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Replacement migration is going pretty well though. The Netherlands grew from 16 to 18 million in the last two decades and that isn’t due to births.

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Todd

It’s a conundrum. But Gar is probably right, at its core it’s just capitalism at work probably. Babies don’t make sense economically. That’s the hard truth, and it probably accounts for most of the decline. You can say you should counter that by spreading the conservative message that childbearing is an essential part of life, but many people just aren’t receptive to that. They look at their wallet.

 

It’s noteworthy that even conservative societies, like Iran for instance and Hungary like Gar said, are seeing the decline. Israel is an exception, with a birth rate of 2.92 child per woman on average.

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Uncle Retrospective

There is a bit of a backlash against metoo stuff here in the Netherlands. A Dutch singer, Marco Borsato, who was on trial for sexual assault of a minor and who was acquitted was on tv again for the first time in years, trying to do a come back. Some people firmly believe he did nothing wrng, this despite certain clear established facts, like he apped an underage girl about masturbation. In the trial it sort of didn’t get proven definitively that he did things which can be described as sexual assault, but it’s clear he’s a pervert who was hanging around girls of the “Epstein age”, like 13-14-15, way too much. And yet many people say “oh, that’s not so bad. He should be welcomed back to resume his career”. Makes me sick.

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Todd

garjones wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Can’t imagine why the Republicans party is chock full of paedophiles

I wonder when people are going to accept we have to work around this?

Essentially this is an issue affecting every developed country, quite a few developing too, and no solution has worked. Even India is now below replacement level. Singapore loosened laws on sex in films to get people friskier, Nordic countries have put in generous parental leave and child support, Korea has given a whopping $280bn in cash or voucher incentives and it still keeps reducing, they are rock bottom globally.

Orban’s right wing autocracy made it a key policy aim to have replacement fertility rate of 2.1 by 2030, spending a whopping 5% of GDP on it and essentially got nowhere much. It remains around 0.3% lower than most western European countries, probably because they clamped down on migration and new migrants tend to have more kids.

So basically short of forced birthing camps or some other fascist nightmare nothing works other than migration. Maybe countries like Japan that are looking at things like how robotics can provide elderly care are being more realistic.

I still don’t really understand why this is happening. It’s really happening everywhere except a fe African countries.

 

I think increased wealth is one factor probably, people don’t need kids anymore to look after them when they’re old, because the state takes care of that.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Yeah ads are really a plague.

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Todd

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Criticizing Israel is one thing, but people should never generalize, saying the faults of Israel prove that Jews are simply bad people. Of course the same is true for all ethnic groups. For instance I think you can criticize certain things about Islamic countries and the religion of Islam, but don’t generalize about all Muslims.

Yeah, right now it’s really important to protect Jews in other countries from anti-semitism. While also calling out Israel’s genocide and further war crimes.

Really it just comes down to fairness…I think you can condemn anyone, Jew or not Jew, who does something bad or has horrible opinions. But you can’t attack someone for their group identity. That doesn’t make sense.

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Christian

I watched a podcast with Dutch philosopher Haroon Sheikh about the sinister ideas in Silicon Valley about AI, where society is heading, and how they intermingle with politics. It’s all pretty upsetting.

 

Many of them believe in radically changing human nature, getting rid of empathy, letting the weak perish. Like what Nietzsche says, that which is falling should be pushed.

 

He also talked about Thiel weaponzing “mimetic desire”, and the scapegoat mechanism, ideas he got from the French philosopher Rene Girard. It’s about how people copy each other’s desires, which leads to competition for certain things like resources and power and results in violence against scapegoat minorities.

I kinda like Ossoff, but I don’t know very much about him.

Hopefully…

 

I have my problems with parties that are on the left, but the right is just evil. Sucking up to Trump and Netanyahu and using all foreigners as scapegoats. It’s pretty bad

 

Our King Willem Alexander and PM Jetten are having a meeting with Trump this week. Weird timing.

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Todd, Ben

Orban has conceded. It’s over.

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Todd

Looks like a huge win for the opposition in Hungary! Nice.

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Christian, njerry, Todd

If Harris or Buttigieg is the candidate, I think the dems will probably lose. They just don’t have the right charisma. They look wimpy.

 

 

 

 

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Todd

My current avatar is an enso, a hand drawn circle which is a symbol in Zen Buddhism.

