RJ

@Bill198x @js5600000 @SethAbramson I am not against EU. Far from it. But it should never had expanded into Post Soviet Space. Same for NATO. EU needs deep reform: must return many powers to memberstates. Less money, less competences, less powers. Must be a Union of Nation States. And a Community of Western Values.

Nieuw artikel. Rutte's 'daddy-strategie' is symbool geworden voor het Trump naar de mond praten. Maar werkt het? Na ander halfjaar zou je denken dat het tijd is voor een evaluatiemoment nietwaar? hiddebouwmeester.nl/hoe-mark-rutte…

Ondertussen wordt in @GemeenteDenHaag de eenrichtingsstraat van Bylandtstraat al een uur geblokkeerd door een stuk of 10 auto's, want Turkse bruiloft. Handig wel als de hulpdiensten er moeten komen in geval van nood, maar mogelijk rekent @POL_DenHaag dat tot 'collateral damage' als de nood aan de man zou komen.

@Suppensalz @LBelenesR @GanzeGeschichte Morocco occupies Western Sahara like Russia occupies #Crimea and #Donbas. #Marokko #Oekraïne #Ukraine

@LBelenesR @GanzeGeschichte Hab die Linke in Spanien lange nicht gegen diese riesige Mauer in Westsahara demonstrieren sehen. Ich seh die Linke in Spanien immer nur die Plästinensergebiete anerkennen, nie aber die Westsahara.

Ungewöhnlich: Eine Eroberung durch Zivilisten - am 6. November 1975 marschieren etwa 350.000 unbewaffnete Bürger Marokkos in Spanisch-Sahara ein, um das Land Marokko einzuverleiben. Franco lebte zu dieser Zeit noch, lag aber bereits im Sterben. Spanien drohte noch ein bisschen zu schießen, tat es dann aber doch nicht, knickte ein und übergab das Land schließlich an Marokko. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BCn…

@ulrichspeck No way any Western European country will give up #NATO for this. If #NATO falls apart it will merge into a smaller defence organisation. Without Eastern Europe. #Trump #Rutte

If NATO falls apart (unlikely), its successor might be BSTO (Baltic Sea Treaty Organization). Just like NATO is organized around the Atlantic, BSTO would be organized around the Baltic Sea: Poland, Baltics, Nordics, UK, Netherlands, Germany. Only goal: to defend against Russia.

Trump zet Europa opnieuw onder druk om hem te redden in de Straat van Hormuz. Mogelijk stapt hij anders uit de NAVO, of stopt hij de hulp aan Oekraïne. @ajboekestijn en @robdewijk praten erover met GL-PvdA Europarlementariër @thijsreuten. bnr.nl/podcast/boekes…

@shrunk015 @H_Bouwmeester @ChrisAalberts Ik vind het werkelijk beschamend. "Een beschaving vernietigen." Wat als Poetin dat had gezegd? Of Xi? #Rutte #NAVO #Trump

@JamesRon1980 @H_Bouwmeester @ChrisAalberts Zolang er geen gemeenschappelijk standpunt is van andere NAVO-landen en dat hem wordt medegedeeld, doet hij wat hij nu doet.

Iedereen een goed weekend. Mocht je nog zin hebben om iets te lezen, dan kan dat hier. Over de vraag of er überhaupt een evaluatiemoment komt over Rutte's strategie van Trump te vlijen. Ik heb daar zo mijn twijfels over en ik denk u ook.

@shrunk015 @H_Bouwmeester @ChrisAalberts "We moeten weer leren afschrikken." We kunnen beginnen met het veroordelen van illegale aanval op #Iran. En het stoppen met kopen van LNG / gas uit de VS. En natuurlijk geen Amerikaanse wapens meer kopen. Waar wacht #Rutte op? #NAVO

@H_Bouwmeester @ChrisAalberts ‘Wij’ willen met VS (of denken er niet buiten te kunnen). VS wil niet met ons. ‘Wij’ kunnen/durven geen druk te zetten. Pappen en nathouden werkt niet. Polderen werkt niet. We moeten weer leren afschrikken.

Strange moment during a Turkish Airlines plane hijacking in 1980. In 1980, a Turkish Airlines flight traveling from Munich to Ankara was hijacked by four militants protesting Turkey’s recent military coup. Among the passengers was war correspondent Coşkun Aral, who managed to persuade the hijackers to let him into the cockpit, where he took this now-famous photo himself. The smiling man holding the gun was one of the hijackers. He aimed the weapon at the pilot’s neck, and in a strange, tense moment, everyone burst into laughter. Aral later recalled that the pilot reacted as though he were being tickled, and that nervous laughter was captured in the image. All of the passengers were eventually released unharmed, and the hijackers were arrested. Photos with fascinating backstories: bit.ly/3My0Nch

