Adviseur op het gebied van de leefomgeving en geïnteresseerd in nieuws, politiek, geloof en maatschappij. Tweets op persoonlijke titel
Alkmaar
Joined October 2012
- Tweets11.5K
- Following348
- Followers214
- Likes9.3K
Mark Balder retweeted
Être « antifasciste » sans savoir ce qu'est le fascisme, c'est ce qui permet de taguer la plaque d'un résistant juif abattu par la Gestapo. Tué par des fascistes en uniforme, sali par des fascistes en costume d'antifa.
Mark Balder retweeted
Al die opruiers van @PartijvdDieren die een petitie tegen de @SGPnieuws zijn begonnen vanwege de #abortuswet doen u geloven dat het om abortus in zijn algemeenheid gaat, maar @NickiVerweij
maakt eindelijk duidelijk waar het echt om gaat! Om levensvatbare kinderen! #WNLopzondag
Volgens oud-staatssecretaris en arts Nicki Pouw-Verweij kan een late abortus traumatisch zijn: "Het gebeurt niet zelden dat een kind levend ter wereld komt. Bij 24 weken wordt een bevalling opgewekt. Een kind ademt en huilt en wordt weggelegd om te sterven. Dat is heel heftig voor de moeder en voor het personeel. Je wikkelt het in een deken en wacht tot het stopt met ademen." #WNLOpZondag #WNL
Mark Balder retweeted
Yesterday in Gaza during a funeral for a Hamas terrorist, this occurred. And as seen, the standard aerial gunfire was as always present.
All these hundreds of bullets that is every day shot up in the air, over huge crowds of people, will come down again, and they will have a huge risk of hitting people in the upper body. That includes children.
This is something that is very common in most of the middle east, but especially Gaza as seen in the hundreds of videos showing this. It happens at weddings, funeral and as crowd control. Many times they even shoot directly at people, killing them or injuring them and then denying them healthcare.
There are many reports showing people getting hit in the upper body (examples below) and it will often get stuck in the upper body when it happens. A bullet that has been shot straight up in the air, will fall down in much lower speed than a direct hit has. However, it falls in high enough speed to easily penetrate the skin but it will often get stuck on the inside and the victim will have a much higher chance of surviving, with the bullet still left on the inside.
In Gaza these cases are then presented in the media like IDF is targeting children with sniper shots or similar. It has over and over happend since the spring of 2024. To these stories they often add X-rays that shows exactly the same kind of bullets like the stray bullet cases bellow.
However, on the videos where Gaza doctors take out the bullet out of the person, if you examine the video in detail it shows that it is actually a bullet from an AK47, not Nato ammunition that IDF uses. In addition, a Nato bullet will have a much lower chance of staying inside a body because it is fired at much higher speed, and at a direct hit it will often fracture on the inside.
Doctors in a hospital can't now how shot the person, what happened and have no knowledge of what type of bullet a person is from what type of weapon. They will repeat what was said to them. What is clear is that most, or all, of the stories presented in the media as IDF is targeting children for an example, are actually cases of Palestinans internal violence. They are stray bullets hitting Gazans or Hamas shooting people on the streets.
More in my article below:
Mark Balder retweeted
This cartoon is from 1930s. The West was quietly watching as russia was killing Ukrainian people.
Back then, they argued:
"The Soviet Union is not the Russian Empire!"
"Tales of millions starving aren't real!"
"We shouldn't anger the bear!"
"It's the leadership! The people are not to blame!"
Now they argue similar nonsense:
"Russia is not the Soviet Union!"
"All that footage of murder and genocide isn't real!"
"We shouldn't anger the nuclear country!"
"It's just Putin's war! The people are not to blame!"
A hundred years has passed and nothing has changed.
History will judge us for making the same mistake again.
Mark Balder retweeted
The Lukoil refinery in Kstovo - one of the largest oil refineries in Russia - has been struck.
What a sight.
Mark Balder retweeted
The situation in Poland is much simpler than all the talk of a “coup” suggests.
PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński’s party, which backed current President Karol Nawrocki, refused to recognise three lawfully elected Constitutional Tribunal judges back in 2015, together with then-President Andrzej Duda. Those judges were Roman Hauser, Andrzej Jakubecki and Krzysztof Ślebzak. PiS installed its own picks in their seats: Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski and Mariusz Muszyński. Even after the Tribunal confirmed that the original three had been lawfully elected, PiS and Duda refused to respect its ruling. They put their own political interests above the court’s decision.
