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...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I'm snowbound already and more is on the way.










Dean Baker makes the case for a just minimum wage then creates a lie to explain why it isn't possible.

This is an interesting article by Dean Baker (see link at the very bottom) on the minimum wage; however, his conclusion is based on myth and not factual so in essence he is acknowledging what the minimum wage should be but claiming it can't be done because of some kind of "harm" it would do to the economy.

Typical crap coming from the well-heeled, Obama-supporting middle class crowd always making up excuses while pretending otherwise why workers aren't entitled to real living wages right here and now.

Dean Baker recently advocated we should bring in doctors from other countries to push the profits of doctors down. More muddle-headed middle class bullshit when what is needed is a National Public Health Care System putting doctors on the public payroll. All we need to do is go through the urban areas and Indian Reservations and tell the kids if they do good in school we provide them with free university and promise them $50,000.00 a year adjusted for inflation jobs as doctors and we will have all the doctors we need who will really care about the quality of care they provide to working people.

Dean Baker and the over-paid muddle-headed middle class crowd who are apologists for the Democrats can't think like this when it comes to health care or the minimum wage laws.

No worker, not ever, should be forced to work for less than the actually cost of living. This fallacy that we would face some kind of run-away-inflation is just that: a fallacy and a lie. Let the government control prices to prevent inflation. In fact, if the government was doing its job it would be rolling-back prices which are only high as a result of monopoly price-fixing with inflation being further caused because of government spending on militarism and wars--- obviously peace is the solution to this aspect of inflation.

Anyways, here is what Dean Baker has to say about the minimum wage which is all true except for his claim we can't raise the minimum wage to a real living wage right now; typical of how these Obama supporters muddle excuses with information containing "kernels of truth" which they then fabricate into big, fat lies as excuses justifying their reforms benefiting the working class being allotted piece-meal in incremental steps.

The minimum wage should be legislatively tied to all cost of living factors monitored by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics indexed for inflation and re-calculated quarterly with the release of this information. Very simple.

If business doesn't like this then let the government roll-back and freeze the prices and the Minimum Wage can be reduced significantly. Of course, we can help these tear-shedding employers out even more if people have free health care, free child care and pre-schools, free public education through university, etc.

And if we had peace with full employment we would never have to worry about inflation provided the monopoly price-fixers understood this was going to be a crime with stiff jail time.

 http://www.nationofchange.org/minimum-wage-who-decided-workers-should-fall-behind-1361290219

My letter to Justin Amash, 3rd Congressisional District, Michigan on House Resolution 65.

Congressman Justin Amash,

I support your "No" vote on the non-binding resolution; however you say other action is required.

What specific action do you think is required?

I don't think any kind of punitive action is justified. The Chinese get along just fine with North Korea and we should look to see what it is the Chinese and the North Koreans do to get along so well and implement the same relationship with North Korea.

There are no "punitive" nor "military" measures which will result in peaceful relations with North Korea. Why should the North Koreans accept being bullied by the biggest bully and most powerful country in the world (the United States)?

I would suggest you gather together a fairly large group of people from all walks of life and go to North Korea to find out exactly what it is going to take to end this insane military build-up in the Pacific Region.

Right now a brand new naval base is being constructed on Jeju Island in South Korea. This construction should be halted; the inhabitants on Jeju Island don't want it so why should our tax-dollars be paying for this naval base which can only heighten tensions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States and even China? See: http://savejejunow.org/

Anyone can see that the Jeju Island naval base is intended to be used as a base of expanded NATO operations intended as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The fact of the matter is, North Koreans want the right to develop their country with socialism. If the facts be known, most Koreans--- North and South--- would like the freedom to develop their country, a united Korea, peacefully with a socialist political and economic system.

The United States government oversaw the murdering of tens of thousands of Koreans in the aftermath of World War II for no other reason than these people were Communists and anti-imperialists and then the United States government propped up the most undemocratic, reactionary and repressive South Korean governments to continue policies of what was best for Wall Street's greedy, parasitic interests making South Korea a haven for cheap labor for the multi-national and cheap natural resources including: coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead. Not to mention huge hydro-power potential.

I would point out that those Communists and anti-imperialists who were murdered under the instructions of U.S. President Harry Truman and supervised by the United States military were the very people who helped us route the Japanese imperialists from their country.

Again, I support your "NO" vote on House Resolution 65 but note that in the name of "bi-partisanship" the House has shamefully voted in the same way to support the Israeli killing machine as it continues its murderous pogroms against the Palestinian people.

Your "NO" vote on House Resolution 65 was good but your ambiguity as to what now needs to be done to enable the American people and the North Korean people to live in peace and friendship guided by the principles embodied in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights needs to be specifically stated.

Alan L. Maki