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, November 12, 2017

One of my blog posts hits an all time high for The Podunk Blog

My blog post on health care hit an all time high for my blog posts. People continue to read and share this post:


The hits on this post have reached 1,729,234.

This leads me to conclude there is tremendous interest in a National Public Health Care System... socialized health care.

So, why aren't more people talking about a National Public Health Care System as an alternative to the mess we have now with this for-profit health care system?

It seems people are afraid to venture beyond what is considered appropriate to talk about with-in Democratic Party circles... "affordable health care (Obamacare)," single-payer universal health care and Medicare for All... all of which leave the for-profit system of health care intact... and each leaves us with private delivery of health care intact.

I encourage more people to join me in speaking out for a National Public Health Care System... don't be bullied by the Democratic Party hacks.

The Democrats have no intention of delivering single-payer or Medicare for All. They have been using both to get votes and then once elected, these Dumb Donkeys capitulate to the health care industry which includes a bunch of greedy insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals and nursing homes, credit card companies and doctors.

There are those who peddle the lie that socialist Tommy Douglas fought for single-payer universal health care in Canada... this is another great big fat lie. Canadians won single-payer as a compromise while fighting for socialized health care and even after winning the single-payer reform, Tommy Douglas urged Canadians to continue the struggle for socialized health care because he realized the short-comings of allowing the for-profit crowd to feed at this huge public trough and leaving health care delivery in the hands of greedy doctors seeking to make their fortunes from people who are sick.

I appreciate you continuing to share my blog post on National Public Health Care... I encourage you to pick up your pen and write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper today. The letter need not be long. Just hit on the main points as I did in this letter to the editor:


Real health-care reform

Health-care reform discussion is being manipulated with the choices — Ryancare versus Obamacare — being dictated to us just like the candidates placed before us in the last election. We are supposed to select the lesser evil and be happy.

What we need is a national public health-care system based on the model of public education. Publicly financed. Publicly administered. And publicly delivered.

Alan Maki, Lakeway


Or, if you want to get further into it, something like this letter which I wrote that was published previously in the Austin American-Statesman:


I do not understand how it is that people who call themselves socialists and revolutionaries can be bullied, badgered and intimidated into allowing Democratic Party hacks and politicians to manipulate and control this health care debate when the whole idea behind the need for socialism is solving the problems of working people... problems like health care.

It would seem to me advocating socialized health care would be the best way to show people WHY we need socialism... I don't understand how you explain the need for socialism by advocating capitalist "solutions" to our problems... and make no mistake--- "affordable health care," single-payer universal health care and Medicare for All are capitalist "solutions" to this health care mess... all of which only alleviate part of the problem/s for very short periods of time before very severe problems inherent in the for-profit health care system arise.

Compare the speech by Xi Jinping to Trump’s “America First” speech delivered in Vietnam

Compare this speech by Xi Jinping to Trump’s “America First” speech delivered in Vietnam:


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-11/12/content_34425873.htm

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/11/10/remarks-president-trump-apec-ceo-summit-da-nang-vietnam

Two speeches; two different political and economic systems.


What do you make of these speeches?


Have the American people been invited to participate in this discussion?


Do you have a say in the economic decision-making process?


How do we as working people have a say?


What has been the role of Wall Street and its junior partners in all of this?


Do we understand the nature of imperialism, the most advanced stage of capitalism?


Do we understand socialism?


How do these two views fit in with the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the anti-imperialist struggles and the struggle for socialism?


Must we wait, like Immanuel Wallerstein the anti-globalization intellectual says, to analyze what is taking place in China before we draw conclusions?


Do we as working people understand politics and economics from an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist pro-socialist perspective in a way which enables us to work towards solutions to our own pressing problems which includes ending militarism and these dirty imperialist wars so we can implement legislation for real health care reform, to defend the integrity and future of public education, to win full-employment and a real living Minimum Wage, to break the back of racist discrimination by implementing and enforcing Affirmative Action, for decent and affordable housing for all, for affordable transportation, for a public banking system, in defense of Social Security and expanding benefits to include real living incomes, for a Basic Income Guarantee that assures everyone a real living income, for protection of our living environment and combating global warming?


Do we understand Wall Street and its international junior partners including Bay Street, the Square Mile and the money bags of Germany and Japan are our common enemies?


Do we as working people understand who are friends and enemies are?


Do we understand we can’t have an economy which works for all of us as long as Wall Street drags us into never-ending costly war after war?


Do we as working people have a common understanding these wars are making us all poor?


No matter what one thinks of China’s Xi Jinping... there is no doubt China is determined to better its own country through peace while both the Democrats and Republicans Working for Wall Street push us towards World War III.


I am wondering why the Chinese and Vietnamese did not insist on the right of North Korea to participate in this Asia-Pacific Conference that was key-noted by Xi Jinping and Donald Trump since North Korea is part of this community?


In my opinion, it is way past time for the working class to weigh in on all of these concerns because billionaires like Trump should not be allowed to do our thinking for us let alone speak for us.


The time is now to bring our Working class voices into the public square through leaflets, petitions, statements, forums, letters to the editor, protests and demonstrations...


And what is with this timid labor leadership of the AFL-CIO which lacks the ability to initiate and lead working class struggles to improve our lives at a time when Wall Street profits are at an all time high while pissing away millions of dollars supporting a bunch of Dumb Donkeys? Where is the accountability?


Why would any union leader join Trump in attacking China? Yet Trumka and Leo Gerard and James Hoffa do just this... they align themselves with our class enemies instead of our friends.


We need these Wall Street parasites and their bribed politicians about as much as our dogs and cats need ticks and fleas.


President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled Working Together for a New Chapter of Win-Win Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific here Saturday at the first session of the 25th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting.