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TPP Will Have A Net Negative Impact On The US Economy

2/29/2016

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More than a century ago, Carl Sandburg labeled Chicago the City of Big Shoulders: “hog butcher for the world, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler; stormy, husky brawling.”

All of this was indicative of America itself as well: Nation of big shoulders. The United States was a brawny country that would intervene to help win World War I and later quickly retool factories to serve as munitions mills to win World War II. Now, though, as America’s tool makers and freight car builders are furloughed, their factories shuttered and offshored, America is wasting. Ill-conceived free trade deals are reducing it to a nation of stooped shoulders.

The newest proposed deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed in New Zealand last week by representatives of its 12 member states, would further enfeeble American manufacturing. The first of the ilk, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), devastated U.S. manufacturing. Allowing China into the World Trade Organization and the bad trade deals that followed NAFTA all pummeled American manufacturing when it was already down.

From cookies to car parts, factories fled America for places like China and Mexico. There, corporations pay workers a pittance and pollute virtually penalty-free. CEOs and shareholders roll in the resulting royal-sized profits. Meanwhile, formerly middle-class American workers and their families suffer. Communities bereft of sustaining mills collapse. And the United States atrophies, losing more and more of those once-bulky industrial shoulders.

 A group of economists studying the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) have concluded that the sweeping trade agreement will have a net negative impact on the US economy.

Economic researchers with Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute said Monday that widely cited projections claiming the TPP will boost economic activity in the US are “based on unrealistic assumptions.”

Instead, the economists noted, the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal will likely lead to the loss of 448,000 jobs from the US workforce, while lowering GDP by more than a half-percentage point over the next decade.

The report also estimates that TPP will cause labor’s share of income to decline by 1.3 percent, increasing inequality in the United States.

It noted, however, that this would not be unique to the US – that new income going to workers in all TPP signatories is expected to drop as a result of the deal, according to the analysis, widening the gap between the global rich and poor.

The Tufts researchers also found that while the US job market is projected to take the biggest hit, the TPP would lead to 771,000 job aggregate losses over the next ten years in all member nations.
“[B]usinesses in participating countries would strive to become more competitive by cutting labor costs, thereby seeking higher short-term profits while undermining efficiency and productivity in the long-term,” they said.

And of the few countries that would experience economic gains from the agreement, the boost would only be “negligible.” The report projects GDP gains from less than one percent to less than 3 percent for Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brunei, Vietnam, and Singapore – all occurring over the course of the next decade.

NAFTA crushed 300 decent middle class workers in Grand Rapids, Mich., last week. They make automated conveyor systems for a company called Dematic. Represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, they earn between $11.55 and $24.26 an hour. That means the best paid among them receive the median wage for a U.S. worker.

Soon, however, they’ll have no wages. That’s because they can’t compete with the $1.50 to $1.70 per hour paid to workers in Monterrey, Mexico. Several weeks ago, Dematic told the workers it would move the factory to Mexico unless the UAW came up with a better offer. It’s illegal in the United States for workers to labor for $1.50 an hour. So a company, founded in Grand Rapids in 1939, will sever its American roots, shed its American workers and squat in Mexico.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today raised concerns about the reliability of a recent advocacy document released by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) purporting to show increased farm income if the Trans-Pacific Partnership is adopted. The highlight of the release is that US farm income will increase by a meager $4.4 billion by some future date if the TPP is adopted. Following are ten concerns CPA has about the AFBF analysis’ credibility:

1.         Past AFBF Projects Were Wrong: Farm Bureau has been overly optimistic when projecting trade deal results for US agriculture. For the Korea-US trade agreement, AFBF claimedthat US agriculture would be a “net gainer” in agricultural commodity trade with that country. However, the opposite resulted. The US net export performance substantially worsened between 2011 (the year before the implementation of the Korea-US pact) and 2015.

2.         Undisclosed methods: The economic model used is not revealed and is thus not replicable. From what is discernible, the same methods that produced inaccurate Korea-US trade agreement results were used in this report.

3.         Undisclosed authors: The authors of the underlying study, giving rise to the AFBF advocacy document, are not revealed. We do not know their level of competence.

4.         Undisclosed data: The data sets relied upon for the AFBF advocacy document have not been revealed. We do not know if those data sets are reliable or were interpreted and applied properly.


