Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I get blacklisted by the Duluth News Tribune.


Chuck Frederick center












On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 8:47 AM,
Chuck Frederick <cfrederick@duluthnews.com> wrote:

Hello Mr. Maki. Again, it was nice chatting with you yesterday. I have had the opportunity to speak with my colleague here at the News Tribune and have come to the decision not to publish letters from you because of your intentional violation of our rule for exclusivity, among other concerns. All of our rules and requests related to letters to the editor and other submissions are published daily on the Opinion page and are posted permanently at duluthnewstribune.com. Please know this decision was not an easy one. This is not an action we take lightly or often.

My sincerest regrets,
Chuck Frederick

-- 
Chuck Frederick
Editorial Page Editor
Duluth News Tribune 
424 W. First St.
Duluth MN 55802

















Ken Browall, Publisher, Duluth News Tribune


My response:
From: Alan Maki 
Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: my regrets
To: Chuck Frederick
Cc: Ken Browall


Mr. Frederick,

What are your "other concerns?"

Sounds like blacklisting to me.

Oh, well; nothing new with blacklisting in Minnesota, is there?

Let me assure you I do not take your undemocratic actions "lightly," either.

It is no wonder so many people view the Duluth News Tribune as a mouthpiece for the bankers and mining companies and the rest of the 1%.

I will simply make a trip to Duluth and pass out what I wrote together with your communications as a leaflet headlined: "The Duluth News Tribune refused to publish these "Letters to the Editor;" Why?"

You have excuse after excuse for not publishing my "Letters to the Editor" and now you stoop to "other concerns" without specifics.

First you refused to publish this "Letter" citing it wasn't "exclusive," when it was:


Once again with President Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech we got another politician hypocritically talking about "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs."

If just one job was created every time some politician opened their mouth and started talking about "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" we wouldn't have any unemployment in this country and everyone who wanted to work would have a decent, living wage job.

So, what is the main obstacle to full employment? Accountability from the very politicians who mouth the words "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" whenever they want to get elected, re-elected or want thunderous applause then go about their business forgetting about jobs as they go looking for their next bribe from a Wall Street lobbyist who views unemployment as the way to keep all wages down which pushes profits up.

What we need in this country is a real "Full Employment Act" which mandates--- by legislation and law--- that the President and the United States Congress must maintain full employment as part of their responsibility to the American people.

What good is a government that gets us into war after war but can't even assure full employment for the very people it taxes?

Wars cause government debt and deficits; peace and full employment eliminate debts and deficits.
--
Alan L. MakiDirector of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.netE-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/



And now you refuse to publish this "Letter" for "other reasons," neither defined nor specified:


Every politician talks about "jobs, jobs, jobs."
In 1945, populist Democratic Congressman, Wright Patman, introduced the "Full Employment Act of 1945" which passed the U.S. Senate by a wide margin; garnering support from both Democrats and Republicans.
This Act would have required the President and the Congress to maintain real full employment; everyone who wanted to work would have a job even if it took the United States government working with local, county and state governments to put people to work on government funded projects. 
It was Patman's opinion that if the government was maintaining full employment putting people to work on jobs required to improve the lives of people the government would be less inclined to become involved in a costly arms race which was already beginning to emerge in the aftermath of World War II and foreign interventions would not be engaged in so lightly because costs involved would jeopardize full employment.
Congressman Patman understood, and history has proven him correct, no government can fund militarism, interventions, military bases dotting the globe and wars while maintaining a government with the purpose of improving the lives and livelihoods of its people.
Today, more than ever--- with some fifteen million people unemployed--- we need to hold politicians accountable for full employment. It will take a full employment act similar to the "Full Employment Act of 1945" requiring the government to maintain full employment as part of its legislatively mandated responsibility.
The next time you hear a politician talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs" ask that politician if they are prepared to support a real full employment act making providing jobs the government's responsibility. 
Wall Street ganged up on members of Congress to defeat the "Full Employment Act of 1945" because Wall Street investors derive super-profits from large numbers of workers being unemployed because this huge pool of unemployed people drives all wages down; lower wages means more profits.
Militarism and wars are killing our jobs the same way these wars kill people. Workers without jobs are going to be poor.
 -- 
Alan L. MakiDirector of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/


I find it very interesting that the Duluth News Tribune, at the time, did the dirty work for the mining companies in opposing the "Full Employment Act of 1945" with a vicious anti-worker, anti-union, anti-Communist attack supporting Wall Street back then and you support Wall Street today... hence your blacklist. You and the Duluth News Tribune carry on a dirty "tradition" of the worst kind of yellow journalism and then you have the gall to talk about how this country is the great bastion of democracy.