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njerry, Todd

The Dutch Voedingscentrum (food centre) in its new guidelines said we should ideally eat no more than 300 grams of meat a week, of which 100 grams of red meat. That’s about the amount of meat people eat in countries like Togo and Niger. I don’t think people there are healthier than us.

 

The suspicion many have is that it’s not about health, it’s about what they believe is good for the climate. Health is sacrificed for climate goals.

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njerry, Sean Robinson, Todd, Martin Smith, Uncle Retrospective, Dave

It might seems like a good thing that there is so much infighting now in MAGA circles but there is a big shift towards what is pure antisemitism happening. Tucker Carlson is instrumental in this, getting people like Darryl Cooper on his show who is a huge antisemite. And he also had Nick Fuentes on I think.

 

Criticizing Israel is one thing, but people should never generalize, saying the faults of Israel prove that Jews are simply bad people. Of course the same is true for all ethnic groups. For instance I think you can criticize certain things about Islamic countries and the religion of Islam, but don’t generalize about all Muslims.

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Ben

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

[lorcan_nagle]

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Anti-Catholic prejudice is baked in deep in the US.  It’s not even 100 years ago they were screaming that electing JFK as President would be handing the nation over to the Vatican.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 2 days ago by lorcan_nagle.

 

People can say about the Vatican what they want but I think their stance on these wars that have been going on, in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran (there are other wars as well but I haven’t heard the pope comment on them) has been very consistently on the side of peace.

 

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Ben

Israel is calling their current actions in Lebanon “Operation Eternal Darkness”. They’re really as crazy as the nazis were.

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Ben, Todd

All the misinformation around this war in Iran has been amazing. Of course from Trump, but the pro-Iranian side also made up incredible lies. Claiming all of Tel Aviv was reduced to rubble.

Apparently the Pentagon threatened the pope. That seems in line with this administration. It’s all very antichristian.

 

https://newrepublic.com/post/208820/pentagon-threatened-pope-criticized-donald-trump

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Todd

You have to remember who the people were that were all in favor when Trump openly threatened to genocide the Iranians but who are now back to saying “we have to save the Persian people from the evil Islamist regime”.

Crazy thing that Alex Jones is calling for the 25th amendment to remove Trump and my own government in the Netherlands is saying, well we shouldn’t demonize Trump, we have to work together.

Yeah it’s the same in the Netherlands. People blame Labor party PvdA for screwing the country, but they haven’t been in power for 15 years or so. VVD, Rutte’s party, is the real devil of Dutch politics. They’re “conservative liberals”, but they’re really worse than Wilders in how they fuck things up.

 

VVD is also the party that fellates the US the most.

njerry wrote:

If people wanted what was best for the country, then multi-millionaires and billionaires would happily pay their fair share of taxes to improve our infrastructure, our education system, and especially our health care system.

Well I think most people vote for what they think is best for the country, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Some think Musk etc are good for the country but obiously they’re wrong.

I guess you can be mad at people voting out of malice, to hurt people, usually minorities. Or liek when they vote for a candidate who threatens to attack some peaceful neighboring country. But I really believe that’s rare. Most people vote for the candidate they think is best for the country.

 

Maybe happening more than it used to though. I am not sure.

It’s also a question of an individual’s responsibility versus the responsibility of society. We can blame the individual voter for voting wrong, but that’s kind of like the neoliberal “bootstraps” ideology where everything that happens in your life is your own fault. Isn’t it also the fault of the larger community as well? It’s the responsibility of schools, the media, etc  to steer people in the right direction.

 

Instead we’re bombarded by messages that exploit our vulnerabilities, 24/7. It’s kind of like blaming someone for catching a virus.

njerry wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Honestly it’s tough to blame people for their votes. People are often raised in a bubble and influenced in ways that make them vote some way, like evangelical Christians. To some extent it overrides free will.

I’m sorry, Arjan, but that’s just bullshit. I cannot excuse people who vote mindlessly.

Every person who has the right to vote also has a responsibility to make an informed choice about which candidate they should give their vote to. Many Americans spend more time deciding what teams to pick on their March Madness betting poll, or what color to pick for the new car they buy, than they do on choosing who to vote for to run their country for the next 4 years.

I want my vote to reflect the issues and national direction that matter to me, not what matters to my employer, or my union bosses, or to the archbishop of my church, or the guys I play poker with on Thursday night.

Well there’s a lot of propaganda ot there influencing how people vote, and that is outside of the voting individual’s control. (As well as other factor’s outside of our control, like what religion one is born in, one’s education, how parents and friends and loved ones influence them etc)

 

For instance in Russia, which is saturated with Putin’s propaganda, Putin’s approval rating, according to reliable polls, is very high. Can you blame the voting Russian for that? Can you say a Russian who supports Putin is just a bad person? He is in a closed off information bubble. Obviously it’s not that bad (yet) in Western countries, but still we are not immune to our own propaganda.

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Al-x

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

I think there is a connection with modernity and capitalism. People seem to be losing, I dunno, nuance. Everything is about short term gratification of desires. Getting a quick dopamine hit. Concern for others, for mutual benefit, the building of societal trust and the overall good, are dropped to some extent. It blunts the skills we use for such things. We function more on primal emotions.

 

I also think the “social distancing” during covid is damaging because of this. We lost some of the skills we use in communicating and having social connections.

 

It is actually cruel, especially to kids who are still acquiring those skills, to do social distancing. In a time of trouble, as corona was, you should encourage people being more social. You need social connection, not social distancing.

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Christian

I think there is a connection with modernity and capitalism. People seem to be losing, I dunno, nuance. Everything is about short term gratification of desires. Getting a quick dopamine hit. Concern for others, for mutual benefit, the building of societal trust and the overall good, are dropped to some extent. It blunts the skills we use for such things. We function more on primal emotions.

I think it’s also a kind of cultural degeneration. The IQ in Western countries is dropping. It’s not really clear what is causing this. But if you look at the level of discourse in talk shows, political debates etc, the stuff delivered by the mass media, it’s clear things are getting dumber. This is not just true for the right wing of the political spectrum although it’s more pronounced there. Again you can’t really blame individual voters for this.

 

“Vibes” are getting more important in politics. It’s not so much about the issues or rational solutions, for many people it’s more about which candidate is less cringe.

Honestly it’s tough to blame people for their votes. People are often raised in a bubble and influenced in ways that make them vote some way, like evangelical Christians. To some extent it overrides free will.

 

There are also voters who focus on one issue, and don’t have the capacity to see the broader picture. For instance they vote Republican because they don’t like abortion or they are afraid of losing their job, for instance in the coal industry. And there were people who were naive and thought Trump was truthful when he said he would make peace in Ukraine or Gaza.

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Christian

Yeah they can be bigoted. I am not excusing that of course. I just think for some voters voting right wing somehow mitigates some sexual insecurities.

 

Maybe it’s similar to how some religious people might pray for forgiveness after some perceived sin.

I believe that a significant part of right wing voting men have some secret sexual thing, like being gay or having some fetish, that they can’t accept, something that they feel they can exorcise, cleanse themselves from by voting right wing.

 

Umm Kamala has some good points…but if I vote for her…I might be homosexual!

njerry wrote:

I know Belgium and the Netherlands are two different countries

Only since the Union of Arras in 1579! One day we’ll get it back.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Arras

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Todd, njerry

That seems to be a technical issue, some fatbikes can be hacked to make them go faster. Officially they have to be limited to 25 km/h but it’s easy to make them faster. I think they can do it with their smartphone even. I have no idea how it works.

 

I think the EU is trying to fight that, they made some fatbikes illegal. I have to be honest and say I have seen fewer fatbikes that go very very fast.

A speaker at a small pro-Palestinian demonstration by an Islamic organization in Amsterdam said it was a shame Hitler didn’t finish the Holocaust. I’m pretty sure the large majority of pro-Palestinian protesters are not anti-semitic, but some definitely are.

The cane sugar in Mexican coke is broken down by the acid in the coke into the same molecules that are in high fructose corn syrup. There may be some difference in taste, but that is not because of the sugar. And for health it is just the same stuff.

njerry wrote:

State government in New Jersey (where I live) have cracked down hard on motorized bicycles and scooters. New rules that came into effect last year include: * Riders must be at least 15 years old * Riders must have an official driver’s license or a motorized bicycle license (effective July 2026) * Vehicles must be registered and insured * Vehicles are prohibited on sidewalks

That seems great. The problem in the Netherlands is that politicians want to make a difference between “decent” electric bikes that look like normal bikes, and so called fatbikes that look like this:

 

 

And that’s legally pretty much impossible. They’re just normal electrical bikes but a bit more macho looking and with thick tyres.

