Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Monday, August 6, 2012

Enough! Tell the Democrats and Republicans to go to hell.

The Obama sock-puppets think we are afraid to tell the truth about why we are voting for alternative progressive tickets. I'm not one bit afraid nor ashamed to be speaking my mind on this.

Every vote the progressive alternatives get does two things:

1. Each vote denies Obama votes--- he should have faced a primary challenge and didn't.

2. Each vote strengthens a united movement for real change; a movement that will be required whether Obama or Romney wins. A movement the Obama sock-puppets promised to build but didn't in order to protect this warmonger Obama.

Plus, here in Minnesota, each vote progressive alternatives receive for president should transfer to a vote for Michael Cavlan since he is the only progressive alternative running for United States Senate against Amy "Republican Lite" Klobuchar. The Republicans aren't even putting up a credible challenge to Klobuchar because they are completely satisfied that Klobuchar is representing the interests of big-business.

It would have been best had all the progressive candidates worked out a joint ticket acceptable to all but this did not come to pass. So now we need to take every vote we can away from Barack Obama--- especially in the "swing states."

There is power in being able to punish a candidate like Obama who didn't deserve a free pass during the primary season.

Seeing as how the Democrats have been a major obstacle to fair access to the ballot by alternative parties no one should shy away from admitting we will seek whatever ways possible to defeat Obama.

Besides, it is an outright lie that Mitt Romney is worse than Obama--- nothing could be further from the truth. They are so much alike in reflecting Wall Street's reactionary agenda they could be two peas in the same pod.

Never has there been an election in American history where it is more true that "there isn't a dime's bit of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans."

So, vote for one of the four progressive alternatives to Wall Street's agenda of wars abroad paid for by shoving austerity measures down our throats here at home.

Have you noticed the Democrats don't even dare mention the word "poverty?" Why not? Because the Democrats have increased unemployment and worked hand-in-hand with the large corporations to impose poverty wages on working people.

We see a glaring example of this here on the Iron Range in Minnesota where politics is completely dominated by Democrats who made it possible for Menard's to build one of their largest stores in Virginia, Minnesota--- the center of the Iron Range--- with almost two-hundred workers being paid poverty wages--- from $7.49 and hour to $8.50 cents an hour with the majority of these workers employed for less than twenty hours a week.

What good does it do to create poverty wage jobs--- all that is being done is more poverty is being created. any school child understands that when you pay workers a poverty wage they and their families are going to be poor. Of course, there are always a few who profit as a direct result of paying workers poverty wages. John Menard will add to his billions while workers at the Menard's in Virginia, Minnesota are pushed further into poverty.

Of course, the politicians, in this case the Democrats, will be handsomely rewarded for their betrayal of working people.

The Democrats on the Iron Range are upset at my views on this issue. They say, "These jobs are needed; we can organize unions later." Well, when one looks at the Iron Range today what is seen is a carbon-copy of Appalachia.

We heard the same pathetic excuse from the Democrats and their AFL-CIO partners when Wal-mart moved into Hibbing, Minnesota. The unions put on a little "picket" and then retreated into oblivion--- with the opening of Menard's in Virginia, Minnesota their wasn't even the feeble "picketing" of this scab employer.

It was Democrats like Hubert "Skip" Humphrey, Jr. and Walter Mondale who sentenced over 44,000 Minnesotans to work in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry without any rights under state or federal labor laws with the approval and consent from the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

If all of this isn't enough to encourage working people to seek justice through alternative political parties I don't know what it is going to take--- perhaps all workers in the same boat as casino workers?

With Labor Day approaching rank-and-file workers and grassroots activists should be insisting that Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Stewart Alexander, Roseanne Barr and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Cavlan be given time to present their views at Labor Day events around Minnesota... after all, the Operating Engineers union on the Iron Range here in Minnesota endorsed the most despicable, dirty, crooked, corrupt, racist, anti-woman, anti-labor Republican for United States Congress on the Iron Range; and Richard Trumka and Shar Knudson--- the head of the Minnesota Fed--- remain silent.

Of course, how do we begin to struggle for alternative voices on Labor Day if the candidates themselves don't insist on being heard?

And make no mistake: Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Stewart Alexander and Roseanne Barr have earned the right to speak from the same podiums on Labor Day as Barack Obama or the Republican endorsed by the Operating Engineers on the Iron Range.

Come on, really; if the Operating Engineers are supporting a creep like Republican Chip Cravaak for Congress how can any Obama supporter complain about how "evil" Mitt Romney is?

The corruption and the hypocrisy has just gone way too far to the point where democracy is threatened if we don't challenge Wall Street and its two parties for power.

Tell the Democrats and Republicans to go to hell!

Vote for progressive alternatives to war, racism, unemployment and poverty.

Support those candidates who are standing up for your rights and defending your livelihoods.