Negligent posted:

Look at this infographic from amnesty

http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/comments/27690/

People from Afghanistan use fake documents to get into Malaysia. It begs the question of if you have a fake passport why not fly directly to Australia. Maybe border fart aren't useless and actually detect fake stuff reasonably competently?

Birdstrike posted:

What does it mean if I yell allahu akbar when I hit the post button?

BBJoey posted:

speaking of things noone reads, is that official Labor cheerleading news site or whatever the hell they branded themselves as still running?

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Yes Stephen Koukoulas is still writing.

BBJoey posted:

speaking of things noone reads, is that official Labor cheerleading news site or whatever the hell they branded themselves as still running?

Pred1ct posted:

They're still alive, and for all those that crowdfunded the Labor Herald they can claim the glory for top notch content such as this:

https://www.laborherald.com.au/education/media/video-games-discover-dastyari-asks/

Tirade posted:

It fits both definitions that Cartoon posted earlier. Maybe you should go down to the cop shop and demand the kid's long-form ISIL membership certificate you cretin.

I don't get it. What's your angle? Why are you trying so hard to argue that this isn't terrorism? Is it so hard to believe that certain members of our society - Australian Defence League members, sovereign citizens, Muslim kids encouraged by ISIL to attack a cop or a soldier - can go so far off the rails that they'd try to do something like this? Admitting that a single Muslim kid was radicalised doesn't magically sign you up to the Stop the Bendigo Mosque facebook page.

Pred1ct posted:

They're still alive, and for all those that crowdfunded the Labor Herald they can claim the glory for top notch content such as this:

https://www.laborherald.com.au/education/media/video-games-discover-dastyari-asks/

Pickled Tink posted:

In my case (The post which started this lovely conversation), my original objection was the fact that it was immediately assumed to be terrorism because he was a middle eastern muslim, and that assumption would not have been made for other ethic or religious groups. The truth of the accusation of terrorism is irrelevant, the fact that they were so happy to jump the gun on this before there was any evidence of the claim (And there is still gently caress all in that regard), but give other ethnicities and religions a pass is indicative of the institutional racism of both our police and press cultures, and serves only to encourage the vilification of muslim people.

Your reaction to that observation was to compare me to Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine, so I suspect you just like getting argumentative for the sake of hurling abuse.

BBJoey posted:

ALIEN DIETY

Jumpingmanjim posted:

quote:

Trade ministers from 12 countries announced the largest trade-liberalizing pact in a generation on Monday. In a press conference, trade ministers from the US, Australia and Japan called the the Trans-Pacific Partnership an “ambitious” and “challenging” negotiation that will cut red tape globally and “set the rules for the 21st century for trade”.

The deal – in the works since 2008 – is a major victory for US president Barack Obama. “This partnership levels the playing field for our farmers, ranchers and manufacturers by eliminating more than 18,000 taxes that various countries put on our products,” the president said in a statement. “It includes the strongest commitments on labor and the environment of any trade agreement in history, and those commitments are enforceable, unlike in past agreements.”

While it still faces major hurdles, not least in Congress, the deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments. It is expected to set common standards for 40% of the world’s economy, become a new flashpoint for the 2016 presidential campaign, and could become a legacy defining agreement for the Obama administration.

The deal is seen as a challenge to China’s growing dominance in the Pacific region. China had been invited to join the trade group but balked at restrictions that the deal would have placed on its financial sector and other areas.

“Long after the details of this negotiation like tons of butter have been regarded as a footnote in history, the bigger picture of what we have achieved today remains,” said New Zealand trade minister Tim Groser. “It remains inconceivable that the TPP bus will stop at Atlanta.”

Lawmakers in TPP countries must also approve the deal, setting up potentially months of congressional wrangling on the deal.

The final round of negotiations in Atlanta, which began on Wednesday, had got stuck over the question of how long a monopoly period should be allowed on next-generation biotech drugs, until the United States and Australia negotiated a compromise. Negotiations went as late as 5am this morning, US trade representative Michael Froman said.

The TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations that have shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat to an array of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers.

Although the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds of imported items from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the United States, one issue had threatened to derail talks until the end: the length of the monopolies awarded to the developers of new biological drugs.

Negotiating teams had been deadlocked over the question of the minimum period of protection of the rights to data used to make biological drugs, by companies including Pfizer Inc, Roche Group’s Genentech and Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

The United States had sought 12 years of protection to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive biological treatments like Genentech’s cancer treatment Avastin. Australia, New Zealand and public health groups had sought a period of five years to bring down drug costs and the burden on state-subsidized medical programs.

Negotiators agreed on a compromise on minimum terms that was short of what US negotiators had sought, people involved in the closed-door talks said. The agreement would protect the data for between five and eight years, the New York Times reported.

“This is one of the most challenging issues in the negotiations,” Froman said about biologics. He said member countries believe the TPP “incentivizes the development of these new live-saving drugs while ensuring access to these medicines”.

The Biotechnology Industry Association, in Washington DC, said it was “very disappointed” by reports that US negotiators had not been able to convince Australia and other TPP members to adopt the 12-year standard approved by Congress.

“We will carefully review the entire TPP agreement once the text is released by the ministers,” the industry lobby said in a statement.
Final hours

A politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy farmers was also addressed in the final hours of talks, officials said. New Zealand, home to the world’s biggest dairy exporter, Fonterra, wanted increased access to US, Canadian and Japanese markets.