5.         Unreasonable meat demand assumptions: The report assumes, without proof, that future TPP country population growth will translate into increase demand for US beef and pork rather than domestic sources. TPP country Vietnam, for example, consumes fish protein and is a major exporter of fish sold in the US. Non-TPP country China has a food self-sufficiency objective.


6.         Failure to consider Japan pork subsidies: The AFBF document assumes increased US pork market share in Japan. It fails to consider that Japan’s pork tariff cuts will, combined with its subsidy program, continue to keep foreign pork penetration from its domestic market. Japan’s controversial program has been highlighted in a recent, high-profile letter from 28 pro-Fast Track House members at the request of multinational pork packers.


7.         Unreasonable assumptions of disproportionate US meat export market share: The report assumes that the US will benefit from any increased TPP country demand, without properly considering products from competing major agricultural countries like Canada, Australia, Mexico or non-TPP countries that could fill that demand.


8.         Failure to consider causes of agricultural price levels: The AFBF report does not include consideration of the primary causes of price levels for farm and ranch products. Those primary causes include, for example: the cattle cycle, weather, disease, ethanol, currency values, and energy prices. Each of these factors has a far larger impact on pricing than any TPP provision.


9.         Omitted US import considerations: The report fails to examine imports from other TPP countries. Any model that only examines exports is per se wrong. Agricultural imports to the US from TPP countries reduce US market share in the domestic market and thus lower farm and ranch prices.


10.       Failure to consider global crop pricing and demand facts: The AFBF document assumes that increased TPP country demand for oilseeds, rice and other crops would substantially be met by US products. However, other agricultural countries like Brazil and Argentina consistently export crops at slightly under the US price, whatever the US price may be. The US is and has been a residual supplier for this reason. The TPP will not change that global pricing dynamic.


​Congress and the public need reliable data and analysis when determining whether the TPP will harm or benefit the US economy. Without clarifying the above mentioned concerns, the AFBF report should not be relied upon when considering the TPP impact on agriculture, farmers and ranchers.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America is a nonprofit organization representing the interests of 2.7 million households through our agricultural, manufacturing and labor members.
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Kentucky Radiation Leaks Bigger Problem Than Most Know

2/28/2016

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Recently an estimated 1,600 to 1,800 tons of low-level radioactive waste was illegally dumped in an Estill County landfill alarming many kentuckians. 

Kentucky officials learned about the "illegal" waste through a contractor and a regulatory counterpart in Fairmont, West Virginia where the material was processed. The material came to Kentucky from July through November last year through improper channels.

It is illegal to bring such waste into Kentucky from most states, however, Kentucky has an exclusive contract with Illinois to manage radioactive waste from the state. Illinois is the only state that is allowed to dump radioactive waste in Kentucky.

The state is trying to determine whether the material poses a public health problem and it is not believed the material poses much of “an imminent threat or danger” now that it has been buried at the landfill.  Additionally, the radioactive level of the material that was buried was at least 340 times more than the amount that is allowed to be buried at a solid waste landfill and apparently the landfill does have a liner and the material has been buried.

Kentuckians are unfortunately remiss of the fact that nuclear waste disposal is much more common than many may realize; just a few miles north in Fleming County sits a leaking Maxey Flats Nuclear Depository which although it has a nice new tarp is still home to some of the most toxic byproducts of cold-war era munitions manufacturing in addition to decades of waste compiled from corporations and universities. 
​

In 1960 the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation granting the governor power to enter into agreement with the federal government for the transfer of regulatory powers concerning atomic energy in Kentucky. 

Also in 1960, Governor Bert T. Combs charged the Cabinet of Health with the regulatory and licensing responsibilities for the handling of radioactive materials. In 1962 Kentucky became the first of the old Atomic Energy Commission "Agreement States." The Kentucky Division of Nuclear Information was then succeeded by the Division of Atomic Development which then transferred its responsibilities to the Kentucky Atomic Energy Authority which eventually became the Kentucky Science and Technology Commission. 

In retrospect it seems that many of these agencies were established with the hope of bringing a nuclear power plant to Kentucky. Despite being the first state to enter into agreement with the Atomic Energy Commission, Kentucky has never been the site of a nuclear reactor. 

However, in 1962 Nuclear Engineering Company, Inc. (NECO) bought 252 acres (1.02 km2) of land on Maxey Flat and submitted an application for a license to bury radioactive waste there. The license was granted in January 1963.


From 1963 to 1977 the Maxey Flat Low Level Radioactive Waste facility served as a dump for 832 corporations and government agencies. The site covered 252 acres (1.02 km2) and consisted of a series of 52 unlined trenches that are an average of 360 feet (110 m) long, 70 feet (21 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. 

