[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 10:26 pm

Costa Rican Legislature accidentally legalizes gay marriage

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:29 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/1 ... 79388.html
http://www.damasotimes.com/2/post/2013/07/21a.html

The Vatican just "accidentally" made it a crime to report child abuse, including molestation.

Basically, the pope, who of course has no damned training in law, just went through and updated Vatican law from a mishmash of 19th century Italian laws. They toughened the punishment for child abuse and molestation (from 3-10 to 5-12 years of imprisonment), but they also made it illegal under Vatican law to leak confidential information. Like allegations of child abuse.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 3:12 am

A step forward for Australia

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:05 am

Koumei wrote:A step forward for Australia

article wrote:Beyond the reasons for higher Australian pricing mentioned by Sturmer, companies also cited things like the smaller market size, unfavorable exchange rates, different wage structures, the cost of freight, and sales taxes.

All of this sounds like bullshit flavored bullshit.

Smaller market size? Aussies speak English. That's the largest fucking market.
Different wage structures? what is this I don't even
Exchange rates? What does that have to do with anything? No one requires them to charge literally the same amount in Aussie dollars.
Freight? hahahaha oh wow.
Sales taxes? Aren't they, like, everywhere?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:22 am

Starmaker wrote:Sales taxes? Aren't they, like, everywhere?

The Australian GST is 10% to the final consumer.
In California, there is a Sales and Use Tax that is 7.5% at the state level and rises as high as 9% in some districts.
In Canada, sales taxes are GST + a PST that varies by province, leaving you with a final tax of 5% in Alberta and 15% in Nova Scotia.
In the United Kingdom, the VAT is 20% to the final consumer.

Australia's sales taxes are not only "ubiquitous", they are low-normal.

Australia - 10%
France - 19.6%
Germany - 19%
Japan - 5%
Singapore -7%
Sweden - 25%
India - 20%
New Zealand - 15%

-Username17

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:30 am

Hong-Kong has no VAT, the GST was shot down and I don't think there's any other sales tax.
There aren't many other taxes either, actually.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:12 am

We didn't used to have a GST, we just let the income tax hit high-earners harder, but then the more right wing party got in and decided the middle and lower classes should be shouldering that burden. Similarly, if they get in this year they intend on instituting a "Gina says fuck you" policy, where multibillionaire mining corp owners don't have to pay a big tax, and instead, everyone else can just eat sand.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:47 am

The Australian's pay more excuses are... well all basically excuses.

The is a reason and story behind it though.

Some of those excuses used to be true. SOME.

Our market WAS small. Freight WAS a big deal.

So exotic luxury goods and specialist junk cost as the fucking earth. Because hey, we were an afterthought and a costly one.

Also exchange rate wise our Australian dollar USED to be pretty low value compared to the American Dollar, and other big currencies like the Pound.

Books were a good example (and are for a number of reasons). We paid more than most western nations, got less selection and got them LATE, they were basically printing books in the USA. Taking the left overs from that market and shipping them to the UK, then taking the left overs from THAT market and selling them to us at an incredibly high cost.

The retailers here were accomplices to some degree, but ultimately they had little choice, the importers/sources were the guys ultimately driving the giant price disparity for what was, basically the English speaking worlds left over books they didn't even want.

Now, over time our market got bigger, and richer, freight costs dropped, and most notably the Australian currency value soared and essentially matched the US Dollar, which is a big deal because one of the reasons we used to pay often double for (at one point) American goods was because our currency was literally worth half.

But, prices are sticky. Companies do NOT like to see prices go down, as far as they are concerned prices should stay stable or go up and customers are clearly used to paying that and fuck you they are ENTITLED to that price.

So as freight costs dropped, the importers pocketed the difference. As the market improved they just sold more. And as the exchange rate improved, they pocketed that too.

And they do NOT want to give up the profits. They see, or want to see our market as an almost literally captive isolated market they can essentially artificially force into paying more.

But yeah. Thing is there's the internet. And companies are fighting desperately to keep our market captive. Again, books are a good example.

Suddenly Amazon.com attacked. We could suddenly buy all the books everyone else could. We could buy then WHEN everyone else could. And we could buy them at prices that everyone else paid. I mean, hell Amazon.com wasn't even the cheapest online book seller around, but you could buy books from them, and pay for mailing them, and you were still getting them cheaper than you could in a book store in Australia. And not just a little cheaper, a LOT cheaper. REALLY a lot cheaper.

