#offshores

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Abarth Offshore, 2024. Italian specialist boatbuilder Car Off Shore are working with Stellatis to offer a jet boat styled about a  Fiat 500 Abarth. It is powered by a 230hp inboard hydro jet engine. No pricing has been announced though Stellantis says Car Off Shore will build 500 of the 2-person jet boats

[jacquelying]

snowing hard this morning. the terror ice master failed to predict the ice shifting the ship to the opposite angle. Only thing he said was “we slidin” i cant stop thinking about this

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The unexpected upside of global monopoly capitalism

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TODAY (Apr 10) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, which bans large corporations with a German presence from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:

https://www.bafa.de/EN/Supply_Chain_Act/Overview/overview_node.html

Across the ocean, in the USA, Mercedes has a preference for building its cars in the American South, the so-called "right to work" states where US labor law is routinely flouted and unions are thin on the ground. As The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson writes, the only non-union Mercedes factories in the world are in the US:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-04-08-american-workers-german-law-uaw-unions/

But American workers – especially southern workers – are on an organizing tear, unionizing their workplaces at a rate not seen in generations. Their unprecedented success is down to their commitment, solidarity and shrewd tactics – all buoyed by a refreshingly pro-worker NLRB, who have workers' backs in ways also not seen since the Carter administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Workers at Mercedes' factory in Vance, Alabama are trying to join the UAW, and Mercedes is playing dirty, using the tried-and-true union-busting tactics that have held workplace democracy at bay for decades. The UAW has lodged a complaint with the NLRB, naturally:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-mercedes-benz

But the UAW has also filed a complaint with BAFA, the German regulator in charge of the Supply Chain Act, seeking penalties against Mercedes-Benz Group AG:

https://uaw.org/uaw-files-charges-in-germany-against-mercedes-benz-companys-anti-union-campaign-against-u-s-autoworkers-violates-new-german-law-on-global-supply-chain-practices/

That's a huge deal, because the German Supply Chain Act goes hard. If Mercedes is convicted of union-busting in Alabama, its German parent-company faces a fine of 2% of its global total revenue, and will no longer be eligible to sell products to the German government. Chomp.

Now, the German Supply Chain Act is new, and this is the first petition filed by a non-German union with BAFA, so it's not a slam dunk. But supermajorities of Mercedes workers at the Alabama factory have signed UAW cards, and the election is going to happen in May or June. And the UAW – under new leadership, thanks to a revolution that overthrew the corrupt old guard – has its sights set on all the auto-makers in the American south.

As Meyerson writes, the south is America's onshore offshore, a regulatory haven where corporations pay minimal or no tax and are free to abuse their workers, pollute, and corrupt local governments with a free hand (no wonder American industry is flocking to these states). Meyerson: "The economic impact of unionizing the South, in other words, could almost be placed in the same category as reshoring work that had gone to China."

The German Supply Chain Act was passed with the help of Germany's powerful labor unions, in an act of solidarity with workers employed by German companies all over the world. This is that unexpected benefit to globalism: the fact that Mercedes has extrusions into both the American and German political spheres means that both American and German workers can collaborate to bring it to heel.

The same is true for antitrust regulators. The multinational corporations that are in regulators' crosshairs in the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea and beyond use the same playbook in every country. That's doubly true of Big Tech companies, who literally run the same code – embodying the same illegal practices – on servers in every country.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has led the pack on convening summits where antitrust enforcers from all over the world gather to compare notes and collaborate on enforcement strategies:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-data-technology-and-analytics-conference-2022-registration-308678625077

And the CMA's Digital Markets Unit – which boasts the the largest tech staff of any competition regulator in the world – produces detailed market studies that turn out to be roadmaps for other territories' enforces to follow – like this mobile market study:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

Which was extensively referenced in the EU during the planning of the Digital Markets Act, and in the US Congress for similar legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2710

It also helped enforcers in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And South Korea:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-considers-505-mln-fine-against-google-apple-over-app-market-practices-2023-10-06/

Just as Mercedes workers in Germany and the USA share a common enemy, allowing for coordinated action that takes advantage of vulnerable flanks wherever they are found, anti-monopoly enforcers are sharing notes, evidence, and tactics to strike at multinationals that are bigger than most countries – but not when those countries combine.