Approximately 4,750,000 cubic feet (135,000 m3) of Low Level Radioactive Waste was deposited on-site. These trenches were capped with dirt when they reached their capacity limit, but because of the heavy rainfall in the area the soil collapsed into the trenches and the trenches filled with water. It has since been referred to as the "bathtub effect." The water that invaded the trenches became radioactive and had to be disposed of. 

Under the direction of President and Chief Executive Officer James N. Neel, Nuclear Engineering Company (referred to in operational documentation as 'NECO'), now known as 'American Ecology' (Nasdaq: ECOL), installed an evaporator and disposed of the accumulated radioactive water as steam from 1973 to April 1986, nearly 9 years after the site had stopped accepting waste materials. The evaporator generally operated 24 hours a day. 

Approximately six million gallons of liquid were processed by the evaporator. In addition to the trenches for Low Level Radioactive Waste there were "Hot Wells" that were used to store Special nuclear material (plutonium and enriched uranium). The Hot Wells were typically 10 to 15 feet (4.6 m) deep, constructed of concrete, coated steel pipe or tile, and capped with a slab of concrete. Approximately 950 pounds of Special Nuclear Material is buried at Maxey Flat.

On September 27, 1982, the Kentucky New Era reported that the Maxey Flat disposal site was being closed due to "radioactive leakage". Although no immediate health hazard was reported, "the potential [was] still there". State Natural Resources Coordinator Jackie Swigart confirmed that radioactive material had escaped burial trenches and been detected beyond the borders of the 250 acre site. The geology of the Maxey Flat area may contribute to the inadvertent spread of radioactive materials beyond the site's boundaries underground.
​

From 1987 to 1991 a study was done to determine the best method of cleaning up the site. Extensive remediation was then undertaken, including the installation of a 45 mil scrim-reinforced geomembrane liner covering the site of the trenches to prevent the infiltration of water. 
​

The site is currently managed by the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The site is considered non-reclaimable and will have to be monitored and maintained in perpetuity.

In 2003 the site's nature as a risk to national security came under review by the Department of Homeland Security, primarily because of the transuranic isotopes stored at the site.

In response to concerns that the radioactive isotopes at the site might be used against American interests, DHS had the sign at the entrance to the facility removed so it would be harder to find.
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Court Docs Reveal “Civil Conspiracy”: Kasich Behind Take Down Of Libertarian Gov Candidate In 2014

2/15/2016

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by John Michael Spinelli

Gov. John Kasich was one of six Republican candidates on stage in South Carolina Saturday night at the debate sponsored by CBS News. Kasich chimed in on a couple questions, but CBS moderators didn’t know enough, apparently, to ask him about the toxic stew of campaign tricks he’s alleged to have participated in two years ago.

According to court documents, Kasich successfully derailed his Libertarian Party competitor for governor in 2014 in order to clear his path of obstacles so he could win without worry, then launch his second bid for president.

“The Kasich Campaign, Borges, Schrimpf, Damschroder, the Governor’s staff and Casey from the very beginning were in constant contact about the protest,” wrote plaintiff attorneys for Libertarian Party of Ohio (LPO) candidate Charlie Earl in court documents. According to filings from Mark Brown and Mark G. Kafantaris, co-counsels for Charlie Earl,”They shared a common objective — to keep Earl off the ballot. Their minds had met; they acted together.”

Filed nearly three months ago, Brown told me today, “They concisely collect the evidence showing that the Kasich Campaign, the Ohio Republican Party, Casey, Borges and officials in Husted’s office were all involved in removing Earl.” Now that Kasich finished second in NH, attorney Brown said, “I have been receiving inquiries about the evidence and thought I would send the evidence around to those who are interested.”

Gov. Kasich has adopted a new campaign strategy that presents him as non-political, while simultaneously maintaining a so-called positive attitude that contrasts him with some of the GOP rivals who went at each other last night with gale force winds. Those winds were most evident in the verbal brawl between Donald Trump, who won New Hampshire last week and is expected to win again in South Carolina, and Sen. Ted Cruz, who won in Iowa two weeks ago and is expected to do well in South Carolina. Their clash soaked up the bulk of headlines from the evenings contest.