Now online book sales hit brick and mortar book stores world wide. But it hit HARD in Australia. It all came to a head when not just the biggest chain of retail book stores in the country but BOTH the biggest chains BOTH and the ONLY big remaining book store chains in the country went to their importers and said "Fuck, Amazon is murdering us, please please for the love of god, to save us and to save you, lower your fucking prices, give up on some of those extra profits you pocketed so our businesses can survive!".

And their suppliers said "fuck you that's our fucking money by right". And then the big book retailer chains said "well fuck you we're bankrupt".

Now the same thing very nearly happened with DVDs, but our prices on those weren't as astronomically bad, and when Australia got mandated Region Free DVD players the DVD guys were more on top of things and simultaneously both isolated our market and rapidly pumped it full of more products to make the remaining motivation to seek out of market DVDs (our lack of variety at the time) less significant.

But now people are noticing hey, digital products are screwing us with ZERO freight, we are paying prices for downloads that are higher than we can pay to buy a physical product, in the UK, where prices are high and taxes are higher, INCLUDING the cost to then ship it RETAIL around the world to Australia.

So one of the big flag ships now is Software, and not just games, ALL software, it's been around longer than DVDs so the various assholes involved are more entrenched, and the prices are from the bad old days.

But there really is a push on to basically say to the world "fuck you our dollar exchange rate IS now on par or sometimes even better than the American dollar, and we fucking want appropriate prices non of this "pay double" bull shit anymore.

And it's so bad that even the government has clear motivation to intervene, I mean, it can't be doing good things to our trade deficit.

The captive market bullshit can't go on forever, it's now just a game of "how bad and how long can they keep milking us".

...wow I really rambled on this...

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 7:39 pm

I'm just glad that Canada's "tax" is only Australia lite. Holy shit you guys have it bad.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Aug 01, 2013 1:11 am

Yeah, the government didn't say "Just pirate it like we do", because US corporations can presumably have us nuked if they feel like it, they outrank everyone except the Student Council, right? But it's nice (and surprising) to see them actually on our side here. When all of the reasons boil down to "because we can, lol", the answer is actually "Well fuck you".

It's rare to see the government take our side on things, and I like it when it happens.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:38 pm

PL, Koumei, and all of our other Australian posters: Have you heard anything about Stephanie Banister? As far as I can tell, she's still at the early stages of her political career, but damn was that a funny read. I'm curious if this isn't the first stupid thing she's done publicly.

Edit:
It looks like I've answered my own question. She quit politics after 48 hours. At least she knew when to call it quits! Bonus points for her blaming this on them editing her interview, and not her being a total dumbass. This reminds me of a certain ex VP candidate in the states...

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:50 pm

The One Nation party is a very right wing group, with all the stereotypes present. They are against anyone that looks, talks or does something different. That they have candidates who humiliate themselves with ignorance is not particularly interesting.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:21 am

About all we can say for them is that they're taking votes away from Liberal: there are people who would go "I'm a sexist and a racist so I like Liberal, but... 1N are more racist, so I'll go with them".

But not enough people that we'll ever have a strong showing from 1N in the senate or anything.

Now on the downside, other parties get to compare themselves to 1N and basically do seem to end up a bit more racist than they otherwise would, because "at least we're not as bad as those fucks".

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:22 am

One nation's influence has been and gone. Their blatant racism having significant support in certain electorates basically led directly to Australia's version of the "Southern Strategy" which is for us more of a "Northern Strategy" and revolves around a race to which major party will make it first to turning our refugee handling system to honest to god concentration camps and which party will eventually slip up and accidentally call one of their "X Solution" strategies the "Final Solution". (So far X is usually some random crappy third world island nation our UN treaties require us NOT to send refugees to, but it's only a matter of time)

As such their real effect has pretty much been and gone. They are however mildly hilarious. And I hope like hell they can gain some small traction because it might well be the only way any major party will ever condemn the idea of putting refugees into concentration camps as being racist, or for that matter, even bad.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 4:50 am

Well Rudd has gone for the idea of "all future boats get redirected to other countries (PNG for instance)", and has been running ads on TV so they know that (except they don't because if they're watching our TV channels, they're already here, so clearly it's just a stunt to get votes). I don't know if this means he intends on closing the current concentration camps or not, but it's a start. It's less bad than the alternative (although admittedly, they might simply be going to concentration camps in PNG and so on).

Abbott has naturally elected not to explain what his idea is, merely saying how much he hates Rudd's ideas. He doesn't like to actually state his policies, merely complain about everyone else's. Presumably it's either "MORE CONCENTRATION CAMPS" or "scuttle their boats with actual military force, then ignore international maritime law in regards to rescuing those lost at sea."