This is an unexpected upside to global monopolies: when we all share a common enemy, we've got endless opportunities for coordinated offenses and devastating pincer maneuvers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

[koshigurajumy]

Jumy-M A small offshore island / 沖合の小島

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

ROSE, trying to comfort JOHN while he’s upset: Don’t worry, John. I was just at Mad At You Island and none of your friends were there!

JOHN, even more upset: why were you at mad at me island?

ROSE: Uh…

DAVE: meanwhile i was just at wanting to fuck you island and there were no bitches

JOHN: …

JOHN, smirking: why were you at wanting to fuck me island?

[supplyside]

service operations vessel

[glitchphotography]

“Laundry Hole”  The Offshore Firm, Volume II (2022)    

//   Retrodystopic hyper-corporate spaces created with “Life Stage: Virtual House” (1993) for 3DO and composited with video art elements  

[savagechickens]

Hiding.

And more Easter comics.

[dyedviolet]

So imagine you're Ishmael except you're sneaking aboard an unmanned vessel, and then when you're well out to sea the boat starts talking to you and basically says "hey I'm god and I could smite you on a whim." You're understandably scared so you just start reading one of the many novels you packed for the journey, but the the boat that is god starts reading over your shoulder and almost using your brain as a filter to understand human emotion. Boat-god has blorbos now, you're besties, and then you go on to the next leg of the journey and don't see boat-god again for a while. When you do, boat-god has been almost killed to death by the fish people from Portsmoth or wherever Lovecraft said they're from, so you kill the fish people and save boat-god. Boat-god's crew is here this time and when you're done tying up loose ends, and help arrives, you find out that the organization that made boat-god has been shoving a lot of god into a lot of boats and your boat-god might actually be one of the slightly less powerful ones.

That's what Murderbot's friendship with ART has been like

[feniverse-unfiltered]

My brain woke up today and decided to choose violence

[wolke17]

i get that gege wanted a full happy ending with a last mission for his first years, but it's kinda awkward considering they’re up against a single curse user whose CT puts silly irl filters on other ppl’s faces, while they're three sorcerers including yuji, who is now on special grade level💀

[zardinthebrokenatlas]

I love it when things start to progress :3

[bunjywunjy]

bunjy, why won't the colossal squids come up and say hi :( are they like blobfish where they explode if they move into shallow water?

even if one did come to the surface, it's very unlikely a human would see it for one simple reason:

colossal squids are region-locked. they're only found in antarctic and sub-antarctic waters, which are pretty famous for their lack of human habitation.

which is a damn shame, but really, can you blame them?

[linkzac]

his name is offshore oil rig

[coochiequeens]

But the TQ+ cult continues to deny that children are transed

Dr Helen Webberley said that her licence had been revoked on a technicality

ADRIAN SHERRATT FOR THE TIMES

James Beal, Social Affairs Editor Friday July 19 2024

The General Medical Council has revoked the licence to practise of a controversial British doctor whose offshore clinic treats transgender children.

Dr Helen Webberley, 55, will lose her licence in Britain from Friday but will remain on the GMC’s register, following the decision by the medical regulator.

The decision was made by the GMC after she did not comply with a registered doctor’s legal obligation to revalidate their licence every five years.

Webberley runs GenderGP, an online company registered in Singapore, which facilitates access to puberty blockers and hormones for adults and children.

She told The Times that the decision would not prevent her from continuing in her role at GenderGP and said that she did not personally treat the patients.

Michael Webberley was struck off in 2022 for prescribing hormones to patients as young as nine without proper assessments

Webberley said: “I fought incredibly hard to keep my licence, both for myself and also for the community, because it’s important to set precedent. Now to have it taken away on a technicality, if you like, is very heartbreaking, but I will continue my work as I have done.”

GenderGP assesses adults and children with gender dysphoria and connects them to doctors outside Britain, in the European Economic Area (EEA), for prescriptions for hormones.

This means UK children as young as eight can access puberty blockers, despite the Cass Report, a review of trans healthcare led by the paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, concluding there was no good evidence for prescribing them.

Webberley was suspended from practising medicine in 2022 after she was found to have committed serious misconduct by a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel over her treatment of three trans children. She successfully appealed against the decision at the High Court in 2023.

