Search

Sixteen minors, suspected of serious offenses during the national demonstration on October 9, have been released due to a lack of space in youth protection institutions (IPPJ), which alarms the Brussels public prosecutor about the resources for juvenile justice. #justicejuvenile #Belgique #manifestation (translated)

Dr. Sc. Ferdinand Meeus stated that the report confirmed by the IPCC, according to him, showed no measured increase in weather extremes such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires. He said that this information was in a technical chapter that, according to him, almost no one read, but which he himself had consulted. As a source, he mentioned the "IPCC report: AR6, WG1, Ch12, Table 12.12, p1856." https://t.co/YfooGJbZB1 #klimaat #wetenschap #feiten (translated)

Maaike van Charante wrote that she found it worse that the media gave Hamas supporters and their strategically smarter advocates a platform without presenting any counterarguments, than the fact that those supporters were walking through cities with signs and banners. According to her, facts no longer mattered. #media #feiten (translated)

Arno Wellens wrote that the breaking of sanctions, according to him, resulted from a personal deal between Rutte and Putin. He claimed that the Ministry of Defense was aware of this but disregarded it to paint a frightening picture. According to Wellens, the sanction evasion took place through multiple 020 companies, including at Herikerbergweg 88. https://t.co/6ZxzuzTkYS #sancties #Rutte #Poetin (translated)

Raisa Blommestijn wrote that the media described the incident involving Filip Dewinter as a confrontation with a family and an incident. According to her, Dewinter was besieged and attacked by a large group of migrants and was injured. She argued that the facts received less attention because Dewinter was from Vlaams Belang. #VlaamsBelang #Migratie #Feiten (translated)

Sander Sassen addressed Henri Bontenbal and wrote that he had been little visible for months, despite an earlier column by Sassen about his absence. According to Sassen, Bontenbal had published a long thread on October 7, in which he labeled Hamas a terrorist organization and reflected on the victims and the Jewish community. Sassen felt that Bontenbal had subsequently blurred the responsibility for the violence by talking about a chain of violence, the Israeli response, and civilian casualties. He also believed that Bontenbal had pointed to Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement policy as an obstacle to a two-state solution. Sassen argued that this approach equated Hamas's attack and kidnappings with Israel's response, thereby fueling antisemitism. Sassen also criticized Bontenbal's reference to an article in Trouw about Maoz Inon, who lost his parents to Hamas, and Aziz Abu Sarah, whose brother died in an Israeli prison. Sassen described their pursuit of reconciliation as hopeful but felt that Bontenbal presented this initiative as a serious way forward without giving sufficient attention to Hamas's persistence and objectives, according to him. He also stated that Hamas deliberately saddled Palestinian children with hatred for Jews. Sassen wrote that, in his opinion, Bontenbal offered false hope and insufficiently placed responsibility for Hamas's violence on the perpetrators. He claimed that Hamas and its supporters aimed for the destruction of Israel and stated that disarmament by Palestinians, in his view, would bring peace, while Israel's disarmament would lead to a new attack like the one on October 7. #Israël #Hamas #Antisemitisme (translated)

Arno Wellens stated that people who say it is not that bad are living in an alternative reality according to him and therefore do not know the facts. He wrote that they primarily attended elitist progressive gatherings and urged them to hit the streets. #alternatieveFeiten #maatschappij #progressief (translated)

Children remain victims of abuse as long as images of their victimization circulate online, and it is crucial that politics is required to take proactive action against these facts instead of only intervening afterward. #Kindermisbruik #OnlineVeiligheid #Kinderrechten (translated)

Bart Nijman wrote that Dutch media in 2015 portrayed participants in the Ukrainian referendum, including GeenPeil, as antidemocratic and pro-Putin. Nevertheless, he called the referendum a great success. In 2017, according to him, newspapers and parts of the NPO tried to boycott GeenStijl but were unsuccessful. He also accused the media of labeling critics of Greta Thunberg as climate deniers in 2019 and of presenting support for Black Lives Matter as a civic duty in 2020, while according to him, Zwarte Piet was pressured with unfounded accusations of racism. During the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nijman, the media shielded criticism of the measures and labeled those who deviated as irrational. He argued that this permanently damaged the credibility of the press and trust in its fairness and objectivity. From 2021, he stated that media opposed the farmers' movement with reporting on nitrogen that journalists did not understand sufficiently, and starting in 2022, labeled critics of Ukrainian accession to the EU or NATO's contribution to the escalation as pro-Putin. Nijman wrote that after October 7, 2023, many media condemned Israel and Jews in general and based reporting on genocide and starvation on lies. According to him, the media concealed the reasons for Hamas' attack and subordinated facts to information from NGOs, including Oxfam. He also claimed that journalists who disagreed were not offering enough public dissent, partly because they had to save for a mandatory heat pump in 2028. Furthermore, Nijman accused the media of shifting their own problems onto disinformation and Elon Musk and of leaving X for their own, small online environment. According to him, DPG, RTL, and the NPO imposed standards that many Dutch people did not conform to. He wrote that readers should hate the mainstream media even more and asserted that the free press had again chosen the wrong side on October 7. #Media #Nederland #VrijePers (translated)

