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...

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Nothing but a bunch of morons running this country and industry at every level...

You know, the complete stupidity and arrogance of these Democratic Party hacks never fails to amaze me.

A few minutes ago I got a call from a Democratic Party hack in Roseau County who told me that "you should thank the Democrats for the Roseau Electric Co-Op and the network of rural electric cooperatives in rural Minnesota."

The fact is, these so-called cooperatives are nothing but bill collectors for the fossil fuel industry.
Anyone can read the musings of these morons and idiots they have managing these "cooperatives" to see this.

Just read the stupid things this moron, Tracy Stoll, managing the Roseau Electric Co-Op writes questioning the science involved with global warming and climate change.

Tracy Stoll made sure the members of the Roseau Electric Cooperative continue to get big fat bills compliments of the coal industry because he refuses to negotiate a long-term deal with Manitoba Hydro which creates its electricity through green, clean hydro cheaper than of the cost of coal.

Yes; thank a Democrat for your sky high and rapidly increasing electric bills because overpaid morons like Tracy Stoll peddle the corporate lies challenging global warming/climate change for the fossil fuel industry.


Tracy Stoll even lobbied Minnesota legislators "on our behalf" to penalize people who install their own solar and wind generators... could Republicans do us any worse?

As a Nation we are almost all "fed up."

Are you "fed up?"


http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/americas-fed-obama-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-poll-n173271


The MainStreamMedia doesn't want to hear from working people why we are "fed up." Instead, the MainStreamMedia continues to push a heavy dose from the right-wing Wall Street agenda as if it offers solutions to the reasons people are "fed up."


The left needs to push its ideas into the public square so people can fully explore their alternatives.
We can do this through "letters to the editor," leafleting and tabling, demonstrations and informational picketing.


Notice how the MainStreamMedia continues to completely ignore the fact all working class families are caught up in a cost-of-living crisis... this is done to take the sharp class edge off from American's dissatisfaction with the wrong direction the country is headed.


The MainStreamMedia loves to keep hitting at the fact "government spending is out of control" yet government spending on militarism and wars seldom is a topic for discussion and debate even though there is no more wasteful government spending than spending on this insanity.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Was the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party a "flop" as some on the left are claiming?

