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...

Thursday, November 29, 2018

We need a "people's lobby" if we are going to impeach Trump and remove him from office and secure any reforms from this "Blue Wave" and the newly elected "Democratic socialists."

This is the platform Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran on:


https://ocasio2018.com/issues
Now, in order for her and her fellow “Democratic socialists” to follow through on this a massive people’s front type movement will be required... some kind of a “people’s lobby.” Is there any evidence such a “people’s lobby” is being considered or created? Has there been any willingness to discuss this?


The concept of a “people’s lobby” must be taken up immediately by grassroots and rank-and-file activists or we will not be able to move forward once this new “Blue Wave” is seated?


I have a little different view from these “Democratic socialists” but there is plenty that is close enough to begin a discussion of what kind of solutions to our problems are required:


https://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/campaign-for-21st-century-full.html
Trump’s impeachment and removal from office needs to be a top priority.I would encourage all liberals, progressives and leftists to read, study and discuss what Minnesota's most popular socialist governor elected on the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party ticket who went on to become the campaign manager for Henry Wallac'e Progressive Party campaign in 1948 had to say about politics since he very successfully organized against very powerful corporate opposition, a "people's lobby," to get much of his very progressive legislation enacted:
http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/47/v47i04p154-161.pdf 



I also think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the other newly elected "Democratic socialists" are going to have to give some deeper thought about climate change and global warming along these lines:


https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/climate-change-and-the-military-industrial-complex1


I am interested in what others have to say.

A "people's lobby" needs to be organized now.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”


Campaign for a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

We are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises of “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” and then failing to make themselves legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

We are fed up with our tax dollars being squandered on militarism and wars instead of being used to create jobs by solving the problems of the people and defending our living environment… its time to beat swords into plowshares. Put people to work solving the problems of the people.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million new jobs paying real living wages providing people with free health care---  general medical, eyes, ears, dental, family planning and mental health--- through a network of neighborhood and community health care centers; this is a better use of our tax-dollars than wasting our human and financial resources on a far flung empire of over 800 U.S. military bases around the world. Or, it could be financed the same way Social Security is financed. Or paid for with  a tax on Wall Street transactions. Or financed with a combination of these methods. Public funding. Public administration. Public delivery… nothing controversial; just like public education.

A National Public Child Care System would create over three-million new jobs providing working class families with free child care.

We need to restore the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

“At Will Employment” legislation in states across the country needs to be rescinded and repealed to expand democracy in the workplace and provide workers with the right to freely participate in the communities where they live.

All attacks on immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, need to end. No racist Wall.

Planned Parenthood needs to be defended and programs expanded to all communities.

We insist Congress and the president enact full employment legislation which makes them legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment; assure everyone who wants a job employment at real living wages in line with the actual cost-of-living.

Full employment would provide stability for Social Security; everyone paying in; everyone getting something out. A Basic Income for All must be guaranteed. Pensions must be honored and protected. The Wall Street swindle of pension funds must end; restore the Glass-Steagall Act.

Turn Habitat for Humanity into a massive public works project to create jobs and assure everyone has a decent home.

Free education through university; cancel student debt. End military recruitment in the high schools.

Unemployment and lack of a National Public Health Care System is the price we pay for militarism and wars. We are entitled to a Peace Dividend……... Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

Prosperity can only be derived through peace and disarmament. Militarism and these dirty imperialist wars must end.

What we want right now:

An increase in the Minimum wage.

A $500.00 a month increase in Social Security.

Cancel all student debt.

Establish a National Public Banking System with branches at the local post offices.

The Democrats and Republicans comprise Wall Street's two-party trap. We are caught in this trap and we must break free. We need a working class based people's party that is both anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist to get us on the road to socialism or we are doomed. We must challenge Wall Street for political and economic power.

Where will the money come from?

A Peace Dividend and taxing the hell out of the rich.

We need to organize a People's Lobby to press for our demands. This People's Lobby could be the beginning of a new working class based people's party.



Such tremendous waste...

Amazon is being subsidized by tax-payers to the tune of billions of dollars.

One the one hand, perfectly good facilities like the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant are bulldozed to the ground.

On the other hand, taxpayers are subsidizing new buildings and infrastructure for Amazon to the tune of billions of dollars when Amazon could have used the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant for its new facilities... all in one location with access to all transportation: truck, rail air in a community fully high tech.

