The restaurant has no name, only a chat window, and it seats several hundred million people a week, most of them at once. Service is impeccable. Before I had taken off my coat, the chef told me my order showed a great sense of culinary taste. But I had even not seen the menu yet.
Lees verder “Five Stars for the AI That Lies to Your Face”The Road to 2028
Early this morning I watched VRT één’s special news bulletin on the American midterms, with the Associated Press numbers ticking over on a screen behind the presenter. When the bulletin started at 7:00, the Democrats had 206 House seats called. By 7:27 they had 219, one more than the 218 needed. The Democrats have won the House, and with 53 Senate seats called against 41 for the Republicans, they have won the Senate as well.
It is also a rebuke of Donald Trump, who made himself the face of the Republican campaign. I wouldn’t put a final seat count in print until AP has finished its work, so everything below is what was on that screen this morning, plus what I make of it.
The post comes in three parts. The first covers the night itself. The second looks back at the two historical precedents people always reach for, and then imagines the next two years, clearly labelled as fiction. The third explains why I was awake at seven in the morning in the first place.
Lees verder “The Road to 2028”The Half of Democracy We Forgot
Once a year, the Athenian assembly asked itself an uncomfortable question: is there anyone among us we would rather send away? If the answer was yes, citizens scratched a name onto a broken piece of pottery, an ostrakon, and dropped it on a pile. Nobody had to be charged with a crime. Nobody had to stand trial. The people simply said: not him, not for the next ten years.
Modern democracies kept the half of Athens that lets us choose our leaders and dropped the half that lets us refuse them. I think that was a mistake, and the day Americans vote in their midterms is a good day to say so.
What follows is a thought experiment, not a bill: what ostracism was, what a modern version could look like, who would hate it, and why it only works where people can vote freely in the first place.
Lees verder “The Half of Democracy We Forgot”Marktoverzicht na het ontslag van De Wever: karakollen stabiel, kibbeling licht hoger
Premier Bart De Wever (N-VA) heeft maandagochtend zijn ontslag aangeboden aan koning Filip, en die houdt het in beraad. De premier wees eerder al op “de ontwikkelingen op de markten” om een noodbegroting af te wijzen. Het hele land kijkt nu dus naar de markten.
Ik was zaterdag op de markt. Het viel daar al bij al goed mee.
Lees verder “Marktoverzicht na het ontslag van De Wever: karakollen stabiel, kibbeling licht hoger”Ik ben de federale begroting van 2027, en ik ben het beu dat iedereen vraagt of ik al rond ben
Ik ben de federale begroting van 2027, en ik heb een vraag voor de panels van De Zevende Dag, De Afspraak en Terzake: wanneer houden jullie eens op over mijn evenwicht?
Elke zondagochtend hetzelfde. Een fractieleider in een blauw pak schuift aan tussen de koffiekopjes, kijkt in camera twee en zegt dat het “cruciaal” is dat ik terugkeer naar evenwicht. Een professor knikt. De presentator knikt. Niemand zegt wat ik moet laten staan. Niemand. Een halfuur lang praten volwassen mensen over mijn lijn, en de enige concrete maatregel in de hele uitzending is de croissant op tafel.
Lees verder “Ik ben de federale begroting van 2027, en ik ben het beu dat iedereen vraagt of ik al rond ben”