JBChiangRai

It’s also interesting that the 2 leading suppliers of EV’s have both prioritised locking down their supply chain. Tesla by sourcing Lithium and its (joint?) ventures in Giga Battery Plants and BYD by making almost everything in house, even it’s own semiconductors. Ford & GM and to a greater extent Honda & Toyota are so late to the party they can’t get the materials to build EV’s in any great numbers. The other issue is price, Toyota’s bZ4x is almost 2M baht, BYD’s equivalent but far better equipped and superior product only costs 2/3rds of that and IIRC comes with 8 years servicing and 8 years warranty.

informing they are going to be bombed is irrelevant, this is the actual law To be legal, aerial operations must comply with the principles of humanitarian law: military necessity, distinction, and proportionality:[1] An attack or action must be intended to help in the military defeat of the enemy; it must be an attack on a military objective, and the harm caused to civilians or civilian propertymust be proportional and not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

I don’t agree telling them you are going to bomb somewhere makes it legal. Normal laws apply. Let’s be realistic, if you tell Hamas Government you are going to bomb a specific building to get the civilians out, do you not think Hamas will leave with them?

I am unsure of that, it could be they are waiting for new products, what is happening with BYD Seal here in Thailandcseems to suggest that. I think that’s the case in Thailand where BYD are doing everything right. I think I read EV sales in September were 15% of all new registrations. The charging issue doesn’t exist in Thailand, not yet anyway. Right now it’s fantastic, but with this growth in EV sales I do worry about the future.

Thank you for that.

Because the UK bombed Dresden it doesn’t mean it was right or legal by today’s standards. IMHO that was revenge too. The post I gave from HRW stated the legal position, you can’t bomb indiscriminately and unacceptable collateral damage is illegal. Bombing entire apartment blocks looks a lot like unacceptable collateral damage to me.

I don’t have any connections towards Palestine or the Arab world. I do have connections with Israel having worked with them for several years in the UK at Cxx level including 2 years in Bangkok as a director at Loxley overseeing their Israeli-Loxley joint venture. One of my good friends in Chiang Rai is an Israeli Jew and I have celebrated Hanukkah with him the last 2 years. I am more predisposed towards Israel than Palestine and I was appalled as was the world on 7/10. I like to think I am fairly balanced and to use a wholly inappropriate simile, I don’t have a horse in this race. I get the distinct impression some of you do and because of it you have lost your objectivity and your motivation is revenge and not justice and it certainly appears to me that’s the motive of the Israeli Government.

I have experience of judging motives in the capacity of a magistrate. Motive makes a big difference. If the motive is Justice then most observers and some perpetrators accept the punishment, if it’s Revenge then usually nobody accepts it and the cycle continues. Again you put words in my mouth, I never said I speak for the world, I said the world is watching and judging. As for Sunak, I failed to see the relevance, perhaps you might like to quote Macron or Modi?

I have been detecting an undercurrent in your posts of anger and a desire for revenge. This IMHO is the problem with Israel’s response to 7/10. The response has not been inline with their stated objective, it has been revenge. The world has seen it despite Israel’s failed attempt to control the narrative. The former head of HRW puts it this way

Only when the motive isn’t revenge.

In my world we prefer Justice. When the motive is revenge, it just goes round and round ad infinitum.

That sounds a lot like revenge to me

I think Netanyahu made it clear his intentions when he presented the map of Israel (below) to the UN in September, the West Bank and Gaza are shown as Israel.

The change Toyoda is looking to advance is in regards to electric vehicles and navigating the industry moving forward. Akio stood down as CEO at the boards request because he was anti-EV and because of him Toyota lost years in the EV race. It’s not difficult to stay on as chairman when your family created the company, and you probably own a huge tranche of shares. American manufacturers are slowing down their production of EV’s because of price led demand & supply chain issues. They can’t compete with China, it’s the same in Europe. Demand for EV’s is accelerating massively, but people look at the price of excellent Chinese products and won’t pay 40% more for a local equivalent. In Europe there is a 10% tariff on Chinese EV’s and people are still finding local equivalents grossly uncompetitive and poorly equipped. I think in America a lot of it is supply chain issues. The first thing Tesla did with their money was secure their supply chain. With the Ford F150 lightning it’s a supply chain issue, Rivian have the same issue with massive demand but long order books, upto 4 years on popular configurations. IMHO the GM & Ford announcement is nothing more than spreading FUD to push sales of their ICE vehicles. It doesn’t bear out what’s happening worldwide. Pickup trucks are another ball game, it’s too early to say what will happen in that market, let’s see what happens when BYD enter that market next year. But if we look at sales figures in Thailand, EV’s are growing at a fantastic rate and people are leapfrogging Hybrids. As EV’s have improved, Hybrids have gone from being the best of both worlds to inferior to EV’s. People who don’t own an EV say the charging infrastructure isn’t good enough, here in Thailand that’s not the case, it’s a complete non-issue.

Those EV enthusiasts who have been following what’s happening know that every automaker outside China is running scared. They can’t compete. Even Musk’s Tesla was outsold in Thailand last month 10 to 1 by a single Chinese brand. Akio Toyoda is a dinosaur who was forced by his board to stand down as CEO of Toyota this year after he held Toyota back from producing EV’s. A passing fad he said. You only have to look at what every company mentioned in that article is offering in the EV market. Their EV’s are uncompetitive in the extreme. Even Tesla doesn’t have the margins to compete with BYD. The next step will be their demand for tariffs so they can compete with China. They are offering horse and carts in the revolution to powered automobiles. People don’t want hybrids, I read new buyers are leapfrogging hybrids and moving straight to BEV’s.

You guess correctly. The poll is here https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-poll-finds-49-support-holding-off-gaza-invasion-2023-10-27/

I don’t see Israel negotiating a ceasefire as giving in. I see it as taking the initiative. According to Hamas 50 of the hostages have been killed by Israeli bombs, make of that what you will. There are reports coming out of Gaza of Israel carpet bombing every part of every city across Gaza North to South and East to West. I am not seeing precision bombing of Hamas targets in this if it’s true. It’s not just world opinion. In a poll yesterday 49% of Israeli’s don’t want their army going into Gaza now. Less than 30% are in favour.

I think it won’t be dissimilar, teenagers growing up around these things yearn for them in later life.

Yes this is how things are, so who will break the cycle? The world was appalled and stood with Israel on 7/10. Today the criticism is growing.

I like Jack Nicholson’s quote in a movie when a lady asks him how he writes being a woman so well in his fiction books and he says “I think of a man and then I remove all logic and reason”. That’s the most accurate description of women, I have ever heard.

I don’t see it as rewarding Hamas, but I can see your point of view. I would rather Israel broker a peace deal than an intermediary. The world is watching and thousands of civilians killed is not going across well.

can you mute it? Some money for a new dress or handbag might help.

Whilst what I said is true, I was being flippant. Your assessment is accurate.

You need to deinstall the Nagivation option.

If it still existed, the British would be buying British Leyland cars, and then we would all be queuing at the bus stops when they broke down on days with a Y in them.