reliant electricity production by β¬25-β¬30 per megawatt hour.
Quite noteworthy that the same people who years fighting the energy transition are now demanding quick dismantling of climate laws in response to the US/Israel-Iran war-made energy crisis.
How much better would we be prepared in Europe if we had more forcefully transitioned to headpumps and EVs?
This story has everything, a focus on desal that led to overlooking other water sources, a city manager making $400K/yr saying donβt panic, a former water system manager saying residents should absolutely panic, and magical thinking: βThe last hope to avert disaster was a 20- to 30-inch rainfall.β
The Rat Verlegh Stadium, full house for the match against the second-placed Rotterdammers.
More international groundhopping, this time to visit the βreserve Belgenβ in Breda. Surprisingly NAC drawing 3-3 against Feyenoord, with 25 minutes to go.
πΌππππππΆππΎβ‘ππΆππ π±πππππππΉπΆπ
8 maart π«
Ten teken van strijdbaarheid en het gevoel van solidariteit van vrouwen overal ter wereld β€οΈβπ₯
Bijbelse parabel van de vijf wijze en vijf dwaze maagden πͺπ
Anoniem, Vlaams ca. 1600 π¨
RSS is 'old school', sure, but it puts you in charge of data collation.
Doctorow is right here.
(Windows: RSS Guard, harnessing the $30 pa Bazqux RSS collation site.)
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification
Building on my General Election Prediction App, I thought it might be fun to build an app that allows you to look at UK constituencies in a bunch of cool ways. So this app doesn't turn polls into seats. It looks at seats as they are.
livedataoxford.shinyapps.io/Constituency...
Quick thread 1/n
What needs to be done is very classical, converting a sector of national champions into a more integrated and efficient one.
Per my readings here and there, MS reckon Cion would favour major contractors in large countries in any rationalisation.
Cion has no real entry ticket.
The martial arts scenes in Itβs A Wonderful Life were a key influence on The Matrix
One of those things that is so obvious it feels like it hardly needs to be said, but clearly needs to be said loudly and repeatedly - Europe doesn't need to gut the welfare state to pay for defence if it manages its defence collectively.
Price of Crude Oil WTI (USD/Bbl) over a five-year period, spanning from 2021 to early 2026. The chart shows a significant price peak in 2022 reaching over $120, followed by a general downward trend with various fluctuations, eventually hitting a low near $55 in late 2025 before a sharp vertical spike to the current price of 90.900. This recent surge represents an increase of +23.880 (+35.63%), highlighted in green text above the blue line graph.
The real insanity isnβt how much oil prices have spiked, itβs that weβre still burning oil for energy.
Ceausescuesque
We renamed it βRegime 0β to help with pronunciation!
Look forward to my new life as Antonius Jakob Kasimirsson