Since I and a few others have sought to expand discussion about the history of the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party in order that people learn from this experience, a number of people on the "left" have begun an attack--- claiming the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party was a "flop."
I would like to take the opportunity to dispute this view.
The socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party was not a "flop." In fact, it was so successful that big-business ganged up on it and the government orchestrated the most massive campaign of repression against it as the fascist Dies Committee (a forerunner to Joe McCarthy's the House Un-American Activities Committee) set out to destroy it beginning in 1938 and it was the target of a massive anti-Communist, racist and anti-Semitic campaign launched by Harold Stassen.
I would encourage everyone to take the time to read these two articles.
One by Elmer Benson and one his obituary.
I find it interesting so many people will comment about things without doing any research or reading.
The merger was the final method used to destroy the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party after massive government repression, slander, etc; the final method used to try to destroy the ideas embodied by the Farmer-Labor Party and to rid the merged Democrat and Farmer-Labor parties was the Communist Control Act authored by Hubert H. Humphrey who worked in league with Joe McCarthy.
http://collections.mnhs.org/.../art.../47/v47i04p154-161.pdf
And this:
http://articles.latimes.com/.../fi-27186_1_minnesota...
"Benson also said he never forgave himself for agreeing to the 1944 merger of the Farmer-Labor and Democratic parties into the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the dominant force in Minnesota politics since then.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for the merger and Humphrey helped bring it about.
"I think it was a mistake because the party became part of a larger party that's been taken over by political hacks," Benson said.
Benson split with Humphrey by backing Henry A. Wallace as the Progressive candidate for President in 1948. However, it was Humphrey's support of the Vietnam War that most upset Benson.
"Humphrey was a war criminal," he said. "He was the chief ballyhoo artist for the war. I remember him saying, 'This is America's greatest moment and I'm sure glad to be part of it.' "
For over two-decades the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party played a very important role, not only in Minnesota but nationally. Electing two socialist governors, members of Congress, the majority in the State House and a near majority in the State Senate along with thousands of members elected to township boards, county commissions, park boards and school boards.
Hardly what anyone could call a "flop."
Anyone who makes such an absurd claim has obviously not been targeted themselves by government political repression.
The Farmer-Labor Party was led by Socialists and Communists working together for the common good of workers and all who toiled for a living.
The present Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party working together with the local, state and FBI "Red Squads" still does all it can do to keep those like myself with Farmer-Labor ideas from being heard in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.
Sometimes I think those who continually bad-mouth the history and efforts of the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party are themselves fearful of becoming victims of right-wing and government repression.
The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party is probably the best kept secret in this country--- and not because it was a "flop" but because it was so successful... Wall Street hated it and it still does.
That such a successful challenge to big-business was mounted and it doesn't even merit mention in most history books should be enough to peek everyone's interest in finding out more.
There is much to learn from its mistakes, of which the merger with the corrupt Democratic Party was its major mistake; but those who refuse to learn from its successes will most likely be unable to be part of a movement challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.
That anyone would buy into this "flop" crap peddled by anyone and everyone who wants to maintain capitalism is disgraceful. At least take the time to read the real history of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.
By the way; I bring forward Elmer Benson because he was probably the most honest politician of the 20th Century here in the United States and he is honestly self-critical of his role in the demise of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.To find such an honest politician as Elmer Benson in our present times one would have to look at the political career of Howard Pawley who led the socialist New Democratic Party in Manitoba, Canada. Pawley's book, "Keep True," about his life in politics is a real precious jewel for left political activists and working people... get it, read it, pass it along to family and friends.
i understand there are those on the "left" who don't like or support the concept of building an anti-monopoly people's front which includes a mass organization that is anti-imperialist with a complimentary political party capable of challenging Wall Street for political and economic power; but, because one disagrees with this political point of view is no reason to peddle these lies about the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party being a "flop."
If we had local, statewide and national efforts today just a fraction as successful as was the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party in defending the interests of working class families with the stated goal and objective of challenging Wall Street for political AND economic power we would be in very good shape and well on our way to a better future free from these dirty imperialist wars, free from the scourges of racism and poverty where workers are the determining part of the decision-making process in a real democracy.Let us set the record straight: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party not only got its people's politicians elected--- those politicians used the levers of government at every level to work for better lives and working conditions for working people and all who toiled for a living; from the north woods to the farms and the industrial centers.
Just setting the record straight.
I challenge anyone to refute the views I have brought forward.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Working class families are trapped in a Wall Street "SNAFU."

I sent this "Letter to the Editor" to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in response to an article they published:

The headline in Nation+World read: Recession lingers in wages (Star Tribune, Sept. 9, 2014 page D3).

These low wages amid rising prices on everything from groceries to gas to home heating fuels and electric bills to health, car and home insurance and college tuitions result in a cost-of-living crisis for every working class family.

The government is enforcing poverty by failing to establish state and federal Minimum Wage laws in line with actual cost-of-living factors.

Poverty wages combined with this incessant senseless squandering of our Nation's wealth on militarism and wars which fuels inflation along with monopoly price fixing is destroying the livelihoods of working class families.

But this is what we get when we allow Wall Street to have a monopoly on political and economic power.

How else can one explain why it is that we have a government that can enforce poverty wages but can't stop the robbery at the gas pumps and rising prices at the grocery store?

All of this contributes to this cost-of-living crisis; this is why a "Recession lingers in wages."

We are trapped in a Wall Street SNAFU.

Alan L. Maki





Definition of "SNAFU:"

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SNAFU

Situation Normal, All Fucked Up




Link to article:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/274359091.html

Note: The Minneapolis Star Tribune only published a digested version of this Associated Press article. Why?

And why doesn't the Minneapolis Star Tribune interview workers, the victims of poverty wages?

Is not losing one's job a "pay cut?"

5 years after Great Recession ended, stagnant pay remains economy's weakest link

Article by: CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER ,
Associated Press Updated:
September 8, 2014 - 8:15 PM

WASHINGTON — The U.S. job market has steadily improved by pretty much every gauge except the one Americans probably care about most: Pay.

The unemployment rate has sunk to a nearly normal 6.1 percent. Employers have added a robust 2.5 million jobs the past 12 months. Layoffs have tumbled.

Yet most people are still waiting for a decent raise. Friday's August jobs report confirmed that average hourly pay has crept up only about 2 percent a year since the recession ended five years ago — barely above inflation and far below the gains in most recoveries.