Meanwhile, as Kasich tried to elevate above the fray, back home he’s mired in some deep, dark political dirty trickster activities that haven’t broken through to Ohio or national media but are in plain view nonetheless and promise to spoil his advancement once reporters get wind of just how manipulative he can be when the curtain of secrecy is drawn.

Three court documents help lift that curtain of secrecy. They tell the unfolding story of how John Kasich, who’s described himself of late as the “prince of peace and light,” is anything but, if the filings from Mark Brown and Mark G. Kafantaris, co-counsels for Charlie Earl, are accurate. Earl at the time was representing LPO and was thought popular enough to drain off a substantial number of votes from Gov. Kasich, as he undertook reelection following his first-term win in 2010.

In the case of Libertarian Party of Ohio v Jon Husted [Case No. 2:13-cv-00953], Federal Court Judge Watson and Magistrate Judge Kemp agreed with LPO counsel that supplemental evidence is relevant to plaintiff’s count seven in the case, the right to compete for ballot access on an “equal footing.”
“A civil conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to injure another by unlawful action. Express agreement among all the conspirators is not necessary to find the existence of a civil conspiracy. Each conspirator need not have known all of the details of the illegal plan or all of the participants involved. All that must be shown is that there was a single plan, that the alleged coconspirator shared in the general conspiratorial objective, and that an overt act was committed in furtherance of the conspiracy that caused injury to the complainant.”

On March 4, 2014 [Terry] Casey wrote [Brad] Schrimpf, with blind copies to Polesovsky and Luketic, thanking Schrimpf for clarifying what “Borges Telling Media??” Six days later, after Schrimpf had reported that “Chrissie Thompson … was just skeptical that ORP wasn’t involved,” Casey forwarded this report to Wehrkamp, a Kasich Campaign staffer, and blind- copied Carle, Polesovsky, Luketic and Rob Nichols, stating “lets the lawyers (sic) work on making sure that the final nails are driven into the Charlie Earl coffin.”

Matt Borges, who in spite of a prior conviction for public influence peddling became chairman for the state party when Gov. Kasich orchestrated a take over of the party shortly after winning election, testified at his deposition that he “did not recall” communicating with Casey in February and March of 2014, according to court documents. “Borges testified that it ‘would be news’ to him if Schrimpf [now with Kasich’s presidential campaign] had communicated with Casey about Earl’s protest. Borges was obviously attempting to hide ORP’s involvement. Borges is not credible. ORP was involved from the beginning,” Brown and Kafantaris wrote.

The Ohio Republican Party, under Borges’ direction, began making payments to the Zeiger firm on Casey’s behalf on November 19, 2014. The first payment was $100,000 on November 19, 2014. The second payment for $100,000 was made on December 22, 2014. The third payment, $50,000, was made on December 29, 2014. The fourth payment, $50,000, was made on February 24, 2015. The four total $300,000, though more may have been made,” the co-counsels wrote. Casey on November 11, 2014 hand-delivered his November 10, 2014 invoice reflecting a $552,305.26 bill.

“These payments not only prove ORP’s part in the conspiracy, they ratify the conspiracy’s action,” Brown and Kafantaris wrote, according to court documents.

Terry Casey, for his part, has stated that his objective was a political one. “The documentary evidence proves that Casey’s animus was shared by others in the conspiracy — notably members of the Kasich Campaign, the Ohio Republican Party, and even in the Secretary’s Office,” co-counsels wrote.
LPO attorneys ask whether a factual conspiracy existed and whether anyone involved was a state actor. “Regarding the first question, the evidence leaves little doubt; even the Defendants appear to concede (after eighteen months of denials and several discovery violations) that Casey acted together with either the Kasich Campaign, the Ohio Republican Party, or both.”

On the second question, plaintiff attorneys argue that Terry Casey was a state officer engaged in state action, as was Matt Damschroder, a state agent engaged in state action. Each was also involved with Ohio Republican Party and the Kasich Campaign.
​
The full court documents can be downloaded here:
LPO2013MemoSUPPLEMENT2015(stamped)
LPO2013ResponseCountSeven(stamped)
LPO2013SUMMARYJUDGMENTMemo(stamped)
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The Evil Truth Behind Valentine's Day Conspiracies 

2/14/2016

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By Anony Mity

Valentine's Day. When one hears the name, what does one think. One thinks of love, a time to express oneself and at time do nice things for those who are close to one. However, there is a tainted side to all of this joyous festivity. Valentine's Day is one of the most heinous corporate plots ever invented. The real purpose of this seemingly innocent holiday is for corporate America to exploit consumers by feeding of one of humankinds most intimate desires: love and the infamous "hanky-panky." By creating a holiday based around love businesses profit off of one's need for companionship.

