naturalgasbad

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

The faulty intelligence of... Doctored images?

You're telling me that someone doctored images of beheaded babies to show Biden?

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

I think the bigger story is that the Senate is proposing an amendment that includes women in the draft

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Italian company blames Turkish company blames Chinese company. Typical.

No country in that entire supply chain is known for being reliable lmfao this was plain cost-savings and corruption all the way down.

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

The US disrupting foreign affairs in order to prevent an ally from swaying towards a rival? I've never seen this one before /s

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

99% of the people who participated in the 1989 anti-corruptipn protests are fine. They went after the figureheads who tried to skew the protests into being pro-democracy (coincidentally, most of these people ended up in the US and were offered asylum). Casualties primarily occurred in standoffs surrounding the square - police were strung up, molotovs were thrown, windows were smashed, national guard opened fire, and the (rather inadequately trained) riot police got handed equipment and told to deal with it.

It was widely seen at the time that Deng Xiaoping's policies for economic liberalization were harming the average person by allowing some regions and some people to get rich before others. What that meant in practice was that local government officials would grift the crap out of things... So the protests happened, Deng Xiaoping was forced to step down, and the pace of economic liberalization was slowed. The point of the movement was not for change of government or democratization - that skew happened incredibly late in the process, but most notably the protests did lead to substantiative change in China's government, policy direction, and led to the most senior officials stepping down.

The protests... Worked. Just like the white paper protests worked in ending COVID-19 restrictions. Just like hundreds of protests every year help bring attention to local government officials' corruption. The protests led to substantiative change in policy, had repercussions on the relevant government officials, and, fundamentally, did exactly what a protest is designed to do.

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Russian position says that foreign interference from the US contributed to Euromaidan (not respecting sovereignty and independence), thus, the Budapest Memorandum is null and void.

This is undoubtedly true, by the way. Even if the US wasn't the one responsible for starting Euromaidan, US support helped make Euromaidan successful.

Whether that justifies a war with hundreds of thousands out of commission? Well, no, but citing the Budapest Memorandum is a fucking joke.

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

THAT'S MY PREMIER 😍😍😍

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

The ones they dropped into the ocean causing people to drown trying to retrieve them or

This reduces demand. Sounds fine to me.

the ones they dropped on top of crowds of people, crushing them?

This increases supply. I think you're not looking at this from a capitalist perspective: increased supply, decreased demand? The US is just improving access to food!

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

I love routinely sailing into a military base that's not in my country, that the country it's in doesn't want, and that is in a country I happen to have embargoed despite the condemnation of every other country on the planet. It's just routine, after all.

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Let's look at what the EU found after investigating two of China's largest EV companies: BYD and Geely

Their investigators turned up subsidies everywhere they looked. Lithium processers and battery makers were told by the state to sell to EV companies below market rates, they said,

Important to note here that BYD is the leading battery maker in the world. They're also a leading lithium processor, in fact setting up lithium processing plants as far away as Chile. BYD is notorious for vertically integrating across their entire supply chain, so at least for BYD this claim makes zero sense. Berkshire Hathaway owns 9.8% of BYD.

while the car companies were exempt from battery consumption taxes.

This refers to the 4% tax on batteries instituted in 2015. Except... "But cleaner batteries including mercury-free, nickel-hydrogen, lithium and solar cell varieties will be exempted and taxation on lead storage batteries will be postponed till Jan 1, 2016." Is the EU perhaps referring to the lead-acid batteries that feature in BYD and Geely's hybrid products? As far as I know those should be taxed, but maybe I'm wrong and that was in fact a tax subsidy. Either way, lithium batteries are exempt from this tax.

The firms issued green bonds that government-run financial institutions were ordered to buy,

Buying corporate bonds really is subsidization and not something you'd expect to see in free market economies.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/the-fed-is-buying-some-of-the-biggest-companies-bonds-raising-questions-over-why.html

https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/investments/#/2023/investments/fixed-income

Wait hold on...

and were granted concessional land, income tax breaks and cheap refinancing options mandated by the People’s Bank of China, the central bank.

Dirty, dirty subsidies!

https://goodjobsfirst.org/nevada-woos-tesla-plant-tax-deal-economic-benefits-prompt-debate/

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/tesla-gets-330m-tax-deal-for-nevada-expansion-truck-plant/

https://venturebeat.com/business/how-tesla-got-nevada-to-give-it-1-4b-in-exchange-for-a-giant-battery-factory/

Admittedly, now I'm a little confused.

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Archive link: https://archive.is/4l7lh

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Why, then, are Chinese EVs in China sold at a 30%+ discount relative to Chinese EVs in Europe?

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Meanwhile, Israel who's said they will not accept any peace at this time:

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

Motherfucker they're going to base the planes in Romania. What repair and maintenance crews do they need that don't already exist?

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naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

CAS pumps out so much good work it's crazy.

CAS today isn't the CAS for years ago.

naturalgasbad @lemmy.ca 2y ago

I mean, isn't that the goal? If you're accruing wealth but spending it to better the country (building infrastructure, blah blah), why does it matter?

It helps that China's also clamping down on corruption from the politician side.