Yes, the previous PO–PSL coalition had also broken the rules by electing two additional judges before it was entitled to: Bronisław Sitek and Andrzej Sokala. But when the Tribunal ruled against those appointments, the coalition accepted the decision. Borys Budka even apologised on behalf of PO. PiS never complied with the ruling concerning the three lawfully elected judges. That difference matters. One side accepted an unfavourable ruling. The other refused to obey it.
The court’s membership changed over the years. Cioch and Morawski died in 2017 and were replaced by Jarosław Wyrembak and Justyn Piskorski. Muszyński’s nine-year term ended in December 2024. Other judges’ terms ended too. Seats became vacant, and new judges needed to be elected.
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal judges are elected by the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, for nine-year terms. Donald Tusk’s governing coalition currently holds a majority there. That majority has the constitutional right to elect judges to fill those vacancies. PiS losing its parliamentary majority did not give it the right to block that process indefinitely.
The Sejm elected eight new judges. President Nawrocki accepted the oaths of three: Magdalena Bentkowska, Dariusz Szostek and Sławomir Patyra. But he refused to accept the oaths of the other five: Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, Marcin Dziurda, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and Maciej Berek. They eventually took their oaths without him present, formally addressing them to the president.
The oath is required by law. But it does not give the president a personal veto over parliament’s choice of judges. He is required to accept their oaths. The Tribunal itself ruled on this back in 2015. In October 2026, the Venice Commission backed that interpretation and supported allowing judges to take their oaths without the president physically present if he blocks the process, provided the necessary formalities are followed.
Yet the leadership of the very same Tribunal where PiS had unlawfully installed its own judges refused to let the new judges do their jobs. The court’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, insisted that they could not serve unless they took their oaths in Nawrocki’s presence. The president blocked the normal procedure, and the Tribunal’s leadership used that blockage to keep them out.
On October 30, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the temporary suspension of Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, and assumed leadership of the Tribunal. Lawyers dispute whether she had the legal authority to suspend them in that way. That specific step deserves legal scrutiny. It does not erase the obstruction that led to it.
I support Tusk’s efforts to end this obstruction, and I don’t buy the claims of a coup. PiS does not get to unlawfully install its own judges, refuse to respect court rulings, and then demand that everyone treat the situation it created as untouchable.
Tusk is right to push back. Judges elected by the Sejm should be allowed to do their jobs. The president has constitutional duties, not a personal veto over the court’s membership. And PiS has no permanent claim to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal.
🤖 Made with AI
Mark Balder retweeted
Ottoman "blood tax" refers to devşirme ("child levy"), a historical Ottoman practice where the state periodically recruited young Christian boys from the empire's Balkan provinces....
Every few years, Ottoman officials visited Christian villages to conscript a quota of adolescent boys (typically aged 7 to 15). The children were forcibly converted to Islam, taken to Istanbul, and placed with Turkish families to learn the language and customs. The most promising boys entered palace schools (like Enderun) to become elite bureaucrats, diplomats, or even Grand Viziers. Others were trained as elite shock troops known as the Janissaries.
. . . .
The Ottoman official arrived with armed men and an order from the sultan. Christian families were commanded to bring out their sons.
The boys were made to stand in a line while the officials moved among them, examining their faces, teeth, limbs, and bodies. Priests were forced to produce baptismal records. Fathers watched as strangers decided which children were strong enough, handsome enough, and intelligent enough to be taken.
The chosen boys were registered by name. Their height, complexion, scars, and other features were recorded so they could be identified if they escaped.
Then they were led away.
Some mothers followed the columns, weeping and calling after their sons, until the guards forced them back. The boys were bound together or marched under armed watch toward Constantinople.
Many would never see their families again.
. . .
The Ottomans called it the devşirme, meaning “collection.” The Christians of southeastern Europe called it the blood tax.
Beginning in the late fourteenth century, Ottoman officials periodically entered Christian villages and took their boys for the service of the sultan. Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Bosnians, Armenians, and other conquered Christians were subjected to the levy.
Parents hid their sons, falsified their ages, married them early, or scarred their bodies in hopes that the collectors would reject them. Some boys fled into forests or escaped from the columns carrying them away.
Resistance could bring beatings, imprisonment, or worse.
Once taken, the boys became the sultan’s slaves. They were circumcised and forced to convert to Islam. Their Christian names were replaced with Muslim ones. They were forbidden to practice the faith of their parents and separated from the language, customs, and people that might remind them who they had been.
Many were sent to farms in Anatolia, where they performed hard labor while learning Turkish and Islamic practice. Others entered palace schools.