Interestingly, Rudd has also promised that if reelected, then within 100 days he'll allow me to get married*. Again, he's desperately reaching out, when other parties that aren't major ones were always in favour of this (a Greens or Sex Party leadership would already have done so without needing to make it a pleading election promise). But it's not like that many gay people were voting for Liberal, so I guess he's trying to take votes from Greens, or to convince "Fuck it, they both hate me" people to vote. Naturally Abbott also hates this idea, on two grounds: 1. Labor want to do it therefore we oppose it! 2. The Bible says it's bad (whoops, the Bible covers gay marriage and the full blessings the Lord gave for those unions not of necessity, but of love) He's a bigot.

Now as it stands, the news sources say Abbott has a lead, but they also said Rudd wouldn't win the first time he won, and they also said that about Obama both times. I'm really hoping this is the same "We'll ask our (right-wing) readers" echo-chamber effect. Labor and Greens should really think about forming a permanent coalition the way Liberal and Nationalist did, to combine their voter bases.

*Not me specifically, but gay people in general. Yeah, we're so backward that we're slowly catching up to the UK, how sad is that?

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:56 am

Koumei wrote:Well Rudd has gone for the idea of...

Yeah, really should inform people on the whole Rudd debacle at the moment.

OK so we had a leadership upset, again, and now Rudd is back.

Now LAST time he tried to get it, and failed, it was mildly optimistic and he was outright attacking the various back room strategy morons of the labor party, well, maybe, it's never perfectly clear, but it seemed like maybe.

You know. The ones who chucked HIM out for Gillard the second he started showing a spine and saying "fuck it, Mining Tax and maybe we need to consider rolling back on the me too's on the concentration camps because it's just feeding the libera... AAAAAGH MY BACK!"

BUT the thing is this time when he won it looked very suspicious and it became clear over night that he had done, well, exactly what Gillard had done. The back room strategists paniced to fuck and back over bad polls for Gillard (caused in very large part by her following THEIR brilliant dumb as fuck political strategies, notably including "me too" concentration camp plans). So they put in a new puppet, and Rudd was ready to learn "his lesson" and sign up for it.

It was especially obvious when his first words and actions out of the gate were how he had indeed learned that exact lesson and would "listen to advice" which ostensibly was supposed to be advice from senior cabinet members... but which really rather clearly was both a public eating of pride for the back room boy's benefit and an excuse to switch to their strategies wholesale.

And that seems to be what he is doing. Most major announcements have been horribly depressing tail between the legs retreats and me tooisms of everything that made Mr Abbot look angry at the labor party and totally tell them with total helpful honesty would like lose them votes and they should trust him!

So for instance, fuck the carbon tax and fuck refugees.

Refugees are in BAD camps under labor now, and labor cannot really blame the liberals anymore. And the camps ARE bad, there was that one guy in charge of health and safety who leaked and well... lets just say "rape, torture, at risk refugees not considered, administrators under impression they had been given the implied directive that no one was getting off the island and it was meant to be a bad place".

That came out about five minutes after his "not one more person will be accepted from boats!" bullshit, along with riots, by Afghani's and Iraqis and other nationalities all of which are from places we ourselves are involved in as war fucking zones. Cause you know THOSE guys aren't REAL refugees.

Anyway. Now we are pushing them off to PNG. Which will end as badly as EVERY other island nation bullshit so far, only maybe worse with PNG's really bad corruption and law and order problems, hell the civilian murder rate alone... but not to worry about that, it's not like PNG is actually going to resettle them in the community, they'll take millions to keep them in the likely hell hole conditions of the LATEST concentration camps forever.

Abbott has naturally elected not to explain what his idea is, merely saying how much he hates Rudd's ideas.

And importantly the media in Australia only encourages him at every turn. He remains largely unchallenged and when he IS even slightly, (and say, has I dunno, say a GIANT a public melt down over it) his carreer magically continues, the media continues to paint the labor government's massive internationally recognized economic success as a massive failure and so on.

And that's the biggest worry coming into the next election.

The labor party did at least one thing right. They spent money, they did the national broad band network. They did infrastructure spending. They went into debt despite knowing the dumb fuckers in the liberal party would bludgeon them over the head with it in the economically ignorant media. And it kept our economy at least marginally afloat. Enough so that it is internationally recognised as one of the most successful responses IN THE WORLD to the global economic crisis. People come here from other nations to ask how to do it. But most dumb ass "Aussies" think we have had a period of FAILED economic policy... because yeah, of ignorant government debt panic bludgeoning in the media.

I mean seriously our debt is SO SMALL it is projected to go back to surplus by 2016. At that rate the government SHOULD BE TAKING OUT MORE FUCKING LOANS.

