figmentPez
Staff member
Somehow, the generation that was born to those who fought the nazis has ended up being the major source of support for giving Nazis a voice in politics again...
And then criticizes millennials for simultaneously not doing enough and doing too much.
Trump withdraws from TTP. Let's hope he does the same with TTIP. The replacement might end up even worse, but still.
And who benefits from leaving? Probably everybody except Hollywood and (maybe, I'm not informed) the farmers you mention. One of the key parts of that agreement was the extension of your insane death-plus-75 year copyright terms to everywhere that didn't already have that duration. It's still insane up here (death-plus-50 or so I think) but not AS insane as yours.
Every international agreement has winners and losers. To only focus on the winners when in favor is as bad as only focusing on the losers when against it.
GasBandit
Staff member
But it's a step in the right direction for fighting internet censorship.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-tpp-could-blow-free-internet-we-know-it
With the telecoms now having a firm grasp on Congress, I'm sure they'll find new ways to fuck up the internet.
Dave
Staff member
Okay, sometimes the comedy writes itself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ear-twitter-war-dippin-dots-article-1.2953270
Who hates Dippin' Dots?!?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ear-twitter-war-dippin-dots-article-1.2953270
Who hates Dippin' Dots?!?
Necronic
Staff member
Could you list some of the things that were so bad about the TPP. And understand I'm not throwing the gauntlet here, I was just never really that informed about it, and I'm guessing that's true for a lot of us.
Dave
Staff member
The TPP gave unprecedented power to corporations over sovereign states. It gave them the ability to sue individual governments in a separate corporate court outside the normal domestic court system, instead bringing grievances to a 3 person panel. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-trans-pacific-partnership-3305581
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-trans-pacific-partnership-3305581
Also, here's the last post of a 50-part dissection of why the TPP is bad (for Canada at least) from a digital rights perspective. Most of it applies to all countries involved.
Dave's link is another good reason why it was bad.
To be fair though, since I mentioned above about being one-sided being bad, if it was inevitable, I was looking forward to TPP smashing "Supply Management" of the Dairy industry in Canada through foreign imports. Basically our milk (and everything produced from it) is usually at LEAST twice as expensive as south of the border. Sure it maintains some "small farms" and keeps them viable, but overall it's bad for consumers IMO, and supports VERY few jobs. We don't need TPP to smash that, but it would have been an actual GOOD side-effect.
Dave
Staff member
I do not know how much of this is true - it is the New York Post - but it seems Trump wanted tanks, missile launchers, and troops on parade at his inauguration but was shut down by the military.
https://nypost.com/2017/01/20/milit...-to-parade-missile-launchers-at-inauguration/
No, I'm not making that up. Again, I do not know how true this is, but it's not some small blog reporting this. But again...Post.
https://nypost.com/2017/01/20/milit...-to-parade-missile-launchers-at-inauguration/
No, I'm not making that up. Again, I do not know how true this is, but it's not some small blog reporting this. But again...Post.
Oh, more specifics about the "Investor State Dispute Settlement" (ISDS) process and how horrific it can be, using NAFTA's equivalent as an example: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/03/...lly-is-what-happens-when-isds-rules-go-wrong/
Basically, a panel could potentially override your own Supreme Court. IMO foreign companies, as they set up subsidiary operations in a country should have no more (and potentially less, depends) rights than any entity inside that country and are subject to their laws. There should never be an end-run around it like this. Which is why I'm OK with countries like China banning Google/Facebook unless they conform to their laws, as screwed up as those laws are. They decided to leave instead, which again, is fine. I'm good with the idea of national sovereignty, and this is an end-run around it, which is not good.
What do you mean by "one thing" there? Not challenging, just looking for clarification.
Dave
Staff member
Leaving the TPP. I think it's a bad idea that we were going to be in it and was fighting against it.
Necronic
Staff member
While not having read it incredibly thoroughly, I have to be honest, (unsurprisingly) it looks like a lot of those issues have no major impact on the USA and actually do good for us as they bring other countries up (or down) to our standards. If I was a Canadian I would tend to agree with those being problems, but few of those raised red flags to me as an American. In fact even the ones that did (like the pharma thing) may actually be a net gain for Americans since we pay a pretty heavy premium for developing drugs that other countries get for much cheaper since they don't have to abide our patent resurrections.
The anti-net neutrality stuff is bad all around but let's be honest that horse is crazy dead at this point regardless.
Still need to read Davids piece.
The article has a link to a story about an interview of Trump by the Post that took place sometime between the election and now (I didn't notice it mentioning when exactly it took place while skimming). Near the end of that story Trump is quoted saying he wants to show off the military at parades in NYC, DC, etc.
So yeah, everything except getting shut down by the military is definitely true. Whether he got to the point of requesting the military participate at the inauguration and was shot down, your quoted story isn't terribly trustworthy on that. Unnamed sources, etc.
Trump put a freeze on federal hiring today.
Riiight as my wife was being considered for a better job.
Riiight as my wife was being considered for a better job.
Trump names next FCC Chairman to be.... Ajit Pai, someone who always voted against Net Neutrality.
Enjoy it while it lasts, folks!
Enjoy it while it lasts, folks!
And Tom Wheeler was a highly successful cable and telecom lobbist
But voted for Net Neutrality while in the FCC. I'm not sure what you are getting at here, unless you are being naive and are saying Ajit only voted that way because he knew he wouldn't get his way.
I'm saying let's actually see what happens and you may be surprised. Lest we forget policies enacted during Wheeler's tenure weren't unanimously favored by Net Neutrality advocates. It's not been a perfect system either and leaves a lot to be desired, particularly in mobile and with the rampant Zero rating being allowed. I'd be more interested in why he voted the way he did.
Sure, the bear -might- not maul us, they don't always do that.
That last claim is somewhat... inflammatory... I didn't hear about that one.
As for the scientists, I never heard of any that weren't allowed to publish papers. Mouth off as officials on whatever they wanted, sure, that was restricted, but never any publishing that I've heard. You know, things that need to be peer-reviewed? Like actual science?
And how much mouthing off have they done against the current government once they were "allowed" to? Not a lot from what I've heard either. Maybe there's a wee bit of partisanship here too?