Their training was deliberately merciless. Contemporary observers described hunger, exhaustion, savage beatings, and punishments intended to break disobedience. Enslaved palace boys were also vulnerable to sexual exploitation by powerful men. We cannot know how many suffered it, but their isolation and legal powerlessness left them with little protection from those who owned and supervised them.
The empire did not merely want their service. It wanted to erase the Christian child and construct an Ottoman servant in his place.
Many of the boys eventually entered the Janissaries, the elite infantry of the Ottoman army. They became disciplined archers, musketeers, palace guards, and assault troops. They stormed breached walls, defended the sultan, and formed the iron center of Ottoman armies.
Janissaries helped capture Constantinople in 1453. They fought at Kosovo, Varna, Mohács, Malta, and Vienna. Boys taken from Christian villages were transformed into soldiers of Islam and sometimes sent to conquer or kill people who spoke the languages of their childhood.
The system made conquered Christians surrender the children who would help conquer still more Christians.
#archaeohistories
Mark Balder retweeted
This is a de facto Nazi rally. This is how it starts. The Holocaust didn’t begin with death camps. It began with words and demonization.
Macklemore wears shirt calling for the release of notorious Palestinian terrorist during his ‘Free Palestine’ concert.
The anti-Israel rapper wore a ‘Free Marwan’ t-shirt to call for the release of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti -who was convicted for orchestrating terror attacks killing 5 people.
Mark Balder retweeted
🇵🇱🇪🇺 Poland’s Constitutional Crisis: Before You Believe The Coup Narrative, Understand Who Changed The Rules
I’m seeing people around the world sharing dramatic accusations about a coup in Poland. Most of them have absolutely no idea how this crisis started.
So here’s what you need to understand.
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal is supposed to protect the Constitution. Think of it as a court that decides whether the government and parliament are acting within constitutional limits. It is not supposed to be an instrument of whichever political party happens to hold power.
The trouble began in 2015, during a dispute over judicial appointments. The outgoing government made controversial appointments, but after PiS came to power, it rejected appointments that the Tribunal subsequently ruled were lawful and installed its own judges. The conflict expanded into years of battles over judicial independence, court appointments, and the rule of law.
In 2023, Polish voters elected a new parliamentary majority, bringing Donald Tusk’s coalition into government. But changing the government did not automatically undo the institutional changes made under PiS.
That’s the part people need to understand.
Imagine a political party losing an election but leaving behind appointees who can obstruct the new government’s attempts to restore institutions. Now imagine the resulting confrontation being presented to the world as proof that the new government is overthrowing democracy.
This is why the history matters.
In 2026, President Karol Nawrocki refused to swear in several judges elected by parliament. Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski also refused to allow newly elected judges to take up their duties.
On October 30, Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of Święczkowski and his deputy. The court’s rival leadership rejected her authority. Nawrocki returned to Warsaw, PiS politicians accused Tusk of staging a coup, protesters gathered, and police were deployed.
But an accusation of a coup is not proof of a coup.
Tusk’s government argues that it is restoring constitutional order after years of unlawful interference with the judiciary. Nawrocki and PiS argue that the suspension itself violates constitutional order. The legality of these actions must be determined through the law, not by whichever politician shouts the loudest.
And here’s the bigger question.
When politicians claim to defend law and order, do they mean laws that apply equally to everyone, including themselves? Or do they mean protecting their own people and their own control over institutions?
That’s the contradiction at the heart of this crisis.
I grew up in communist Poland. I remember what political control over institutions looked like. That’s why I take the independence of courts seriously, regardless of which party is in government.
Poland doesn’t belong to PiS. It doesn’t belong to Tusk. It doesn’t belong to Nawrocki. It belongs to its people!
It belongs to the Polish people.
And before anyone outside Poland shares another sensational post about a supposed coup, they should understand the decade of political and constitutional conflict that brought the country to this point.
Law and order must mean the rule of law, not the rule of whichever party claims to own it.
Mark Balder retweeted
🇵🇱 Polish PM Donald Tusk:
The attack on the Tribunal and its judges is another stage in the process of destroying the rule of law in Poland by PiS and Presidents Duda and Nawrocki.
Together with the parliamentary majority, I made attempts to repair the Tribunal.
No one had any doubt that the Tribunal in the form imposed by PiS was not a real court.
That was the assessment of international institutions, Polish legal authorities and public opinion.
To simplify matters, let me use a comparison. Imagine a situation in which a thief snatches an elderly woman's handbag and runs away.
