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hansvandekoot.bsky.social
Dutch guy living in Athens (Greece). Love running, tennis, dogs. Wondering what can be done to turn the tide of populist gut politics.
55 posts 103 followers 306 following
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Check this out — American stocks were on par with global stocks up until late January — and have now dropped terribly since then Gosh I wonder what happened in late January?

He said we’d already be there auxmode.com/elon-musk-we...

Americans: We’d like to afford basic necessities, keep vital programs, and not lose our retirement savings. Trump: Best I can do is a car commercial for the richest man on Earth.

ICYMI — Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board fired by Trump, returned to the office to cheers on Monday after a judge ordered her reinstatement.

Epic idea

Look, folks, this is it. The entire ballgame. Either we're a Republic of laws & the Constitution, or we have a dictator. This is fascism, & the impeachment vote should be happening today. Every single university president in the country should be out, in front of microphones, condemning this.

Tories to force vote to disapply Human Rights Act in immigration cases Human rights are universal - if we start stripping away basic human rights from any section of society then none of us has rights- just privileges that can be taken away by people in power when they want youtu.be/yhXzz_alkSk?...

gently suggest that everyone who wrote or edited this at the @nytimes.com be gently guided into a career that's not journalism because this is uhhh, real bad

Gender equality doesn’t just 'happen.' Women’s rights must be fought for and protected. Our responsibility is clear. To lead by example and create a world where opportunities are fair for all. Not just today, but every single day. #InternationalWomensDay

Cutting benefits payments *specifically* for people deemed unable to work due to illness or disability is a genuinely shocking choice from Labour. Aside from the incredibly obvious moral horror of it, it shows how our economy is set up all wrong. #r4today

So many examples of the BBC failing to explain to UK citizens what is going on at this very important time.

Rollins: "The Biden team basically depopulated about 150m egg laying hens last year, which is the protocol. We're looking at the protocol now to see how to tweak it so that hopefully we don't have to do that moving forward. But we rolled out a 5 point plan a week ago. It includes deregulation."

Who would have thought!

COLBERT, on Rep. Al Green’s removal: “Some people questioned why so much muscle was needed to remove an old man with a cane. But it turns out it was for a serious reason. When security searched him, they found that he smuggled in a spine." @latenightercom.bsky.social

By popular request

Trump never had a peace plan for Ukraine. He had a plan for Ukraine's surrender, with a colonial resource grab. As Zelenskyy rightly refused it, or to cooperate in Trump's TV spectacular, the US has now cut Ukraine off. That's what blackmail looks like. That's what the world is up against.

Total betrayal of Ukraine, time for Europe to step up - US has suspended all military aid to Ukraine, White House official says, in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Presumably this was the plan all along and the spat with Zelenskyy in the White House the premeditated excuse.

This is the problem with the timidity and fake balance of BBC political coverage. A historic betrayal of Ukraine to Russia by Europe's former ally is boiled down to an utterly superficial row about a man's clothes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If the UK’s immigration rules mean what they say, Trump shouldn’t even be allowed to enter the country, let alone for a state visit ….

Netanyahu again orders a complete ban on food, medicine, and other emergency humanitarian aid for people in the Gaza Strip. This is not only an openly acknowledged war crime, it is the exact same one that made the ICC issue an arrest warrant for him and Gallant last year. jpost.com/breaking-new...

Ok also AOC and Elon Musk are not in a “tit-for-tat feud.” AOC is a duly elected member of Congress who operates under an oath to our constitution and Elon Musk is an unelected Nazi billionaire whose wealth makes him think he’s above the law and empowered to illegally torch our government.

"Ordinary people can unite against the handful of globe-striding, monopolising, tax-dodging, worker-crushing oligarchs that are driving the far-right surge" If you need a bit of hope this morning, read Nicholas Shaxson's piece on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/the-far-ri...

The cowardice of the GOP has been astounding 👇 #TraitorTrump

(on a personal note it's quite striking how quickly I've gone from "generally a bit of a pinko on defence issues" to "and could I just do a monthly direct debit to BAE Systems, would that help")

Ending the night with this. *Get your hankies* A D-Day veteran called a gracious and humbled Zelenskyy a hero.

This is Winston Churchill visiting the White House during World War II. Funny how he isn’t wearing a suit either. Almost like he was a wartime leader defending his country from being slaughtered and wiped out by an authoritarian aggressor.

I want to amplify this message because what happened last night in Kharkiv was a blatant and deliberate act of russian terror against civilians. Russia launched NINE kamikaze drones at the city, targeting only civilian areas—including a hospital and residential buildings.

Some folks are suggesting that Zelensky could have done a deal with Trump if only he had not talked back. But Trump is no longer invested in Ukraine’s defense. He just wants his rare earth minerals. So the bullets have to stop flying and Zelensky must sign on the dotted line.

Well, as America implodes from within, it’d be a *great* time for the EU to finally do official Eurobonds. It’d likely be very attractive as a safe haven given the destruction of US hegemony & spillover to US T-bills. Bonus: Eurobonds can finance a desperately needed European security build up! 🇪🇺💶 ‼️

I couldn’t agree more.

Starmer, where are you?

A perfect illustration of what the Republican Party is.

Ukraine has shown the world that the little guy can stand up to the bully and refuse to back down, even when the odds seem overwhelming. Resistance isn’t futile. In the next four years, we must stand just as strong as Ukraine has. All my respect to President Zelenskyy.

Winston Churchill was right: "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.” Too many Americans have fought and died defending democracy. We must stand with our European allies against the authoritarianism of Putin and Trump.

That was the most shameful performance by any American president in a century. I want to fucking throw up.

One is a wannabe dictator and one is the president of a democratic country. Can you guess which is which?

This.

"Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone," Polish Prime Minister Tusk said after Zelensky's conversation with Donald Trump.

That invite from Charles was a great idea!