We rapporteerden al in januari 2023 over de Nederlander Jaitsen Singh die in de VS vastzat voor een dubbelmoord waarvoor hij hoogst waarschijnlijk onschuldig veroordeeld was. Zijn gezondheid was al jaren slecht, maar eerdere pogingen om hem zijn straf in Nederland te laten uitzitten mislukten. Tot nu toe! Continue reading →
Tag Archives: #usa
Ukraine – A short history
Perhaps, as I did, you wonder about the modern history of neighbors Ukraine and Russia, like:
- How did Ukraine become a sovereign country after the USSR fell?
- What agreements for the sovereignty of Ukraine were signed over the years?
- How did these agreements work out?
- Why can’t Ukraine and Russia just trust each other and sign a peace treaty?
I’ve tried to summarize all agreements on peace and sovereignty that Ukraine has been involved in with Russia since the fall of the USSR…
Putin’s Christmas wishlist – A reaction
I would like to contribute to Paul’s recent essay by trying to put institutions and persons into a different perspective.
If you find the tone somewhat cynical, then you may be right.
It’s about politics after all. Continue reading →
Putin’s Christmas wishlist
Two days ago, from the time I write this, a peace plan for Ukraine was leaked, most likely from the White House or from the Pentagon. It didn’t reveal much detail, but from any of those sources, anything could be expected. Two days in and the contents all over the news, I can confirm that it must look exactly like the put’n wishlist for Christmas presents. And there’s nothing in it for Ukraine. Continue reading →
How about Iran?
Yesterday, as I am writing this, the US decided to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities deeply buried under tens of meters of concrete. Whilst this may seem like a good idea any day of the week, it certainly escalates the already high tensions in the Middle East. It also may bring the US something the current regime said it would avoid at all cost: WAR. Continue reading →
The US elections – How to do better next time
It has been impossible for anyone to ignore the results of the recent election in the US. The orange candidate won in his words with ‘a landslide victory’, but in our fact-checked reality only with an ever so slight margin. Obviously, this depends on what numbers you are looking at: the number of electors or the number of actual votes.
The results:
- Electors:
- Reps: 312
- Dems: 226
- Actual votes:
- Reps: 77 302 580
- Dems: 75 017 613
Strong and kind
A well-known Swedish childrens hero called Bamse, has the following motto:
Den som är väldigt stark måste också vara väldigt snäll
…which translates loosely into:
He who is very strong must also be very kind
~
Police brutality – Unique to the USA?
It has been impossible to ignore the cases of severe police brutality from departments all over the USA. Any reasonable person would wonder, after reading about this for the second, third, or even fourth time in the same year, why US police departments do not learn from previous examples. After all, how hard can it be? Continue reading →
PrisonLAW
In de recente pers werd melding gemaakt van een gerechtelijke dwaling in de zaak Jaitsen Singh, de Nederlander die al tientallen jaren vastzit in de USA. En, zoals het er al lang naar uitziet, voor iets dat hij niet gedaan heeft. Een grove gerechtelijke dwaling derhalve!
Helaas is zijn geval niet uniek; hij is niet de enige Nederlander die onschuldig vastzit of vast gezeten heeft. Bovendien geldt hetzelfde voor gevangenen in andere landen dan de USA en met andere nationaliteiten dan de Nederlandse. Continue reading →
Domestic terroristm
When I wrote about terrorists a few weeks ago, I only briefly mentioned the domestic variety of terrorists or terrorism. According to trusty old Wikipedia, domestic terrorism can be simplest described as:
Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims “within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship” as the victims.
At the same time, Wikipedia mentions that there is no universally accepted definition of this phenomenon, leaving it to each country to set its own definition. Continue reading →
tɛɹəɹɪst
Say what…?
That spells terrorist, or tɛɹəɹɪst if you want to know its correct English pronunciation. The word is on the lips of everyone in presidential office, in each government, on police forces and in military all over the globe. It is used by democracies, dictatorships, military juntas, and autocracies the like. Anyone my age may remember that such was not the case for thirty or forty years ago. What happened? Continue reading →
US healthcare
What’s all that about you’ll wonder? Hear me out and I’ll try to explain.
The former, real, president of the US had a list of things he’d like to accomplish during his presidency. Obviously, every president has that but this one had put universal healthcare on his list. The item on his list would be known as Obamacare. A lot of effort and money was put into it and a lot of US citizens for the first time had access to healthcare worth its name and affordable. Continue reading →