The people you are punishing is your readers because it is your readers who have never heard in over 75 years any mention in your newspaper of the need to make politicians legislatively responsible for full employment after they demagogically talk about "jobs, jobs, jobs" to get the votes of working people to get elected and then turn their backs on working people ignoring their promise of jobs once elected with not a peep of protest coming from the Duluth News Tribune.

-- 
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net




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My response to Robert Reich.


Robert Reich · 72,483 like this
about an hour ago ·
·         In light of the standoff in Washington -- and the continuing dysfunction in our nation's capital -- many of you are angry and frustrated. Some of you say you've had it with politics. Others feel powerless and hopeless. A number blame both parties, seeing Democrats as no different from Republicans.

All these reactions are exactly what the regressives want. This is the heart of their strategy. They want you to see all of politics and all politicians as crooks and con-artists, fools or knaves. They want you to give up. That way, they can have it all. They can turn the clock back on America. They can shred every safety net, eviscerate every regulation, prevent any investment in the health and education of future generations. They can hammer the poor and middle class with lower wages, fewer jobs, and less security, and create a plutocracy of the privileged and powerful. Get it? They want you out of the way so they have America to themselves. The showdowns and standoffs and gridlock in Washington are part of their plot.

We must not let them. The progressive forces in this country are stronger than the regressive ones, but only if we are united and determined. Don't stop making a ruckus. Don't stop writing and calling your representatives. Don't stop mobilizing others, and organizing at the grass roots. 2014 will be a key election year. We must take our democracy back.
Alan L. Maki

Yes; keep voting for these Dumb Donkeys.

Mr. Reich; what you don't explain is what we can expect even if the Democrats once again get a super majority in 2014. Come on, Mr. Reich, explain what it is we can expect from a Democratic super majority?

Can we expect the same thing we are getting from the Democratic super majority now holding power here in Minnesota?

As I recall, you, a Democrat, are the one who pushed NAFTA. And you kept your mouth shut and your pen idle when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, "reformed" welfare to correspond to Wall Street's dictate.

What we need to do is give all you Dumb Donkeys a good hard kick in the ass (pun intended) and break free from this two-party trap by establishing a working class based progressive people's party to challenge Wall Street for political and economic power.

The Democratic super majority in Minnesota has defined "hoarding" as a mental illness and a threat to societal well-being; when is the "hoarding" by Wall Street parasites going to be ended through legislative action so we can use the wealth created by labor to solve our problems?

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-is-alternative-to-sequester.html
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What is the alternative to the "sequester?"












What is "sequestration?"

More lies from Obama being used to scare people into accepting austerity measures and supporting the military-industrial complex which should be shut down:



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/us/politics/obama-takes-budget-warnings-to-shipbuilder.html?ref=us&_r=0

From, "Losing Our Way"

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=0

Bob Herbert, Columnist
(former) New York Times

Now is the time we should propose a people's alternative to the "sequester" and Wall Street's very profitable military-industrial complex and imperialist wars which are making us all poor:

Here is where I would begin:

A progressive program for real change...

* Peace--- end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

* A National Public Health Care System - ten million new jobs.

* A National Public Child Care System - three to five million new jobs.

* Works Progress Administration - three million new jobs.

* Civilian Conservation Corps - two million new jobs.

* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.

* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.

* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage

* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.

* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Defend democracy by defending workers' rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.

* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.

* Defend and expand Social Security.

* Wall Street is our enemy

How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?

Climate change is like war, poverty and unemployment... without peace we aren't going to solve this problem either.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.

What we need is a government that is responsible for full employment:

http://fullemploymentnow.blogspot.com/

Don't let Obama scare you with his lies--- sequestration--- into accepting austerity measures to pay for Wall Street's dirty imperialist wars and militarization.

Peace and full-employment is the alternative to the "sequester."
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