 

 

They seem to attract antisocial folks, somehow. They look big and tough, like a motorbike kind of, so I think that’s why the teenagers who are prone to being a bit antisocial get them

 

But if you just keep to the rules and behave politely in traffic there’s nothing wrong with fatbikes.

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Christian

Honestly it is kinda amusing the weird circles politicians talk themselves into with fatbikes. It is not the fatbikes that hurt people, it’s the antisocial scum that rides on them, in an antisocial manner. That’s who you have to get off the street. It’s not the fatbikes, stupid.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Also, Euronews exists

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euronews

 

Ah OK I didn’t know about that one, thanks for pointing that out.

Right that’s true…I was thinking about DW, but I wasn’t sure it was anglophone. The Netheralnds doesn’t have anything comparable to this. I think France has a similar thing too, France 24. But I think DW and F24 are focused on Germany and France rather than the EU as a whole.

 

Still I am not sure they make such a big impact as RT and Al Jazeera seem to do. I could be wrong about this.

Ads are totally fucking insane. I got an ad on twitter asking me to invest in the South Chinese power grid and I just got an ad on youtube for real estate in Monaco, specifically a 5 million euro apartment…

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Todd

Of course state media and private media could coexist, as well as social media etc. I’m not saying the state should have a news monopoly.

 

I also believe the EU needs an anglophone media platform to represent itself to the rest of the world. Al Jazeera kind of does that for part of the Arab world.

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Christian

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Todd

I heard a journalist I do have some respect for on a podcast say he is so pissed off about journalism in the Netherlands being destroyed, while he says in the same interview he wants to protect liberal values. Guess what, the liberal system also destroys journalism. It delivers everything over to the market forces, which cut everything down.

 

I think we need something like the BBC or Al Jazeera, and use that model for newspapers as well. State funded and state supported.

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Todd

An old high school friend of mine became a banker and works for a trading firm in Dubai now, trading oil futures. It’s too bad I have no contact with him anymore, I bet he could tell interesting stories now.

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Todd

Christian wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Also Israel has in the past attacked Qatar, who is also supposedly a friend of the US.

And that’s when Trump put a stop to Israel’s attack. Fuck, he forced Netanyahu to humiliate himself by calling the Qataris from the Oval Office to apologise.

The US will go a long way in their support of Israel, and they certainly don’t give a fuck about a genocide against the Palestinians. But you fuck with their oil money, and that support will be gone in the blink of an eye, that’s for sure.

Also, don’t forget the Saudis let him touch their magic ball.

(Kidding, really. This isn’t even about Trump. Like I said, the US have never been quicker to start a war than when Saddam annexed Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia.)

Well Saudi Arabia is a stretch, but it is a goal that has been expressed by ministers like Smotrich and maybe Netanyahu himself. At least I’m sure Netanyahu has expressed this sentiment with regard to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.

 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/netanyahu-embraces-greater-israel-vision-including-parts-jordan-and-egypt

Todd wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Well as this war is showing, oil income is not guaranteed.

Oh, on the contrary, it is very much guaranteed. Saudi Arabia was with Israel in pushing Trump into this war.

SA is making a bank with the spike in oil prices. It is also giving them an opportunity to renegotiate a lot of investment deals to give themselves better terms. This war also will give them better leverage in the oil markets.

 

Shipping of oil has stopped because Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. And if the US and Israel attack Iranian infrastructure, Iran has said it will attack Saudi oil infrastructure. I’m not sure Iran can knock out the pipelines Saudis and the UAE use, but if Iran can do that, their oil transport will stop entirely. I don’t think they make any money if they can’t deliver the oil to the client.

 

And I think Qatar has completely stopped its LNG production.

Todd wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

With the Saudis a military occupation would probably be unthinkable, so I believe they would use political influence. I think they want to be regional hegemon rather than occupying the whole area that is biblically claimed to be part of Israel.

While Israel has some political influence (and I believe that is waning each day), the Saudis have oil money. They can buy and sell Israel while turning a profit on the deal. People will back the Saudis because they need oil way more than Israel’s bullshit.

Well as this war is showing, oil income is not guaranteed.

 

Also Israel has in the past attacked Qatar, who is also supposedly a friend of the US.

 

I think Israel has a strong influence on Trump and many of his cabinet members. Of course things would probably change to some degree if a democratic president would be elected in 2028.

