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43
DnD Central / Re: What's Going on in Business?
Last post by ersi -
Oh, so Musk is only #2 businessman in the world now? What a shakeup!

By the way, on a device where I have not found a way to block YT ads (namely my smart-tv) I just saw a Musk ad where he invited everyone to go to tesla2024.io to receive lots of money in Bitcoin and/or Ethereum. I haven't touched the address. Please report back, anyone who goes there :)

Existence of this kind of ads perfectly justifies total ad-blocking. All those social media companies go through some purging campaigns among the users of their platforms, but they cannot screen ads?
45
DnD Central / Re: What's Going on in Business?
Last post by ersi -
In addition to bursting into flames, Tesla cars seem to have a tendency to plunge into fjords.
Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/floating-sauna-rescues-motorists-whose-tesla-plunged-into-oslo-fjord
Two motorists whose car plunged into a freezing Oslo fjord escaped unharmed when a floating sauna came to their rescue, Norwegian police have said. [...] The owner of the car, who was not identified by name, said he had thought the car was in park mode when he hit the accelerator pedal.

Tesla is recalling everything.
Quote from: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/business/tesla-recall-us-vehicles.html
Tesla is recalling about 2.2 million vehicles because the font on the warning lights panel was too small to comply with safety standards, U.S. regulators said on Friday. [...] The models affected include the 2012 to 2023 Model S, the 2016 to 2024 Model X, the 2017 to 2023 Model 3, 2019 to 2024 Model Y and 2024 Cybertruck vehicles.

Tesla's payout to Musk has been cancelled.
Quote from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68150306
A judge in the US state of Delaware has annulled a $55.8bn (£44bn) pay deal awarded to Elon Musk in 2018 by the electric car company Tesla.

And Elon is the best businessman we have, as measured by net worth. Don't pretend there is any other measure.
46
DnD Central / Re: I'm bemused: No one here wants to discuss the Gaza-Israel war
Last post by jax -
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Is Hamas a race or ethnicity? Against whom is the IDF "committing" genocide?

Genocide is a crime of intent.

Quote
Article II 
 
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: 

(a) Killing members of the group; 
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; 
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

The Israeli government, and by extension IDF, is probably not committing genocide. That there is even an uncertainty, a "probably" in that sentence, is in itself pretty damning. However, while what they are doing, which definitely includes (a) and (b), and possibly (c) and (d) as well, the issue lies with the why.

There are people connected to the current government who have expressed genocidal ideas, and the way the invasion of Gaza is executed could be those ideas put into action. However, If the Israeli intent is to destroy, in whole or in part, the Gazans, they are not behaving in a manner consistent with that. There is an ongoing war, and Israeli actions are more consistent with waging that war. The only way this could be a genocide is if their planning has been to commit it under the cover of that war. Unlikely, but not impossible. However, there are pretty blatant cases of Israeli forces committing war crimes, that are unlikely to be prosecuted by Israeli courts.

Likewise, Hamas has some extremely genocidal ideas, and their behaviour on 7 October is very consistent with a genocide. If the Israeli government had been even more incompetent this massacre could continue Rwanda-style. However, there are other technical reasons why this may not be a genocide either.

Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel

Meanwhile, the genocide case against Putin and Lvova-Belova for kidnapping Ukrainian children is more straight-forward. Russia has committed a number of atrocities that would be war crimes or crimes against humanity, like Bucha. However they are not genocides. The kidnappings could be, category (e) above, but again it depends on intent. If the intent wasn't genocidal, it can still be a crime against humanity, article 7(1)(d).
47
DnD Central / Re: The State of Israel ~ vs ~ Hamas ---- A "Natural Right" to Self-Defence?
Last post by ersi -
Travelingisrael hits back against Lonerbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5wVaNknEkY

He makes a compelling case about the nature of the attack on the first Arab village by Israel in 1948. However, Nakba is not just about the first village. It is about Israel's policy of expulsion of Arab population. There is no way to deny that that was (and is) the policy.

In 1947/8, borders were assigned for Israel. People either recognise those borders or not. Arabs did not. And also Israel immediately overstepped those borders in every direction, so de facto Israel does not recognise those borders either. Thus Israel by its own measure is no better than Arabs.

For Travelingisrael (and other Zionists) Israel's behaviour is no different from the way other nation states emerged after WWII at the dissolution of European empires. The sad thing is that European empires were colonial, and even after formal dissolution or reform still retain colonial behaviour and colonial instincts to this day. You can choose to do either the right thing or follow the example of Western colonial hypocrites. Looking at Israel's behaviour — Palestinian territories either blockaded or occupied and burdened with Jewish kibbutz-colonies; Golan Heights occupied and the southern portions of Lebanon and Syria under periodic terror attacks because of it; policy of expulsion of original population in constant swing since 1948 — Israel has consistently refrained from doing the right thing.
49
DnD Central / Re: I'm bemused: No one here wants to discuss the Gaza-Israel war
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Is Hamas a race or ethnicity? Against whom is the IDF "committing" genocide?

It's both interesting and not surprising that members of the UN aid organization dealing with Palestinian "refugees" participated in Hamas's October attack on Israel...

BTW: Has the UN Court you tout had anything to say about Ukraine? Yemen? Etc.?
50
DnD Central / Re: The awesomesauce with Chimerica
Last post by ersi -
Who is threatening? Is One China policy threatening? Both mainland China and Taiwan have the exact same rhetoric of One China policy, the only difference being whose regime should preside over the single China. (There are more small differences, such as Taiwan claiming more landmass to itself than the current mainland China holds, but that aside.)

Of course mainland China looks more menacing to Taiwan due to its manpower, but let's remember that it was Kissinger of USA who made the world recognise mainland China as the proper China so that Taiwan became a barely recognised country. Don't you think Taiwan felt threatened back then? Quite ironically, nobody thought of the cost-effectiveness of such a move. It's quite costly to have a recognised scary mainland China now.