A small group of real liberal, progressive and left Minnesota legislators proposed legislation that would have kept the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant intact until a new use could be found for it... but, these politicians and their legislative initiative was derided and red-baited with the corrupt St. Paul Mayor chiming in that the legislation sounded like something Gus Hall, the long-time working class leader of the Communist Party would have proposed. 

What screwed up priorities these capitalist politicians bribed by corporations have.

Once again... we pay through the nose; they rake in the profits.

Love Canal... Picher, Oklahoma... Flint, Michigan

Love Canal... Picher, Oklahoma... Flint, Michigan.


Entire communities poisoned by capitalist greed.


Will your city be next?


What your eyes don’t see, what your nose does’t smell and what your tongue doesn’t taste may end up killing you.

Implement the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights now!

We need to understand something very important:


The present Democratic Party, in spite of a very small handful of those elected among the new Blue Wave who the corporate media describes as “democratic socialist...


The Democratic Party, in fact, is currently lost way out in very conservative Ronald Reagan land.
Anyone who believes they will get anything of substance, including very minimal reforms which are much less than even the “baby steps” touted by the well-heeled upper-middle class muddle-headed crowd lacking any understanding of class, without a very sharp and militant struggle is living in the fairy-tale world of the make-believe.


These people would have us believe we should not consider the massive squandering on militarism and wars.


And these uncaring people completely ignore costly massive destruction that these dirty, never-ending imperialist wars cause... the massive destruction, not even considering the loss of life, amounts to even more than the insane costs of militarism and the wars.


Just think what we could be doing with this money involved in the cost of rebuilding in the aftermath of these wars!


These Reagan Republicans now in control of the Democratic Party will not tolerate even the slightest criticism of their dirty wars, the costs associated with whipping up a new nuclear arms race.


These newly elected “democratic socialists” learn quickly not to talk about militarism and wars depriving us of the basic necessities of life and the human rights we are entitled to per the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights the great real liberal Democrat, Eleanor Roosevelt was so instrumental in drafting which these Reagan Democrats and even the newly elected “social democrats” completely shun as if it was poison.


The entire world, except for us, will be focused on the seventieth anniversary of the Declaration on December 10th.


Every liberal, progressive, Socialist, Communist and Marxist should be demanding legislation intended to fully implement the intent of this Declaration.


I urge you to circulate and share this Declaration with the intent of building a massive movement for its full implementation.


Let’s not allow the Reagan Democrats to detract us from initiating struggles for a real living Minimum Wage, a living Social Security income, a National Public Health Care System, a National Public Child Care System and cancellation of all student debt...


When considering the cost of these universal social programs consider the costs involved in these Reagan Democrats carrying out their reactionary warmongering neoliberal Wall Street agenda...


We need new priorities that put people and our needs before wars and profits.

What happened to the concept of the right to fair hearings?

A person can’t even get a fair hearing from the Social Security Administration... Frances Perkins would be ashamed of what Social Security has become... a government agency enforcing poverty.

Remove the cap on Social Security

Eliminating the cap on Social Security making all wages taxable at 6.2% would help in funding Social Security.


Im not sure how much that would raise if the cap were removed completely; does anyone know? But I do think it should be removed completely.


Ironically, those who need Social Security the least are those who benefit the most and they in this high income bracket are taxed the least.


And, even more ironic, it is these well-heeled people who are first in line to make sure they get every penny they can out of Social Security who lecture us that Social Security is not needed.

Social Security and racism

When talking about Social Security, it is important to note how racism has resulted in people of color receiving the lowest Social Security payments because racist discrimination in employment resulted/s in people of color being forced into the lowest wage jobs and longest times of unemployment.
What do we intend to do about this?

Social Security, history and class struggle

Why do we need to understand the history of how Social Security came into existence?


Because understanding the massive grassroots struggles on the part of the people to win this important reform from a corporate dominated government that continuously refused to provide it is key to defending and improving Social Security today.


Because without understanding history it becomes difficult to initiate struggles today.


Based on the urgency of the situation, we socialists have launched a struggle for an immediate $500.00 a month across the board increase for everyone on Social Security. The government should kick this in instead of talking about cutting Social Security.


Our objective, in the very near future, is to see to it that no one on Social Security receives less than $2,000.00 a month.


So far, no one else has suggested anything else nor have they initiated any struggles to defend Social Security and improve the livelihoods of those receiving Social Security.


According to everyone the economy is booming; employers are, in fact, reaping huge record profits.



Now is the time to increase the employer’s share and reduce the payroll tax on employees to pay for this in combination with this $500.00 contribution we are demanding from the federal government.


Record profits.


