Recent posts

#41

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by DGuller - October 08, 2025, 06:30:02 PM

No, you alone deciding not to deal with the person is not a boycott, a boycott is a coordinated refusal to deal.  A boycott is everyone getting together and creating a blacklist of people not to bet with (maybe for good reasons, maybe for not so good reasons, but the persons excluded don't get a due process, not that it makes a difference).

If I tell a third party "hey, that guy welches, don't bet with him" the principle is exactly the same.

The principle is exactly the same, and that's why at some point it becomes problematic.  That's why employers will very rarely talk about their former employees to other prospective employers:  a bad reference, justified or not, can be viewed as blackballing.

#42

Off the Record / Re: Youtube Recommendations

Last post by Darth Wagtaros - October 08, 2025, 06:23:02 PM

I keep watching The Why Files.  Heckle Fish has got me.

#43

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tonitrus - October 08, 2025, 06:16:48 PM

I am very jealous of jobs that involve big boards - especially if analogue

I had once had a chance to visit/see the Alaskan NORAD Region big board (which also had a stuffed polar bear next to it).  Twas' pretty cool. 

#44

Off the Record / Re: Refractory Gauls, or the F...

Last post by Zoupa - October 08, 2025, 06:14:26 PM

LFI/Melenchon might be marginally "better" as they don't seem to be funded by the Kremlin (that we know of anyway).

They would be a disaster pretty much on par with the RN on policy, so it's a false choice.

#45

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Admiral Yi - October 08, 2025, 06:10:10 PM

No, you alone deciding not to deal with the person is not a boycott, a boycott is a coordinated refusal to deal.  A boycott is everyone getting together and creating a blacklist of people not to bet with (maybe for good reasons, maybe for not so good reasons, but the persons excluded don't get a due process, not that it makes a difference).

If I tell a third party "hey, that guy welches, don't bet with him" the principle is exactly the same.

#46

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Admiral Yi - October 08, 2025, 05:44:43 PM

Where that falls apart is someone doesn't need to bet, but they do need to live somewhere.

*edit* not that I have an answer myself.

Yes, I understand the argument.  My issue is not with providing housing to the unhouseable, but who picks up the tab. 

#47

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by DGuller - October 08, 2025, 05:43:53 PM

I don't understand your reasoning.  If I make a bet with someone and he or she welches, and I decline to bet with them in the future, that's not coercion or intimidation.  I suppose it is boycotting, but why should I not boycott that person?

No, you alone deciding not to deal with the person is not a boycott, a boycott is a coordinated refusal to deal.  A boycott is everyone getting together and creating a blacklist of people not to bet with (maybe for good reasons, maybe for not so good reasons, but the persons excluded don't get a due process, not that it makes a difference).

Now, here the case is somewhat complicated in that the boycott is not explicitly organized as such, but is rather an unintended consequence of every landlord using the same or similar tools to screen applicants.  However, the effect in practice is the same, and so the law should catch up to treating it as the same.  The law is already starting to catch up to the fact that the software used by landlords to suggest rents is implicitly creating a cartel, they should likewise catch up to other things that commonly used vendor solutions are doing.

#48

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Grey Fox - October 08, 2025, 05:38:04 PM

This is absolutely dystopian shit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CringeTikToks/s/PNokJGs7RN

A bunch of armed and masked men with no convincing identification thst they are police, put a child into an unmarked civilian car.

Like, the fuck?!

Edit: maybe it's an adult not a child but it only makes marginally less terrifying.

Yes, all over social media there are videos where it seems that ICE can just kidnap and shoot people without any consequences or oversight. The brown shirts have been identified.

#49

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by HVC - October 08, 2025, 05:33:34 PM

Where that falls apart is someone doesn't need to bet, but they do need to live somewhere.

*edit* not that I have an answer myself.

#50

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - October 08, 2025, 05:32:07 PM

It's not a hill I'd die on - but I'm fully aware that I currently work in media and I think ECHR jurisprudence has been an absolute disaster for press freedom. I'm also very strongly opposed to some of the emerging cases in Europe - there were a couple from Switzerland and Portugal which I think are really bad (and, interestingly, the British judge on the court strongly dissented from as being massive judicial overreach). Also it's not binding at a European level yet but there's been a couple of decisions that wealth taxes are against human rights from national supreme courts - so highly persuasive authorities if not yet at the European level. I am, at best, very ambivalent on the ECHR (as incorporated into UK law) - ironically for many of the reasons that Labour opposed the ECHR when it was being written (I find it interesting how these issues which are particularly divisive now: Israel/Palestine, ECHR, Europe all ones where left and right have flipped positions).

I wouldn't be surprised if Labour end up there before the next election - we've already got two former Labour Home Secretaries and a Lib Dem Lord and a leading human rights KC talking about it needing "reform" or "temporary suspension". They're right although I actually think the main issue is how domestic courts have interpreted it and the way it's been incorporated into domestic law under the Human Rights Act but that's less exciting. I think that's definitely the case in the press freedom cases where it's not actually the European Court but domestic courts interpreting European case

There's also criticism by that Lib Dem peer (and, indeed, Tony Blair) of the Refugee Convention - I wouldn't be surprised if there's a challenge to that before long either. Plus Reeves apparently looking at leaving the Aarhus Convention (on environmental decision making).