When he is caught, he starts screaming that violence is being used against him and calls it theft when someone tries to take back his loot.
Meanwhile, some bystanders, the so-called both-sides people, propose that, to calm things down, the thief and the victim should divide the contents of the handbag equally.
For years, there have been organizations and politicians in Poland who want to destroy democracy and the rule of law.
And it is no coincidence that they find support among pro-Russian forces around the world.
And today, in this conflict, they are benefiting from the support of an army of Russian bots on the internet.
They have even received public compliments from the Kremlin's chief ideologue.
Mark Balder retweeted
Waarom mogen we niet wegkijken? Doen we toch ook bij Soedan, Afghanistan, Iran, christenen die worden afgeslacht in West-Afrika, dakloosheid en armoede in Nederland?
Donder toch een eind op met je Israëlhaat. #nooitmeerisnu
Mark Balder retweeted
The Nakba tragically did happen--in 1948 Palestinians started a war that killed 1% of Israel's population, most of whom were Holocaust survivors.
Palestinians ethnically cleansed every single Jew from East Jerusalem and the West Bank (the Etzion bloc) and massacred the doctors and nurses of the Hadassah hospital and Hebrew University.
It could have all been avoided had they not started a war and accepted the UN's peaceful two state solution.
Mark Balder retweeted
Als vegetarische niet-gelovige vrouwenrechtenpersone, moet ik beamen dat Joris hier een prima punt maakt
Mark Balder retweeted
Zomaar even ter info; SGP is altijd heel constructief, al decennia lang. Het enige wat ze nu vragen of het kabinet pas op de plaats wil maken, mbt de abortus en het draagmoederschap. Van beide zeggen ze niet dat het van tafel moet, alleen pas op de plaats . Als dat teveel gevraagd is, hoeft wmb de SGP niet met het belastingplan in te stemmen .
Dan hoort de #SGP het ook nog eens van een ander. nd.nl/lees/1337015
Mark Balder retweeted
If you’re confused by what’s going on in Poland: loser President and anti-Ukrainian troll @NawrockiKn, beloved by fans of Russia like @FarRightSkip etc, has been trying to block elected judges from being seated. Prime Minister @donaldtusk ended his attempted coup, seated the judges, and Nawrocki is whining about it. He can’t do anything to stop it; he lost. Well done Poland! 🇵🇱 🤝🇺🇦
Mark Balder retweeted
PiS is collapsing in the polls ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, and that helps explain why they are now screaming about a coup.
The irony? They were the ones who started the coup back in 2015.
Donald Tusk is simply restoring the rule of law.
Mark Balder retweeted
Kamercommissie wil evenwichtig debat met zowel genderklinieken als artsen die kritisch zijn óp die zorg.
Genderklinieken weigeren te komen.
En meteen daarna stemmen PRO en D66 het hele debat weg want 'niet evenwichtig'.
Schoffering van de hele Kamer. Openlijk en opzettelijk
Mark Balder retweeted
The attack dogs of pro-Russian, pro-MAGA and anti-EU propaganda are in full force over what is happening in Poland, portraying the PiS camp as the victim of a supposed coup.
How convenient.
Let’s remember who started this.
In 2015, PiS began dismantling Poland’s rule of law, unlawfully filling seats on the Constitutional Tribunal and bringing key judicial institutions under political influence.
For eight years, they undermined the very democratic safeguards they now claim to defend.
They lost power in 2023, but their grip on parts of the state survived. Now, as Donald Tusk’s government attempts to restore judicial independence, the same political camp cries dictatorship and presents itself as the victim.
You cannot spend eight years undermining the rule of law and then invoke it as a shield against accountability.
Poland’s democratic institutions belong to its citizens, not to a political party determined to retain power after losing an election.
Restoring the rule of law is not a coup. It is a democratic responsibility. And it must be carried out in accordance with the Constitution.
Mark Balder retweeted
De SGP vertegenwoordigt slechts 2% van Nederland en zou daarom niet serieus genomen moeten worden?
Volgens het CBS is circa 1% transgender of non-binair. Moeten we met die minderheid dan ook geen rekening houden?
Of geldt het percentageargument alleen bij minderheden met de verkeerde overtuiging?
Zo werkt een democratie dus niet.
Elke partij die een verbond sluit met de #SGP gaat ter ziele. De SGP vertegenwoordigt 2% in Nederland. Mensen die op Zondag de TV uitzetten. Mensen die abortus maar niks vinden. Back to the Middle Ages. Een garantie voor een giga verlies aan kiezers. #monsterverbond #SGP