Just why pay has been so weak and when it might strengthen are key issues for the Federal Reserve in deciding when to raise interest rates.

The trend has mystified analysts.

"This is the primary economic and policy puzzle facing policymakers right now: Why have wages remained so low in the face of an improving economy?" said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at McGladrey, a tax and accounting firm.

Some economists expect pay to pick up eventually as the job market keeps improving. They think wages have lagged because millions of people are still out of work — many of whom aren't counted in the unemployment rate because they're no longer looking for a job.

But others say they fear that pay has stagnated because of trends that will persist even after the economy has moved closer to full health.

They note that companies have been making more use of temporary and part-time workers, usually at lower pay, to replace full-time permanent jobs. And newer technologies have enabled businesses to produce more with fewer employees.

A survey of Harvard Business School graduates released Monday lends weight to that notion. Nearly half the respondents said they'd rather invest in technology than in workers. Just over 40 percent expect wages and benefits to decline over the next three years.

Economists are flummoxed by the way the historical relationship between pay and unemployment has eroded since the recession ended. Based on historical trends, the steady drop in unemployment should have raised inflation-adjusted wages by 3.6 percent by June, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That's because employers have had to fill jobs from a smaller pool of unemployed people — a trend that normally forces them to pay more.

Instead, overall inflation-adjusted wages have essentially flattened since 2009.

That said, workers in some industries have fared better. For those in a category that includes data processing and analytics, as well as broadcasting, film and publishing, hourly wages have surged 4.6 percent in the past year. And pay is up at least 3 percent for financial services workers and wholesalers.

By contrast, wages are up just 1.3 percent for employees in education and health care.

So why has overall wage growth been so weak? Economists point to several factors.

The biggest is that there are still too many people desperate for work than is typical for a healthy economy. That makes it easier for employers to fill jobs without raising pay.

There are 227,000 fewer people with jobs than in November 2007, just before the recession began. Yet the working-age population is up 15.3 million since then. That's kept the number of unemployed elevated: 9.6 million Americans, up from 7.6 million when the recession began.

But it's not just unemployment that's holding down wages. The many part-timers who would prefer full-time work are also competing with those who are out of work. There are 7.2 million involuntary part-timers, up from just 4.6 million in late 2007.

Half the economists surveyed by The Associated Press last month cited the high number of people without full-time jobs as the main reason wage growth has been weak.

The Chicago Fed estimates that if all measures of unemployment, including involuntary part-timers, had returned to pre-recession levels, paychecks after inflation would now be rising up to 1 percentage point faster.

Given these trends, people who do have jobs have less leverage to demand higher pay. Sixteen percent of working Americans say their pay hasn't budged in the past year, up from 11 percent before the recession, according to research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In a healthier economy, more people would seek higher pay elsewhere and quit their jobs once they found it. But the number who quit their jobs tumbled during the recession and has only partly recovered.

In addition, fewer startup companies are being created, holding back hiring. In the final quarter of 2013, new companies created just 1.3 million jobs, down from an average of 1.75 million in the 1990s, according to government data.

Fewer startups and fewer quits have reduced what's called job-market "churn." Economists liken churn to musical chairs: When people quit or new jobs are created by startups, more positions open for the unemployed or for workers seeking higher pay.

But churn has declined by up to one-third since the early 1990s, according to research by economists Steven Davis and John Haltiwanger.

Typically, wages also rise in line with increased productivity. Productivity measures output per hour of work, and higher productivity enables companies to pay more without sparking inflation. Yet productivity has been unusually sluggish the past three years.

Some economists are surprised that the recession didn't weaken Americans' pay even more than it did. So deep was the recession that many analysts assumed companies would reduce not only jobs but also wages.

The lack of pay cuts during the recession may help explain meager raises now. Having paid more than they typically would during the downturn, companies may now try to make up for lost ground by holding off on raises longer than usual.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The warmonger has spoken...

Off to war we go--- again.

No improvement in wages

The "Cost of Living Crisis" every single working class family is experiencing stems from poverty wages and continued massive unemployment amidst rising prices due mainly to monopoly price-fixing and inflation spurred on by militarism and these dirty imperialist wars with many decades long attacks by Wall Street on the livelihoods of the working class.

http://www.pharostribune.com/news/business/article_91de35e7-74b5-54d2-84be-76c3aa77c137.html