Trans-Pacific Partnership Rolled Out!

The other signatories of the TPP rolled it out this month. And guess what? Australia and the Latin American beef producing signatory states will pay a 9% tariff on beef when exporting to signatory nation, Japan. The Japanese tariff on American beef? Something like 38%. Good luck American farmers.

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Eleven Nations Get It Right and One Gets It So Wrong!

Long live the Trans Pacific Parnership! or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership! Better and different. Well different in that they were able to pull out all of the clauses that the United States insisted they needed but everyone else hated. So much for President Trump declaring we…

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I Wanted A First World Trade Partner And I Got This Stupid Air Craft Carrier!

Viet Nam consists of some of the hardest working people you are ever going to meet. They are looking to repeat the economic miracles that they have witnessed in Japan, China and South Korea while removing themselves from the umbrella of China. They would love to establish a serious trade…

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Why Doesn’t Trump Like NAFTA, the TPP, the Paris Accords or the Iran Nuclear Treaty?

Trust me on this…it’s not because he’s actually read them and found them lacking. It’s simply because he didn’t personally negotiate the agreements and therefore without the master negotiator…well…they just aren’t good enough. Except they are…and he’s not what he thinks he is…his skills if he ever actually had any…have…

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Trump Just Handed China the 21st Century

Historians and pundits have often said America owned the 20th Century and that if not careful, China would come to own the 21st. Well China has been resolutely working towards that end while cornering the market on rare earths, raw materials in third world countries, enhancing their position in the…

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A Tale of Two Rons

Ron Johnson has repeatedly criticized Russ Feingold for Feingold’s opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership, saying that he doesn’t know how Feingold could have opposed it before he even read it. Holy cow! Rojo sounds just like Ron Kind! At a February 2016 listening session in Eau Claire, Kind was…

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All Hands On Deck

Last Friday’s meeting of the DNC platform drafting committee in St. Louis yielded the best evidence yet that President Obama intends to ram the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) through a lame duck congress after the November election. The TPP is the most sweeping trade agreement in history, and is opposed…

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The Considerable Power of a Primary Challenge

A few weeks ago I wrote about how 3rd congressional district Rep Ron Kind had abruptly decided to co-sponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act after ten plus years of refusing to do so. . The Act would protect 9.5 million acres of Utah wilderness from mining, and oil and gas…

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The power of a primary challenge

Last week a good friend of mine from Eau Claire, a long time member of the Sierra club, got an email from an acquaintance out in Utah. The tone of the email was pure excitement. After more than ten years of citizen lobbying, 3rd congressional district Democratic Rep Ron Kind…

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Myron Buchholz on Sly

Last week, progressive democrat Myron Buchholz was on the air with John ” Sly ” Sylvester to discuss his primary challenge to Ron Kind in Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district. A highlight of the discussion was when Sly noted that Ron Kind’s characterization of Russ Feingold’s stance on the Trans Pacific…

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