 

It would border on antisemitism to portray Israel as an all controlling power, but I think it is fair to say Israel has a certain degree of influence. Also Republicans are strongly influenced by Christian zionism, which is a big thing for many protestants. Also there is probably a tendency in US policy circles to believe Israel being the hegemon in the Middle East would benefit the US, as it is perceived to would be less likely to turn against US power than an Islamic hegemon.

With the Saudis a military occupation would probably be unthinkable, so I believe they would use political influence. I think they want to be regional hegemon rather than occupying the whole area that is biblically claimed to be part of Israel.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/germanys-far-right-afd-demands-withdrawal-of-us-troops/3884583

 

There have always been Germans saying “Ami go home” and certainly the German far right believe they’re occupied by the US, but sounds like these will become more common with Trump being this unhinged and Israel going crazy. This benefits Putler of course…but maybe a scenario like this is becoming unavoidable.

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Christian

Republicans are trying to create some distance between Vance and Trump in the mind of the voters. Tucler Carlson has been criticizing Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran but he is now promoting an alleged effort by Vance to make a ceasefire deal, saying he is honest and has moral rectitude.

Israel is being more open about the plans for Greater Israel, which includes Lebanon, Jordan, parts of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. However it is more likely they will want to achieve this by installing puppet governments than military domination. Small parts of it could be literally annexed though, like happened with the Golan Heights in Syria.

 

Meanwhile my own government acts a lot like an Israeli puppet government.

 

 

The pope is a very bad tweeter. Lots of woolly language that says nothing and hardly makes sense.

 

The people who reply to his tweets are often completely nuts though. Amusingly nuts or dangerously nuts.

Dave wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Dave wrote:

Transgender women athletes banned from female events at Olympics by IOC

I’m not sure if this is some culture war shit and terfs have infiltrated the IOC or if this is a good decision because their genetics give them an advantage.

I think it’s the only logical outcome that could be reached if they want to ensure fairness in sex-based categories.

For me the aspect that makes it pretty clear that it’s not motivated by transphobic principles is that trans men are still free to compete in the male category if they choose, because it doesn’t confer any competitive advantage.

 

I’m not sure…I think there have been zero cases thus far of trans women winning Olympic medals. If they had such a big advantage, wouldn’t there have been lots of cases of them winning medals and setting world records?

 

There is a lot of anti transgender propaganda, and groups working behind the scenes to damage the rights of trangender people. I think it’s a certainty that they’re lobbying sports organizations to hell and back to try to influence their decisions.

 

It could be that the anti-transgender people just happen to be accidentally right here, that there’s a real concern. I’m not sure.

Our labor social democrats party PvdA and green party Groen Links are merging into one party with the name “Progressief Nederland” (or PRO for short).

 

I think this could be disastrous. They think as one party they will get all the votes the two parties got, but I doubt it. Both parties are losing their brand. Back in the day PvdA was a workers party, that’s what the name stands for, Partij van de Arbeid (Labour party). Now it risks becoming something that is just vaguely progressive. A party for urban elites.

Dave wrote:

Transgender women athletes banned from female events at Olympics by IOC

I’m not sure if this is some culture war shit and terfs have infiltrated the IOC or if this is a good decision because their genetics give them an advantage.

I wonder if there is a connection between the hippie movement in the 60s and later neoliberalism. The 60s was an era of individualism, free love, hedonism, follow your bliss, all that stuff, and individualism was also the driving engine of neoliberalism.

 

(I know neoliberalism was championed by conservative politicians like Reagan and Thatcher, but it also turned against the idea of the responsibility of the community that existed in tradtional religious society.)

April 12th there are elections in Hungary, which Orban could lose. That would also be a loss for Putin. There are now stories in the media that Russia could be planning a false flag assassination attempt on Orban, to create sympathy for him and help him stay in power.

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Todd

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

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Dave, Uncle Retrospective, Todd, njerry

 

Interview with Morrison. He’s in that mode of “we all merge with the AI and become one”. I think that would be a kind of virtual eternal hell.

 

Honestly, his ideas about magic have always been a bit stupid.

 

Also he repeats the brainlet take here that Elon Musk’s total wealth, accumulated over decades could pay for UBI. It is only enough for a one time 500 dollar stimulus check for all Americans.

 

edit: ooops, I’m wrong there. It is about a one time 2400 dollar stimulus check. So his total wealth could maybe fund UBI for 2 months.

Netanyahu just made a speech where he said Ghengis Khan was superior to Jesus Christ.

 

This is some kind of apocalyptic, civilizational confrontation.