Geert Noels stated that a study by Vooruit estimated the annual cost of corporate taxation at 4.2 to 4.7 billion euros, but according to him, due to significant errors, it actually amounted to about 1 billion euros. He argued that this cost could not be offset by higher taxes, which he believed would cause more harm than benefit; he advocated for better oversight of bogus self-employment. Noels identified the main mistake as the comparison between directors via a management company and employees. According to him, directors were legally self-employed and paid contributions up to a ceiling. This comparison would overestimate the estimate by more than 1 billion euros. Moreover, employer contributions were calculated based on the total labor cost instead of the gross salary, resulting in a calculation of 33 percent instead of 25 percent. Noels also disputed that there were four independent estimates: according to him, they used the same rates and distribution keys. He pointed out that estimate C assumed 24 billion euros in shifted profits, compared to about 15 billion euros in total profits in estimate A. Furthermore, factors such as the tax shift, energy crisis, inflation, the reform of corporate tax in 2017, and Pillar 2 were not included as explanations for the macro figures. Also, liquidation reserves of ordinary SMEs would have been counted as leaks. According to Noels, the study also did not take behavior effects into account, such as substitution, cessation, moving abroad, losses, or bankruptcies, and only included companies with profits. He therefore labeled the note as an unreliable basis for policy and believed that bogus self-employment should be addressed directly. Finally, he urged academics, journalists, and politicians to respect the facts when it came to entrepreneurs and risk-takers. #Vennootschapsbelasting #Economie #Belastingen (translated)

Ferdinand Meeus wrote that Maarten had difficulty accepting the facts and stated that the Aletsch Glacier used to be 1,000 meters smaller. According to Meeus, glaciers have come and gone, and that had nothing to do with human CO₂ emissions. He accused Maarten of selectively choosing information and misleading readers with phrases like "maybe...". Meeus considered this concerning for a science journalist. https://t.co/pkOOKL5fRr #wetenschap #klimaat #gletsjers (translated)

Claudia van Zanten referred to a report from Het Parool stating that the Israeli army questioned the interviews without providing evidence for it. According to Van Zanten, the interviews with 24 IDF soldiers were anonymous, it was not proven that the interviewees were actually soldiers, and their motives were unknown. She wrote that Het Parool should have critically evaluated the interviews themselves if it took journalistic codes seriously. Van Zanten stated that many media present opinions they agree with as facts, and as a result, facts no longer count. https://t.co/MWtPnSO57t #media #journalistiek #Israël (translated)

Hans van Tellingen referred to the NOS news coverage about flooding and wildfires in Spain as a journalistic failure and disputed the suggestion that climate change was to blame. He wrote that, in his view, wildfires were not occurring more frequently and that there was even a slight downward trend. He also stated that autumn flooding in Spain would not increase. Van Tellingen pointed to DANA, a natural phenomenon that, according to him, has affected Spain for centuries, and argued that poor water management worsened the effects. He asked whether Franco had diverted the Turia River in the 1950s to protect Valencia from flooding. Van Tellingen described himself as a geographer and data expert. #klimaatverandering #journalistiek #overstromingen (translated)

Max von Kreyfelt argued that the Netherlands should ask less about which ministers should resign and more about whether officials should be held accountable. According to him, a forced departure was often followed by a new position or severance pay, which meant that political responsibility could change into a career step. He cited Hugo de Jonge as an example. Von Kreyfelt stated that political incompetence or mistakes did not in themselves constitute a crime, but that willfully lying under oath, destroying documents, falsifying data, corruption, and deliberately acting unlawfully by officials should be independently investigated. A ministerial title should not provide protection against criminal investigation, according to him. He cited as examples the childcare benefits scandal, Groningen, and the COVID-19 period. He wrote that affected parents were treated as fraudsters and that after inquiries and promises in Groningen, accountability was lacking. He also stated that Rutte, De Jonge, and Grapperhaus had presented political choices during COVID as natural laws, dismissed criticism, and stretched fundamental rights. He emphasized that this did not mean they had committed criminal offenses; this should be investigated independently, according to him. Von Kreyfelt wrote that the Netherlands had had enough of inquiries and reports without consequences, while victims faded from view. Officials who broke the law and deliberately caused harm to society should be able to go to court just like other citizens, according to him. #rechtsstaat #politiek #verantwoordelijkheid (translated)

Martin Bosma wrote that he considered the situation to be an upside-down world, made possible by ideological infiltration and one-sided media information. According to him, facts seemed to no longer matter, and everything revolved around feeling and the conviction of being on the right side of history. #ideologie #media #feiten (translated)

Sander Sassen wrote that of the 70,000 people invited to the climate consultation, approximately 6 percent responded. According to him, a panel of 175 people was formed from that group through weighted lottery. He argued that participation in itself selected people based on interest and opinions, resulting in the panel not being a representative cross-section of the Netherlands. According to Sassen, the assignment was also limited beforehand: the consultation was not about whether climate policy should be implemented, but about its scope and ways in which the Dutch could eat, travel, and consume more climate-friendly. Documents requested through the WOO showed, according to him, that among others, Extinction Rebellion had provided input for the invitations, guiding principles, and knowledge panel. According to Sassen, critical experts were selectively fact-checked or neutralized. He concluded that the citizen consultation was therefore not a neutral democratic instrument but a process with a left-progressive and, in his view, even left-activist inclination. #Klimaatbeleid #Democratie #Feiten (translated)

Jan Roos wrote that he had listened in amazement to Royce de Vries' podcast about the upcoming lawsuit from Roddelpraat. He described the content as virtually entirely factually unfounded and subjective, and said that he understood why De Vries almost never won a case. #podcast #rechtspraak #Roddelpraat (translated)

Bart Schut stated that according to him, the Netherlands had two legal systems: one for people who committed crimes in the fight against Israel, Zionism, or Jews, and another for other offenses. According to Schut, people from the first group were hardly prosecuted or punished. He referred to this as the current rule of law. #rechtsstaat #Nederland #rechtssystemen (translated)