Separately, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed rules governing the auto trade that dictate how much of a vehicle must be made within the TPP region in order to qualify for duty-free status.

The North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico mandates that vehicles have a local content of 62.5%. The way that rule is implemented means that just over half of a vehicle needs to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with driving a boom in auto-related investment in Mexico.

The TPP would give Japan’s automakers, led by Toyota Motor Corp, a freer hand to buy parts from Asia for vehicles sold in the United States but sets long phase-out periods for US tariffs on Japanese cars and light trucks.

The TPP deal announced Monday also sets minimum standards on issues ranging from workers’ rights to environmental protection. It also sets up dispute settlement guidelines between governments and foreign investors separate from national courts.

Spudd posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/05/trans-pacific-partnership-deal-reached-pacific-countries-international-trade


Here's an article about it. I don't really understand much from this but from what I've got from some people is we're hosed. I would like to know how hosed though, just dumb it down for me... I'm not overly smart about these things. Especially economics.

Nibbles! posted:

Yeah, one if the largest issues with the TPP is we just don't know what's in it. What we do know is that it serves the interests of the rich and corporations at the expense of everyone else.

There just doesn't seem to be a pressing need for anything that we do know about it. It seems more like a mechanism for companies to get rid of laws and regulations that stand in the way of them making more money.

quote:

Brisbane taxi boss boasts of bashing Uber driver on Facebook

A 30-year Brisbane taxi industry veteran has bragged of bashing an Uber driver in a social media post and encouraged others in the industry to "get more militant" and do the same.

Greg Collins, the owner of the Virginia-based cab company Complete Taxi Management, admitted on the Brisbane Taxi Driver Facebook page on Sunday that he had physically assaulted an Uber driver, as the war between the industry and the ride-sharing app's drivers escalates.

"F---ing slap him like I did to the prick in Warner St the other night, I am f---ing over them. You wait I will f---ing get them. They won't and can't defend themselves they are illegal. If it was 30 years ago in my time, they wouldn't last five minutes," he wrote, in response to a post by a taxi driver who claimed to have been assaulted by an Uber driver while trying to take his photo.

"We need to get more militant about this issue. The (sic) are the f---ing scabs stealing what we have all worked for."

When contacted for comment on Monday, Mr Collins tried to dismiss the post as a joke.

"I've never slapped an Uber driver in my life, we were mucking around," he said.

"It's not true, I don't break the law.

"I spoke to an Uber driver but I don't want to elaborate, they are illegal."

Mr Collins insisted his name not be used, saying the page on which he made the comments was a closed group.

The Brisbane Taxi Driver Facebook Page is an open public forum, accessible by any person with a Facebook profile.

Mr Collins did not deny posting the comments but declined to comment on what he meant by saying drivers needed to "get more militant".

The cab company boss runs 65 cars, according to the Yellow Cabs, which utilises his business as part of its fleet service.

Fairfax Media contacted Yellow Cabs for comment on Monday.

Mr Collins's social media history shows he has long been waging a measured anti-Uber campaign.

However, Sunday's post appears to be the first time he has, in less eloquent terminology than he has previously used, openly encouraged other drivers to take matters into their own hands.

"When the government of the day refuses to enforce the laws it created and allows a foreign illegal organisation to operate with impunity without any regards to its citizens, that is treason," he wrote.

"That calls for action by people to protect their laws. I say stuff them and we need to do what they won't. They hurt me and my family. It's war."

The social media revelations come as three men, including two Uber drivers, were bashed by the same group of men in inner Brisbane early Monday morning, in what appeared to be attacks specifically targeted at Uber drivers.

A spokesman for the US-based ride-sharing company expressed concern the attacks were the result of a sustained scare campaign run by the taxi lobby, both nationally and within Queensland, warning of the dangers of using ride-sharing apps, and specifically Uber.

The Taxi Council of Queensland declined to comment.

In an interview with Fairfax Media on Monday, the first Uber driver attacked by the group early Monday said there was no doubt the group had targeted him because he worked for the ride-sharing app.

"I strongly suspect they were off-duty taxi drivers as they were full of hatred towards Uber and yelling abruptly that our taxis are suffering because of Uber, f--- Uber, etcetera," he said.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-taxi-boss-boasts-of-bashing-uber-driver-on-facebook-20151005-gk1s3k.html

Serrath posted:

I'm just wondering who stops you, that's all; I imagine someone does but I'm wondering if it's the country of origin, the airline, or if Australia maintains a security presence overseas.

I guess I've never come to Australia without a visa but I've traveled a lot and there are a lot of countries where you can apply for your visa after landing, in the airport... I guess Australia doesn't have a system like that but I'm curious how they stop people from doing this...

Funky See Funky Do posted:

I wonder what it would take for the taxi industry to realise that they don't have an Uber problem they have public relations problem.

Spudd posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/05/trans-pacific-partnership-deal-reached-pacific-countries-international-trade


Here's an article about it. I don't really understand much from this but from what I've got from some people is we're hosed. I would like to know how hosed though, just dumb it down for me... I'm not overly smart about these things. Especially economics.

Funky See Funky Do posted:

This seems like an appropriate venue to share this: I have a huge celebrity crush on Virginia Trioli.

The Peccadillo posted:

All you need to know is ISDS with America is the doomsday scenario of capitalism, and that might be comin' in secret

BBJoey posted:

The cyberpunk dystopia is now.and we don't even get any cool cybergear.

Ahh Yes posted:

Does the TPP have to go through parliament?
Labor will let it through anyway I guess.