But instead... the government may be overthrown by the fucking mad Monk (himself widely criticized IN HIS OWN PARTY as an innumerate economic ignoramus) because of "economic failure".

And yeah the whole "fuck it we'll just call them failures and say nuh ah we would do it in unspecified different successful ways" really is the liberal strategy and it really is working.

Which is depressing, but hey... Australians... enough said...

Labor and Greens should really think about forming a permanent coalition

Won't happen. Labor, especially as it is conservative dominated labor sees the Greens as the real enemy stealing votes that rightfully belong to labor no matter how much they become conservative me too assholes.

If the genius strategists in the back of the labor party saw a way to destroy the Greens forever at the cost of giving Abbot government for the next decade or two THEY WOULD TAKE IT and pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:34 am

Yeah, that's pretty unfortunate. Maybe they could make the carbon tax more appealing: place the onus on the power companies by actually banning them from passing the tax onto the users. This wins points from home owners (who don't get a "mean government" tax), and from people who actually want sustainable energy (the power companies aren't encouraged to find new methods if they can just pass the cost on to us).

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:42 am

People who have worked for Kevin Rudd say that he's terrible to work under; blaming, ranting and micromanaging. If he somehow pulls a victory out of this election I won't be surprised if he gets rolled as leader again as soon as an excuse arrives.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:45 am

Yeah, I've heard that he's a micromanaging asshole who looks over stuff that's supposed to just be stamped and auto-approved, then sending it back because he doesn't like the wording, and that basically things worked best when he was overseas (making friends in the international field, something he was good at) and Gillard was here getting the work done.

Edit: and Abbott decided to open his stupid mouth again and remind everyone what a sexist he is! Let's hope that helps.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:01 pm

Koumei wrote:Yeah, I've heard that he's a micromanaging asshole

Yeah, you know a tough boss who checks things and wants things done right sounds like a good thing and people buying into that as somehow bad are falling for some incredibly lame PR spin. Much as the back room assholes in the labor party are spinning Rudd as daring to "have his own ideas and not listen to his underlings (meaning actually them)" as their whole excuse for the leadership musical chairs fiasco.

It's total bullshit appeal to the most hideous of ignorant Australian tall poppy syndrome and it shouldn't be given the time of day.

Meanwhile consider that within the liberal party Abbot is regarded as an ignorant religious lunatic who cannot do math, doesn't understand the economy, is single handedly dragging the party into the dark ages of science denial and is needlessly senselessly contrary and combative...

Not to mention his tendency to insult every woman on the planet about once a week, then throw in some other ludicrous gaffe ranging from outright hostility towards the media to his hilarious attack on Rudd's dreaded tall poppyness with ... "No one, however smart, however well educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom," .

...Yeah I'd rather see the tough elitist who dares to bring his own ideas to the table in power than the fucking Mad Monk with his famed tendency to make "oddly scatological comments" (yes that's a quote from the media).

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:20 pm

Don't get me wrong, if every single thing said about Rudd were true, he'd still be better than Abbott as a prime minister and as a human being. But it's telling that when the backstabbing was reversed, people in his own party decided they'd rather seek employment elsewhere than put up with him as a boss. Sounds like it's great to have him as a leader as long as you don't personally have to work for him.

On the other hand, the people who do have to work for him are politicians, and thus deserve every fucking thing they get.

And you'd think that Abbott would know to just stand and nod his head silently for a minute rather than speak in front of cameras, really.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:39 pm

I really enjoyed this blog about mi5:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:36 am

I love how the author keeps mentioning their haircuts. That said, it's interesting to see that basically the most accurate portrayals were the comedy satire things such as the Secret Service sketch in "A Bit of Fry & Laurie".

And the CIA is somewhat similar as well - started up around the end of the second world war (under a different name IIRC) by Nazi spy officers who thought that was a better deal than being convicted of war crimes and probably put to death. They kept up the "Russian spies are EVERYWHERE!" game for as long as possible, so that they were still relevant and could thus keep their jobs. Because they weren't stupid: they knew that if they stopped being useful, trials for war crimes could go ahead at any moment.

And then... it's pretty much accepted that the CIA are bumbling fools when it comes to most forms of espionage (and all forms of assassination and insurgency-causing).

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:49 pm

Koumei wrote:And the CIA is somewhat similar as well - started up around the end of the second world war (under a different name IIRC)

That would be the OSS.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:47 am

Thanks.

Incidentally, more on Tony Abbott: he might need to borrow a twenty (Youtube).

Obviously they're taking the piss, but they are demonstrating that our debt is not the crisis either side is pretending it to be, and making fun of his deficit-scaring. And him.