Quote by noll
Not sure whether you're joking or not, as he is the guy who invented the word 'meme' ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
Fucking A! The irony!
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Quote by noll
Not sure whether you're joking or not, as he is the guy who invented the word 'meme' ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
Quote by hayley
Awwww Trink ... not like you! And today he cancelled the TPP!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!
It was one of the main reasons I voted for him. So he has saved the Australian medical system and the Kiwi one as well. He said he would do this and he has. Have to give him hero status now ...![]()
Just hope China doesn't mess it all up now.
Quote by Simmerdownchick
I really didn't know all that, and it makes me totally sick. You're right, I didn't look into his record and I should have
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Quote by sprite
if you're going to vote for someone, and yes, when you voted for Trump, you also voted for Pence, you should actually take a few minutes to be informed. you helped vote this guy in. now do you people understand why we "snowflakes" are pissed off?
Quote by Magical_felix
Don't get pissed off at a crazy person... Would you in real life? Like some guy yelling at a tree? Would that actually piss you off?
Quote by Buz
The demographics of the USA are changing. This could be the last hurrah of the rightwingests, unless they somehow convince the majority of a current and growing minority group to join their ideology. But wouldn't that go against the grain of most of their beliefs?
Quote by MostPreciousLittle
Quote by ivanka_simkiewisz
It is operating as a Republic, not a Democracy.
Quote by ivanka_simkiewisz
(Republic...a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch).
Meaning your President can be placed into office by the Elected Representatives which you have already voted into office to represent you, which were elected by you, in the exact way, and by an electoral process.
(Democracy...a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.)
Meaning your President or any government official is elected by all individual votes, or the popular vote as you call it there.
=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===
Quote by MadMartigan
Isolationism of the 21st century. Get back to me on how well that's worked in the last.
Global trade is a reality. But then, Mango has always been a shitty businessman. Only this time, it'll be the U.S. He bankrupts.
Quote by hayleyFirst off, TTP as yet had no legal effect whatsoever on what influence a government can have on prices and profit margins, because it was not ratified yet. And since both Vietnam and the US backed out of it, it will never take effect anywhere.
Well maybe he will, maybe he won't. Am sure his bankers think he's hopeless toooo... all $4.35billion of him.
Global Trade has always been a reality. Remember the Phoenicians? I don't but you might. And the first really big corporation.. the de Medici family? They were merchant bankers with lots of Cardinals and the odd Pope thrown in. Some of them were pretty good on poisons... oops! pharmaceuticals too.
The TPP wasn't a global trade deal... just a disguise for big corps to line their pockets yet again... more like a business treaty for major corporations.
Aussie and NZ have virtually free health care systems. One of the reasons is that they control the price of medicines and pharmaceuticals. Now that's not allowed under the TPP. Any government that tries to interfere with the profit making of a company can be sued for loss of profits.
They don't get sued in an American court of course, but before a special American Tribunal comprised of three corporate attorneys and the tribunal decision is final.
The tribunal meets in camera... i.e. secretly.. hands down the fines and damages. Cool that we don't need courts anymore isn't it?
As for the American jobs that it was supposed to create.. they might have been created but sure as heck wouldn't have been in the USA. Besides, there was no provision for the squillions in profits to be invested anywhere ... certainly not in jobs. They would have just paid off the shareholders, pocketed their bonuses and dumped the remaining squillions in offshore accounts... à la Apple!
Sorry, but I agree with the concensus at Davos this year, that Globalisation has gone too far and isn't working. It has produced inequalities that have to be rectified .. and fast! I admit to being something of a protectionist. For me charity begins at home.
Quote by noll
Quote by ivanka_simkiewisz
Oh ok. sorry I didn't understand it that way. So you can't change, or make an amendment, or how your vote is counted or used then?
The electorial, or popularity votes that are counted?
Quote by patokl
First off, TTP as yet had no legal effect whatsoever on what influence a government can have on prices and profit margins, because it was not ratified yet. And since both Vietnam and the US backed out of it, it will never take effect anywhere.
More importantly though, do you really believe, the pharmaceutical industry will voluntarily give up their huge profit margins in the US, just because TTP is scratched. They won't and to force them to, is virtually impossible. Touching them would require adaptations of patent laws protecting their interests, that will never pass. The lobby of the pharmaceutical industry is one of the strongest around, and has huge influence in Washington DC. I think that even a law, that would encourage competition, by making generic prescriptions (so not by brandname, but by active substance) mandatory, would never make it.
