Obscure Government Document Shows Elizabeth Warren Is Right About TPP. As opponents and advocates of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) continue to battle it out, the debate over the agreement has largely focused on the issue of trade – whether jobs will be lost or gained, what the agreement will do to our trade deficit, and other related matters.
It's worth pointing out that the United States already trades heavily with the other 11 nations included in the TPP talks. As Paul Krugman says, “this is not a trade agreement. It's about intellectual property and dispute settlement; the big beneficiaries are likely to be pharma companies and firms that want to sue governments.” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been particularly critical of the so-called Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions, which would empower corporations to use international courts to sue the U.S. government and others who are enacting regulations and protections that harm their profits. Israel Appropriates 1000 Acres Of West Bank Land For Possible Settlement Expansion.
Israel has appropriated 1000 acres of land in the occupied West Bank in a move described as 'the biggest in 30 years'.
The area in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem where currently around 10 Israeli families live, will most likely be used to build a permanent settlement. Burger King: Don’t Try This Whopper of a Tax Dodge. Colonization by Bankruptcy: The High-stakes Chess Match for Argentina. If Argentina were in a high-stakes chess match, the country’s actions this week would be the equivalent of flipping over all the pieces on the board. – David Dayen, Fiscal Times, August 22, 2014.
Christie funnels public pension money to Wall Street while pushing cuts on workers. Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds. Here's A DIY Hack To Get Back At Terrible Customer Service Reps. After several people used recorded phone calls to out customer service reps for bad behavior, it turns out using a microphone during your call might improve your chances of a decent customer experience.
The trouble is, how do you do it? You might think of the obvious option right off the bat: an app. The trouble is, a lot of apps that record cost money and are glitchy. Instead, we've pioneered a strategy for recording your calls that's simple, quiet and cheap. (Here, we'd like to point out that laws around recording vary by state, so it's probably a good idea to check on the rules for wherever you live. But when you're ready to record, here's what you do: 1) Plug headphones into your phone.
We're assuming you already have a phone and headphones. In-ear headphones like earbuds work, but the sound won't be as clear as you'll get with something like we have above. 2) Put only one of those headphones in your ear. Apple In Talks with Comcast for Streaming TV Service. By Arnab Sen and Greg Roumeliotis Apple (AAPL) is in talks with Comcast to enter into a deal for a streaming-television service that would allow Apple set-top boxes to bypass congestion on the Web, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The discussions are in early stages and there are a lot of hurdles to be crossed before a definitive agreement could be reached, the Journal said. Apple, which wants its TV service's traffic to be separated from public internet traffic over the "last mile" for faster transmission, is looking for special treatment from Comcast's (CMCSA) (CMCSK) cables to bypass congestion, the report said. Comcast and Apple declined to comment on the report. Apple has been in talks for a faster TV set-top box with Time Warner Cable (TWC), which recently agreed to be bought by Comcast. Apple's $99 TV box competes with similar streaming devices from Roku and Google (GOOG). How One McDonald's Became The Epicenter Of The Ferguson Conflict. At the center of the storm in Ferguson, Missouri, is an unlikely setting: McDonald’s.
The Golden Arches on West Florissant Avenue, a main thoroughfare in the St. Louis suburb, stand blocks away from where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer on Aug. 9, setting off violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Man Savagely Beaten By Police On Video May Now Be Deported. A man brutally beaten by police in June after he surrendered and lay down on the ground is now at risk of being deported.
Police officers in Santa Ana, California, beat Edgar Vargas Arzate on June 20, according to surveillance video of the incident and interviews with Arzate's attorney. Arzate, who has struggled with addiction and mental health issues, went to visit the house of a friend, apparently not realizing that the friend no longer lived there, according to his attorney, public defender Frank Bittar. The new residents saw Arzate mumbling incoherently outside their house and called police. Arzate ran when he saw the officers, leading them on a roughly four-block chase before he surrendered in the front yard of a neighbor's home, Bittar said.