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President Obama Gives Up On The Trans-Pacific Partnership (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes The Guardian:
White House officials conceded on Friday that the president's hard-fought-for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would not pass Congress, as lawmakers there prepared for the anti-global trade policies of President-elect Donald Trump. Earlier this week, congressional leaders in both parties said they would not bring the trade deal forward during a lame-duck session of Congress, before the formal transition of power on January 20.
One Canadian law professor had argued the case against the TPP included its unbalanced intellectual property rules and risks to privacy, while the EFF believed it locked in the worst parts of U.S. copyright law and also exported them to other countries.
One Canadian law professor had argued the case against the TPP included its unbalanced intellectual property rules and risks to privacy, while the EFF believed it locked in the worst parts of U.S. copyright law and also exported them to other countries.
From what I've read, the law was written by the MPAA/RIAA cartel, along with considerable input from Big Pharma. The law was designed more for the protection of those conglomerates, and less for any benefit of consumers. There's a reason why the creation of the law was so secretive.
Free trade is great, but the TPP was mostly not about trade. It was about copyright.
Seems like they are trying to make it sound like the TPP was a good thing, and Donald is ruining it for everyone. Except the TPP was definitely a bad thing for anyone who isn't the head of a huge corporation. Maybe this Trump thing could be a good thing.
Then I guess your comment is what happens when you don't have a sound foundation in how a society works, but only care about economics.
What the hell is a poor person supposed to do when he has a "pre-existing condition" and can't afford the treatment? Just die off? Yeah, fuck the poor.
A society isn't just about money and economics. You are all better off if the people on the lower end of society are better off, too. Less crime, for example, but also much more.
Then of course, you're right, this isn't a job for private insurance companies in the first place. It should be a single-payer healthcare provided by the state/taxes.
But since the current system already makes you froth "communism", you'd never accept a sane healthcare.
The idea that tariffs were invented for "freedom" is absurd. They were invented to protect domestic industries against competition. And the lesson of erecting large tariff walls is that it is the consumer that ends up paying to protect these industries, and the industries themselves become ever less competitive, protected in a nice encirclement of economic privilege. But that cannot be sustained forever, and eventually when the door opens a little bit, the coddled and increasingly indolent domestic industry is crushed.
Besides, the whole fucking thing is going to be automated in a few decades. Even the wage slaves of Bangladesh and China will be out of a job. And then what? Erect tariffs against foreign robots, or even better, against domestic robots?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's nice to see that there is one good thing to come out of this last election. And I guess I'd better cherish it, because there aren't many.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
There was never a single country that *invaded* Russia that didn't regret it profoundly. Russia (and the Russian dominated Soviet Union) has been successfully confronted many times.
The "obsession" with confrontation is that it's run by an authoritarian who assasinates and jails his political opponents, is killing civilians wholesale in Syria, has subverted his country's electoral process, and has ambitions of creating an empire in Europe. Not opposing people like that is also something people have historically regretted. So the smart thing is to oppose him without invading his country.
Fortunately for us Putin's run his country's economy into the ground with crony capitalism. It's too bad for the Russians but soon the economic disaster is going to curtail his international ambitions.
I'm all for being friends with Russia. I said back in '92 George H.W. Bush was making a big mistake by not extending Russia the hand of friendship. But at present there's no way to separate Russia from Putin, and Putin should be contained.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
He also had more whistleblower prosecutions than all previous presidents COMBINED, all during "the most transparent administration in history".
The only way to bring healthcare under control so folks can afford it at all will be to regulate it.
When you allow Big Pharma and Hospitals the ability to charge whatever they want, does it surprise anyone when they put their profits first ?
Regulate it and you'll go a long way in removing the need to have health insurance at all.
The current state of healthcare in this country is barely treading water as it is. We're already seeing folks opt out of the plans due to high costs. Once enough go, the money to sustain the rest is gone and the whole thing implodes.
The ONLY way this works is the plans have to be cheap enough for folks to afford. Two ways to achieve that:
1) Get more folks to sign up* and / or
2) Regulate the healthcare industry
*Unlikely given the premiums and out of pocket costs are quickly rising.
Don't regulate it and this will forever be a problem.
Healthcare is a critical infrastructure. It should not be a system driven by profits.