Quote by hayley
You missed my point entirely. I think I do not explain myself as well as I believe. I know the TPP is dead. It almost was before the election. Have you read it? The TPP? It's over 5,000 pages and you get lost in the rubbish detail.
I was not talking about the US sweet man. When Donald Trump said he would dump the TPP I was thinking only of Australia and its neighbour The Shakey Isles. USA didn't even come into my thinking, because I agree with you regarding big pharma and their ilk in America. Except i would say we are really going to have an affordable health care system here someone will need to take on big pharma. But that's another thread.
And the TPP did specify profit protection for big pharma and others, including financial institutions, that cut across the sovereignty of other countries in their incumbent trading practices. And that law that you said would never make it in the US... that law is in place in Australia and New Zealand. Fortunately now the TPP has gone, it will never be tested.
The other point is that he did say he would scrap it and he has, whereas Hillary said, at the last minute, she would review it if elected. But as Hillary was one of its supporters and those that would benefit most from it finance her and the Democratic Party, I couldn't believe her.
If the remaining countries want to revive it with China, well they can, but it will be a much different trade deal to the TPP. I don't see that happening. Increased access to the US market was it's key factor.
It's gone and I am so happy it has.
Quote by Sprite
if you're going to vote for someone, and yes, when you voted for Trump, you also voted for Pence, you should actually take a few minutes to be informed. you helped vote this guy in. now do you people understand why we "snowflakes" are pissed off?
Quote by Simmerdownchick
You know...I did know he originally wrote the religious freedom act, but nope, I didn't dig deep into his past. I really was hoping to not get into this because for one, I realize that I have no real excuse except to say, 'who really researches the VP?' Most of the 'Vote for Hllary' bumper stickers didn't even have Tim Kaines name anywhere on them. He was unheard of, for the most part, until she chose him as her running mate. So, no, I didn't know he was that dirty. I know nothing about Joe Biden or Dick Cheney. No, I knew Dick Cheney accidentally shot his hunting buddy and has a gay daughter...
I sure as hell don't want him to be president, especially now that I know that. Why are all of you 'snowflakes' (ok, that's kinda cute...) so eager to get rid of Trump if you KNOW Pence is next in line? If you know Pence is in the passenger seat, why do you want to get rid of the driver?
I humbly admit I didn't know. It's not something I am proud of, but I don't argue just to be right. If I'm wrong I have no problem admitting it. Again, however, I sure as shit don't want to see Trump impeached even more now, so when someone says "give the guy a chance" it feels even more important to me now, that we do.
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You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Quote by patokl
You sounded as if you compared Australia and those Isles to the US, and you explicitely mentioned American courts and American jobs, so it certainly wasn't all "not about America". Btw, Dutch law also generally forbids prescribing branded medication and controls the prices of both medicine and medical care.
That protection against loss of profit you mentioned is called Investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS. It protects foreign investors against unreasonable government measures that negatively impact their profits.
ISDS does not exist by the grace of TTP alone. It is part of international law. The legal protection of foreign direct investment is guaranteed by a network of more than 2750 bilateral and multilateral investment treaties and a number of free trade agreements(e.g. NAFTA and CETA). What ISDS does not do, is restrict the power of a government over domestic investors and industries. That's a matter of national law, which in America apparently protects big business better than it does the general public.
Quote by hayleyTTP would not have increased ISDS, because that very protection already exists as part of NAFTA and international law.
Thanks for your comment. What you say about your country is interesting. If the TPP had gone ahead the protection, as it exists in America, would have been increased even more under the TPP, in favour of big corporates as you so rightly point out. Sorry about the court thing. What I meant was that all disputes under the TPP were to be decided not by a court, but by a tribunal. That tribunal was to have three corporate lawyers and was to be based in the US.
What you said about branded medicines is interesting. That is not the case in Australia and New Zealand where branded products can be prescibed. Fortunately for the citizens, but unfortunately for big pharma, the health systems in both Aussie and NZ [called the Shakey Isles by Aussies because of the frequency of earthquakes and tremors] certain drugs are chosen for subsidy and only those chosen are 'fully' subsidised. That subsidy can lasts for up to three years. So it creates a monopoly of supply. Very much a no-no under the TPP if it had happened.
Quote by patokl
TTP would not have increased ISDS, because that very protection already exists as part of NAFTA and international law.