Yeah, a more accurate title would be:

Big Business Profits & Pricing Soar; Price Fixing, Abusive Practices Unchecked Under Biden

Why are there foreign judges serving in Hong Kong?

It is a holdover from Hong Kong’s past as a British colony. After the UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the agreement between the countries stipulated that the special territory would continue to operate with its freedoms and systems for 50 years- including its common law legal system which operates in several other jurisdictions worldwide. Currently there seven foreign judges remaining on the court– three British and four from Australia.

So, foreign judges who are meddling in HK affairs are upset that China (the inheritor of HK) is meddling in HK affairs?

If the West actually cared about HK independence, why do they wish to maintain colonial judges in HK courts? If they cared, shouldn’t HK judges be in HK courts?

While China has been heavy handed in its effort to speed up the timeline of the power transfer, in the end, the West has concluded that HK is to be Chinese territory. By the West’s own policy, these are foreign judges getting kicked out by the “rightful” new rulers, just a bit early.

Sure, but “effectiveness” is usually not a binary and is often difficult to measure. Small, but persistent changes should still add up. Eventually.

So long as people recognize that these things are in fact quite toothless, I’m not sure they are entirely detrimental. There’s no reason this couldn’t be used as a starting point for more effective action, now that signatories are in greater contact with the campaign.

I don’t know.

I still think there’s at least some value, even if the only thing it accomplishes is getting people to talk about it. Many people have never even heard of The Internet Archive.

Either way, there isn’t really a reason not to.

Sure, but it is still better than doing nothing.

Bill Gates (and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), and some within the Biden administration have vocally opposed waiving IP rights on the Covid-19 vaccines

Additional article

Not a great situation either way. You either get drafted, or are forced to out yourself to avoid getting sent to Vietnam.

Though, this protest was a bit of a mixed bag. They wanted to end military ineligibility of LGBT people (amongst other things) during a very unpopular war, where many people were using this exemption to avoid being forcibly conscripted. By coming out as (or claiming to be) gay, you could potentially avoid getting sent to fight in Vietnam. This protest was in part, an effort to close that loophole.

Them: “Be gay, do (war) crime!”

Literally everyone else: “Suck cock, beat the draft!”

That’s fair.

Is it not tax evasion/fraud? In the US, either can bring criminal charges. For a smaller municipality, is there no assistance available from higher government?

It’s both.

An example of bad urban planning is low density urban sprawl, which requires lots of resources for few housing units.

Less housing, price go up. High build cost, price go up.

Blaming AirBnB for high housing prices is like setting up a chain of dominos, and criticizing a guy who comes by and knocks it over.

Yeah, and that’s exactly what they chose to do. They contributed to the reasons John Public can’t afford housing, and were rewarded massively for it.

If it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else, or the wind.

Yeah, anyone can rob a bank with poor security, but we should still punish the guy who actually robs the bank.

Cops would rather beat up college students and the unhoused than go after landlords.

that’s an expense that’s hard to justify to taxpayers

Ah, yes. We don’t have money because collecting taxes would be too expensive. Classic.

EDIT:

https://www.businessinsider.com/irs-tax-audits-recover-12-dollars-for-every-dollar-spent-2023-6?op=1

It depends whether you think killing 200,000+ civilians is a defensible act.

300,000+ if you include the bombing of Tokyo.

Nobody knows how a conventional war would have played out. To assert civilian deaths would have been higher is pure speculation and a gross attempt to justify the slaughter of noncombatants.

Though it is likely that even without nukes, the US would have still razed these cities with conventional munitions, given the events in Tokyo.

Yes, but that is irrelevant. France involving themselves opens them up to retaliation from Russia. If Russia retaliated against France, and even if not strictly required to by Article 5, it is likely other NATO countries would join the conflict.

France putting “boots on the ground” would mean a direct conflict between nuclear powers and would likely drag in the entirety of NATO.

Unless you want to live Fallout, such an escalation would be absolutely insane.

I may be being pedantic, but I wouldn’t call a 1 vs 376 situation an “even playing field”.

https://www.businessinsider.com/376-officers-were-at-uvalde-elementary-school-over-hour-report-2022-7?op=1

Of course this could all be addressed by designing robust systems that implement strong redundancy, safety checks, and sufficient regulation, but that increases complexity and costs money.

I think we still need more time/data to get the whole picture. EVs are still in their early stages.

It would be interesting to look at fire rates for vehicles at rest. These types of fires have the potential to become quite serious, as they are often not immediately noticed, especially if the vehicle is parked in a garage or remote area. This additional time allows the fire to spread and intensify.

Since EV fires are typically more intense than ICE vehicles, we should expect EV fires to cause more damage to the surroundings and to spread faster. Though, this danger could be offset if EVs have a lower probability of self ignition.

We should also look at fires while refueling/charging. Lithium cells are most dangerous when charging and discharging. While an overfilled gas tank is easy to spot and may catch fire, a continually overcharged battery is invisible and will catch fire. Also, because of the long charge time of batteries, many EV owners leave the vehicle unattended while charging and would not immediately notice a fire if one were to occur. In addition, EVs are often charged at home, in close proximity to residences and other vehicles, and often within garages. These residential locations do not have the same fire safety requirements and suppression systems as gas stations, so a vehicle fire at home is already much more dangerous and has the potential to severely damage your home.

We have had a century to figure out ICE, but it’s still very early days for EVs, so only time will tell.