Genuinely a better question than most people realize. Apollo 11 left a 2-foot wide panel of mirrors on the lunar surface in 1969. No power source, no wiring, no maintenance. Scientists have been shooting lasers at it from New Mexico ever since. The beam travels 239,000 miles, bounces off the mirrors, and returns in 2.5 seconds. That round trip is how we know the moon is drifting away from Earth at 3.8 centimeters per year. So yes, in a literal sense, they were checking if it would still be there. The seismometers are the part that gets wild. Apollo 12 deliberately crashed its lunar module into the surface at 6,048 km/h. Scientists expected a brief shudder. The moon vibrated for over 55 minutes. On Earth, seismic waves from an equivalent impact die in seconds. Nobody had predicted this. So NASA did it again. Apollo 13 dropped its S-IVB rocket stage from orbit. Hit with the force of 11.5 tons of TNT. The vibrations lasted nearly three and a half hours. The reason is water, or the lack of it. Earth's interior is damp. Moisture in rock acts like a sponge, absorbing seismic energy. The moon is bone dry, cool, and rigid. Shockwaves have nothing to absorb them. They just bounce back and forth through solid stone until the rock itself stops vibrating. Scientists described it as the moon ringing like a bell. The seismometers ran for almost 8 years and detected over 13,000 seismic events. Turns out the moon has four types of quakes: deep ones caused by Earth's gravitational pull, shallow ones from the crust shrinking as the interior cools, thermal ones when sunrise thaws the frozen surface, and impacts from meteorites. In 2023, Caltech reanalyzed old Apollo 17 data and found a fifth type: the lunar lander itself creaking and popping every morning as the sun heated it. Every five to six minutes, for five to seven hours straight. They went up to prove the moon was once part of Earth, measure how fast it's leaving, and figure out what's happening inside a world with no atmosphere, no water, and no tectonic plates. "Checking if it was still there" is honestly closer to the truth than most people's actual answer.

Napoleon needed a king for Holland He gave the throne to his brother Louis in 1806 and told him to run it like a French province Louis learned Dutch, fell in love with the country, lowered taxes, and refused to send Dutch soldiers to die in Napoleon's wars Napoleon exiled him in 1810 for being too Dutch The Dutch still consider him one of their better kings

@JeremyJ_Cobb @FrankVanmeenen Let's hope more NATO countries will speak out against #Kiev joining #NATO... #Ukraine

@JamesRon1980 @FrankVanmeenen All NATO countries are pushing for Ukraine membership except the following US, Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary

Nato without the US and with Ukraine would be better.

@JeremyJ_Cobb @FrankVanmeenen Which countries you think?

@JamesRon1980 @FrankVanmeenen “So let NATO declare it” who do you think is keeping NATO from declaring that. I’ll give you a hint. It isn’t the US.

@4AnimalLife @KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze Thanks for fast reply. NATO was meant to protect Western Europe. It did its job. No need to expand to the East. Quite the opposite. #Ukraine #Georgia #Moldova

@JamesRon1980 @KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze As I said, I mean that Ukraine should be invited to join the NATO alliance *after* they win and kick out Russia from their country. Not before then, as the next Russian attack on Ukraine would then drag NATO allies into it. I don't know why you're against Ukraine joining after.

If the United States truly thinks about withdrawing from NATO, then European security will be based solely on the European Union. But not in its current form. I think that the EU is in a situation where it needs more countries. The UK, Ukraine, Türkiye, and Norway. These are four strong countries, which are part of Europe. Together, the UK, Ukraine, and Türkiye have armies that are stronger than Russia's army. Without Ukraine and Türkiye, Europe can’t match Russia. With the four countries on board you can wrest control of the seas, have secure skies and the largest land forces. It’s not about offense, because when Russia makes the decision to have an army of 2.5 million people by 2030, Europe has to think about security and how to preserve its independence. The UK once was a member of the EU. There are concerns about agriculture when it comes to Türkiye. But you can manage all of this if you have a really great economy. But security comes first, economy second. Not vice versa. From an interview on The Rest Is Politics podcast (5/5).

@DonaldWill39457 Neither Ukraine nor Ukraine SSR ever had nukes. The USSR had.

When Ukraine agreed to give up nuclear weapons, the price that the other side had to pay had to be fair. I think NATO membership was the smallest thing leaders of Ukraine had to get in exchange for the nuclear arms. What did we get? Nothing. It was not a fair game, and big

@Alma00011 Idem voor Syriërs in Turkije of Irak....

Kan iemand mij uitleggen waarom Palestijnen, die voorheen in Syrië, Egypte of Turkije woonden, daar nu opeens gevaar lopen en hier asiel aanvragen (en vaak krijgen)? telegraaf.nl/binnenland/ter…

@4AnimalLife @KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze Ukraine can look for non-NATO partners. NATO must stay out of this conflict.

@JamesRon1980 @KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze Why not? After Ukraine wins and kicks out Russia. Ukraine now has the strongest, most battle-hardened military that's also experienced in modern warfare and produces their own drone and missile technology, and would be an even stronger NATO member than the Netherlands or Canada.

@JeremyJ_Cobb @FrankVanmeenen Indeed. So let #NATO declare that please: "Ukraine will never join NATO:

@JamesRon1980 @FrankVanmeenen And Russia won’t stop fighting until they get guarantees that Ukraine won’t join NATO.

@gpward72 @ivanastradner @gothicdisco I think elections will be very close. But if #Orban loses he will concede power... #Hungary #Budapest @pl19971

@ivanastradner @gothicdisco I don’t think the Hungarian population will stand for it, nothing like a couple of residences being attacked to make people consider some quick travel plans

When (not if) Orbán loses this weekend’s election, Europe won’t be out of the woods. He won’t give up power easily. Russia has likely prepared a “regime preservation” package. Expect pressure, instability & Russian operatives on the ground. This will be a major test for the EU.

@JeremyJ_Cobb @FrankVanmeenen As long as Ukraine is at war Kiev cannot join.... #Ukraine #NATO #EU

@FrankVanmeenen And how exactly do you ever expect Ukraine to get into NATO if you want to kick out the US, the single largest supplier of military aid to Ukraine.

@4AnimalLife @KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze No. #Ukraine should never join NATO.. #Ukraine #NATO #EU

@KellerZoe @NhazeINhaze @ZelenskyyUa I agree. I like the idea of Canada being an EU partner, but not member. If US quits NATO, 30 of the remaining members should re-form & rename it, add an expulsion mechanism & boot Hungary if Orbán wins on 4/12, invite Ukraine, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan & SK to join.