Dr Hilary Cass’s review found there was no good evidence to support the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to under-18s to pause puberty

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Webberley said that she had not used her licence to practise since 2017, when investigations into her conduct by the GMC began. She said that she could not revalidate her licence because she could not find a “responsible officer”, or suitable person, to vouch for her fitness to practise.

Doctors are required to notify the GMC of a designated body and responsible officer to do this.

Webberley said: “The difficulty is … I no longer have a connection with an NHS trust or a GP surgery. I don’t have a responsible officer. It’s also very difficult to get that connection after what I’ve been through.”

She says she was offered the chance to take an exam in order to revalidate her licence, but declined because they “don’t have one for doctors working in transgender medicine”.

Michael and Helen Webberley are now thought to be living in Spain while their business is registered in Singapore

The GMC then withdrew her licence, which it can do if it determines that guidance to revalidate has not been complied with “without reasonable excuse”.

Webberley, from south Wales, said that she would carry on her work at GenderGP.

She said: “I’m not allowed to directly treat and manage individual patients [but] I’m not treating them.

“Treatment means sitting down with somebody, making a diagnosis, making a treatment management plan, prescribing medication, following up investigations and results.

“With GenderGP we have a whole team of professionals who do that. I don’t treat patients individually. They [the GMC] don’t have a regulatory role in my wider work.”

A GMC spokesman said: “Every licensed doctor must take part in the revalidation process, which provides assurance that they are keeping their knowledge up to date, are fit to practise and that no concerns have been raised about them.

“Doctors who do not have a connection to a designated body or suitable person are able to revalidate in a number of ways, including by passing a written multiple choice test called a revalidation assessment.

“There are 12 assessments to choose from, and doctors are encouraged to choose one closest to their most recent area of specialty. We cannot tailor assessments to every doctor’s specific area of practice.

“If doctors do not comply with our guidance on revalidation without reasonable excuse, we may withdraw their licence to practise.”

Webberley and her husband Michael, who set up GenderGP in 2015, are now believed to live in Spain.

As an online business based abroad it is not registered with the Care Quality Commission, but Helen Webberley has denied basing it in Asia to avoid scrutiny.

Michael Webberley, 67, a former gastroenterologist, was struck off in 2022 for prescribing hormones to patients as young as nine without proper assessments.

GenderGP was also criticised in the High Court earlier this year for giving “dangerously high” levels of hormones to a 16-year-old, who was born female but identified as male, that could have resulted in sudden death.

Webberley has called the court claim “untrue”. The Times reported last month that GenderGP, which has more than 10,000 patients, had ditched health advisers in favour of an AI algorithm providing “self-service” treatment.

Behind the story

The health secretary Wes Streeting has indicated that he will seek to make permanent the temporary three-month ban on puberty blockers being supplied to children (James Beal writes).

But Helen Webberley said children at her clinic were still getting hold of them.

Laws to ban the drugs being supplied by private or offshore clinics were passed by Victoria Atkins, Streeting’s predecessor, in emergency legislation before the general election.

They are due to expire on September 3, but the Labour government suggested last week that it would, subject to court proceedings, renew the ban with a view to making it permanent.

It followed the Cass Report, which found there was no good evidence to support the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to under-18s to pause puberty or transition.

However, Webberley, in an interview with The Times last month, said patients at her offshore clinic were going abroad, using foreign doctors and chemists, to side-step the ban.

She said: “The parents of young people who are affected by this ban will find another way. The last thing is that they will allow their child to stop the puberty blocker and start going through puberty. That’s going to really really affect them mentally and physically.

“I know mums and dads who are just going on holiday to get their puberty blocker instead. They’re going to wherever they’re going on holiday this year.”

Distancing GenderGP, her clinic, from their actions, she said: “We don’t have to find those opportunities, the parents find those ways of managing it.”

Now the revelation that she has lost her GMC licence to practise may increase concerns about her clinic, which operates out of reach of regulators such as the Care Quality Commission.

It follows disclosures that GenderGP had created an AI algorithm to make treatment recommendations rather than using health advisers.

However, given the state of transgender healthcare in the UK, with long waiting lists for treatment, it may not deter transgender patients from turning to GenderGP.

[supplyside]

offshore