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Todd

Too bad there are not really English cheeses in the shops here, I would like to try some. The foreign cheese that the cheese shop has is from Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

 

(I think the supermarket has cheddar cheese, but I don’t trust it, it is probably an inferior quality compared to the real deal)

We’ve got a violent anti-refugee group in the Netherlands causing trouble, the so-called “Defend” groups, organized by city where they protest against asylum centres, like Defend Amsterdam, Defend Utrecht, Defend Alkmaar, Defend Lutjebroek etc. Their modus operandi is violent protest and threats to stop the building of new asylum centres.

 

These guys are just full on nazis. Including yelling about “dirty Jews” etc. Absolutely rabid xenophobes.

 

(By the way I don’t understand why a Dutch nationalist would use an English word to name their organization)

Boerenkaas is a special type of gouda cheese that is made with unpasteurized milk and made by one specific farm. Most are Gouda style but some are also Swiss style, with holes. The cheese shop in the local shopping centre sells boerenkaas from a number of farms, and my favorite is from a farmer called Mulder, from a farm south of Rotterdam. (South of Rotterdam is pretty rural) They make a Swiss style boerenkaas that is just…soooo good.

I heard someone say that really good cheese has to be close to disgusting. The special flavor elements in good cheese have to be very outspoken and striking and strong tasting, like in a stinky French cheese. The same is true for good Dutch cheese.

 

 

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Todd

I looked at old photos today in the nursing home that one of the residents showed me. It was a nice moment but I was stunned by how strong and healthy people looked back in the day. I think the pictures were from the 40s or early 50s.

 

It was like they had a healthy glow over them. Today so many people look pudgy and unhealthy.

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Todd

Uh yeah he’s mad. It’s better to pay no heed to anything he says.

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

You see a lot of people on social media now claiming that Israel controls the US. (Or they just say Jews.) I think this is mostly wrong. I think you can accuse the Israeli government of having an undue influence on US politics, but it’s not like they can just force the US to go along with everything, the US makes those decisions to go along by themselves. Especially from the evengelical Christian corner there is a lot of willingness to do things that are perceived to be in Israel’s interest, but they’re not forced by Israel to do that, they do it willingly. And Christian zionism predates Jewish zionism.

 

If you say Israel “controls the US” you’re going along with the antisemitic stereotype that Jews have a kind of secret control over everything.

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Christian

I think it makes an improvement to not listen to (or read) anything Trump says. At this point it’s just gibberish. He’s said Iran has surrendered a couple of times now. It’s all garbage.

 

Instead pay attention to what is actually happening, what the military is doing etc

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Todd

I think people his age can get those spots in their faces, it’s probably not a medical emergency.

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Todd

Yeah I listened to a Dutch podcast which has had a lot of good episodes on certain subjects, but their take on this conflict in Iran was so atrocious. They said “Trump has taken out the leadership, now it is up to the people of Iran to take over the country…” I mean….my God, how can they be so dumb? Do they think a million protestors can just take over a country, if they’re not well armed? If there is no buy in from regime forces who are willing to turn against government leaders?

 

The regime is not popular but it has a loyal core of followers.

I don’t believe the Iranian government has a lot of popular support in Iran, if you would look at it democratically; the majority probably loathes their government. But that doesn’t mean they can overthrow the government. There doesn’t seem to be much of an armed resistance.

Todd wrote:

we are seeing the true state of the big militaries and it’s not a great picture. I believe there has been a lot of bluffing and posturing that has been revealed to be complete bullshit.

It shows the US to be incompetent but that’s not necessarily an indictment of the military skills and capacities, it’s how they are used by the civilian leadership. In terms of the damage that was done to Iran, the country is severely hurt, but that doesn’t mean the regime is destroyed or the military is eliminated. Those goals just can’t be achieved by aerial bombardment. No matter how competent your airforce is.

 

At this point there is no realistic goal. Trump and Hegseth thought Iran would fold after some airstrikes and assassinations, but the Iranian regime, it may be evil, but they are no cowards.

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Todd

Tonight there was a bomb attack at a Jewish school in Amsterdam.

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Todd

I think Iran’s gameplan right now is, pbviously keeping Hormuz closed, but also driving a wedge between the Gulf States and the US. Iran is saying “we’ll stop bombing you if you kick out the yankees.” It’s not completely unthinkable. Iran has shown US protection doesn’t stop their countries from being bombed, and their economy destroyed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/12/russia-fossil-fuels-revenue-us-israel-war-iran-data

 

Russia gaining huge benefits from the war in Iran. Starting to think they are smarter than we are.