​Why else would the be all of this 
craziness surrounding Valentine's Day. Consider this the next next you get the desire to go do something sweet for your "honey" in the name of Valentine's Day.

I have it on good authority that Pope Gelasius, the one who established Valentine's Day in 500 AD, was secretly moonlighting as a restaurant owner who wished to pump up the volume at his trendy eatery in downtown Rome. Long before today's Valentine's Day of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, there was Lupercalia, an ancient Roman day of bloody goatskin thongs and animal sacrifice. You know, the good old days. 

Held in mid-February, Lupercalia was celebrated to ward off evil spirits and promote fertility. Priests who worshiped Faunus dressed in goatskins, sacrificed two male goats and a dog, then ran around the city swatting women with pieces of goatskin from the sacrificial victims. It was thought that by being hit with the skin, a woman would be more fertile or have an easy birth. Strangely, Pope Gelasius didn't consider the rite to be very Christian, putting an end to it in 496 A.D. and establishing the feast of St. Valentine. 

Restaurant owners across the country have got to be wetting their pants right now knowing that the dining-cash-cow of the year is an otherwise lonesome Monday is actually a thousands year old tradition. They'll be laughing all the way to the bank on Tuesday. The laugh's on us.  

Prepare to pay through the nose for crappy pre-fixe food and bottles of wine no one ever heard of in a jam-packed venue you wouldn't have patronized except it was the only place you could score a reservation. The whole idea pisses me off.

No one really knows who the real St. Valentine was — but some believe he was a Roman priest who secretly married young Christians, an act outlawed by emperor Claudius II in the 3rd century A.D. Valentine was sentenced to death by Claudius and, legend has it, before he was brutally killed, Valentine blessed the blind daughter of his jailor and restored her sight, enabling her to read the love letter he'd written her, which he signed "from your Valentine." They would have lived happily ever after except St. Valentine was then beaten with clubs, stoned and, mercifully, beheaded. 

Aside from being an evil corporate scheme aimed at exploiting one of humankinds most intimate instincts, support of Valentine's Day leads to nuclear war. By buying from these scheming corporations,aimed at getting your dollar so you can feel "loved," you make them more and more powerful. Eventually, they will become more powerful than the government.

When this occurs, corporate America will force the government to 
relinquish control to it. Since business runs nearly everything in a capitalist society, the government will be forced to comply. However, the corporations, once in power won't be able to decide who controls who, which inevitably leads to a conflict for power. Now, corporate Americais ruthless, and what's the best way to destroy your competition? Obliterate them, of course. Literally. The logical course of action (at least after being oversexed from Valentine's Day) to these CEOs will be to nuke the competition, thereby establishing themselves as the sole proprietor of the most powerful country on Earth (well, at least before it was nuked). Now this doesn't mean it will all happen at once, because, of course, we would have seen something in the past 100 odd years.

If you are a woman, you've been shopping all week for a new dress, shoes, handbag, and sexy stockings. For what? So he'll see you in a way he never has before. Is it love? God, I hope so because this one night out is going to cost you both a fortune.  Maybe he'll pop the question?  "Girls, he asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day."  How original! I think I'll throw up!  

Want to do something really unique for Valentine's Day? Stay home! If you are like most of my clients and friends who dine out all the time, cook dinner. What a treat! Stop by your high-end grocer the day before to pick up all the essentials including caviar, and then the wine store for a bottle of Dom Perignon and a vintage bottle of Saint Emilion. Don't forget the flowers and candles—and a simple gift.

You will not only save a bundle, but you will also enjoy food and wine far superior to anything you could afford out.  Most important, your Valentine will love you for it. "Girls, you wouldn't believe all the trouble he went through for Valentine's Day—the sweetest thing I ever saw!" 

It is also entirely possible that Valentine's Day was actually invented by greeting card companies in early 19th century England. It was then that the penny post was inaugurated, which meant that much of the newly-emergent middle class could afford to send letters for the first time. But what to write? Thankfully for young lovers with writer's block, there was The Young Man's Valentine Writer, a book of "sexy" sayings and sentiments that could be copied and sent to one's amour. ​

However, each time you buy Valentine's Day paraphernalia the corporations ultimately inch closer to becoming more powerful than the government. Chew on that next time you decide to get a Valentine's Day card.
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