Most Dutch politicians seem to be lining up behind Israel and the US. Disgusting.

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Todd

[Arjan Dirkse]

Various translations of Asian spiritual texts have been “protestantized” I think. Instead of giving a faithful rendering of certain key terms, they put in references to a god who is all about love, like the Christian god. The Easwaran translation of the Upanishads, which is probably the most popular translation, translates “deva atman shakti”, literally god-self-energy, as “the Lord of Love”. Or in another place “brahman” is translated as Lord of Love.

 

I think this mix of Eastern ideas and Christian pietism was also the main influence for the hippie movement. The Tibetan Buddhist group led by Chogyam Trungpa, quite a controversial figure who was an alcoholic and accused of abusing his students, started Naropa university in Boulder, Colorado, which was influential in the hippie movement and new age ideas.

 

 

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Arjan Dirkse.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

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Todd

Looks like the “Iran will quickly run out of missiles” is the same lie they told us about Russia running out of munition.

Argos is a radio show/ podcast in the Netherlands which has run for decades and it is regarded as some of the best investigative journalism in the country and they did an episode about ritual abuse, which corroborated certain allegations made by abuse victims that weren’t followed up on by the police. After it caused a stir in the country with politicians demanding an investigation it was removed from the web (although some people uploaded it to youtube). That was another oddity.

Welll we’ve at least gone from “it never happens” to “it happens sometimes, but it’s one of many forms of child abuse”.

 

Honestly  lot of child abuse allegations are not taken seriously by police. Look at the catholic abuse cases, or the grooming scandal in the UK for instance. I think there is a similar thing with these types of ritualistic child abuse. I don’t exactly know why, but it looks like children’s accusations are just not taken seriously.

If the Hormuz strait stays closed, it could be game over for Europe. I could see a future where European countries  make a deal with Russia and ditch the US and Israel.

This is an interesting shift, they always denied that satanic child abuse was a real thing.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/08/chatgpt-driving-rise-in-reports-of-satanic-organised-ritual-abuse-uk-experts-say

 

I had followed the case they mention in Scotland. Not a lot of news about it, but it was reported a few times that there was a satanic element in the allegations. In the verdict obviously satanism wasn’t mentioned, because satanism isn’t a crime, but it was also omited from news reports about the verdict.

Ceiling of a mosque in Iran

 

 

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Martin Smith, Todd, Uncle Retrospective

The US has never before cooperated  this closely with Israël, yet the American people have never been as opposed to Israël as they are now. Weird contradiction.

 

If you like to shittalk the US, keep in mind most of the people didn’t want this war.

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Todd

In Europe only Spain has clearly spoken out against the war in Iran. Fucking crazy.

I think at this moment there are 3 main points of contention in this war.

 

-Can the US and Israel destroy the capacity of Iran to enrich uranium

-Can they stop Iran’s ability to bomb Israel and the Gulf

-Can they free the Hormuz strait to resume shipping

Regime change seems out of the question. There is no way Iranians will overthrow the regime, never mind some Kurds or Balochis. And a US ground invasion is very unlikely.

The Guardian reports that the Iranian president Pezeshkian has apologized to neighboring countries for the attacks. I think he means countries like Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE…not Israel obviously.

 

I think that is the first significant step of de-escalation.

 

edit: apprently it doesn’t mean much, since all Gulf countries have US bases that are still seen as valid targets

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Martin Smith, Dan, Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Dave, njerry

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

You have to wonder if Israel has some kompromat on Trump,

Why not both? The man is a scumbag.

Yes I’m not denying the allegations made about Russia, both can be true.

You have to wonder if Israel has some kompromat on Trump, possibly through Epstein. I mean people were saying this about Trump and Russia, but Trump has done more that aligns with Netanyahu’s interests than Putin’s.

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Uncle Retrospective

Golestan palace in Tehran was bombed. This is an amazing building and not at all a legitimate military target.

 

This historic building was bombed.

🇮🇷 Built in the 18th century by the Qajar Turk dynasty, Golestan Palace is known as one of Iran's iconic buildings with its diamonds and mirrors.

This complex was on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Video by Kristina Makeeva pic.twitter.com/E4R11H8WT2

— MENA Visuals (@menavisualss) March 4, 2026