Wall Street is rolling in the dough.


A trillion dollars a year for militarism and wars.


Massive billion dollar giveaways to companies like Amazon.


And the workers now on Social Security created this wealth as current workers expand this wealth.


Wall Street oligarchs, the employers, are hoarding this wealth.


America needs a raise.


Raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage based on the cost of living.


Raise Social Security to a real living income based on the cost of living.


The working class is entitled to a decent standard of living derived from the wealth we have created.


Labor, and only Labor with quite a little bit of help from Mother Nature, creates all wealth.


How much longer will we continue to allow this exploitation of Labor and rape of Mother Nature without demanding what we are entitled to... peace and a decent standard of living for working class families and a respect for Mother Nature.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Demand an increase in Social Security now!

I need your help getting this out.


We have begun making waves... let’s stay on this. I have included several of your suggestions.


Can you send this to your Representative and Senators now?


Let us know how they respond.


You can contact me at: red_finn@live.com



Get this out at your local senior center, union hall, community association, church group and especially retiree organizations. Spread the word through Facebook and other social media.



So; it seems Congress has been caught stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund once again; while pensioners receive a miserly 2.8% increase the theft from the Social Security Trust Fund is now 2.8, too- $2.8 trillion dollars!


And these politicians go around telling the big fat lie that Social Security is part of the federal budget, when it is not since employer and employee contributions pay for everything that is part of Social Security.


The one thing that really is the biggest part of the federal budget none of these worthless Wall Street bribed politicians or their party hacks and the media’s talking heads want to talk about which is nothing but more theft from the people is the expenditure on militarism and these dirty imperialist wars.


It took a fight to win Social Security and it is going to take an even bigger struggle to save it. Get prepared for the battle ahead.


No one on Social Security should receive less than $2,000.00 a month.


Everyone on Social Security should receive an immediate $500.00 a month increase.


The Federal government hasn’t been kicking anything into Social Security and it should... it should get this money from what is now being spent on militarism and wars... a $500.00 a month Peace Dividend for seniors.


And Social Security benefits and payments should not be subject to income tax.


Pensions and 401K plans must be protected and other retirement plans must be protected from shady Wall Street investment “advisors.”


Employers must not be allowed to get out of pension plans through bankruptcy schemes.

Should the Social Security Trust Fund be used by the government as a source of cheap loans to fight its dirty wars?

So, we see this line of thinking that the government is justified using the Social Security Trust Fund as a source of cheap loans.


Democratic Party hacks have argued this for years while failing to insist Social Security provides people a real living income.


This argument might be plausible if we had a national public banking system and a government focused on spending for human needs instead of squandering the wealth of the Nation on militarism and wars.


But, money paid into Social Security is intended for Social Security programs and not as a cheap loan for this rotten Wall Street government to fight their dirty imperialist wars.


I find it interesting these people don't support using these Social Security funds to provide seniors with a real living monthly income.

We are slaves to the debt Wall Street bankers profit from

We have become slaves to debt trying to maintain a decent standard-of-living on high-interest credit cards as we try to cope with an ever growing cost-of-living while working poverty wage jobs and living on miserly monthly Social Security payments.


The bankers profit from this debt for which we are forced to pay ever higher interest rates which further reduces our standard-of-living; thus making the struggle to survive even more difficult.

We need Social Security to be a real living income now!

Here is a good one.


I just got a private message telling me I should stop riling people up over Social Security because a radical like me associated with pushing for a Social Security increase makes it hard for the Democrats to associate themselves with legislation required to bring this about.


I am told to be patient; that the Democrats will get to this as soon as other pressing concerns are dealt with.


What a crock of shit!


We have been waiting for Social Security to become a real living income as FDR, Frances Perkins and the Democrat’s Committee on Economic Security promised way back in 1935!


If you keep your mouth shut you will get nothing.


We are entitled to a living income on Social Security... see Article 22...and it’s time for the United States government to live up to this beginning with a $500.00 a month increase for everyone right now. The United States government has never contributed one single penny towards Social Security but has robbed the Social Security Trust Fund blind to pay for its dirty imperialist wars:


https://unudhr.blogspot.com/2008/05/united-nations-universal-declaration-of.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR2Dm0VYDxcxBLOd4GqkNThuE0i9e8Hk8sU_zaI65BabYmasNM5v1p0zQ54



We need to hound the Blue Wave until we get a raise...


We need to begin pestering these politicians in the same persistent way they begged for our votes with what we expect them to deliver.


Did any politicians get specific about what they intend to do with Social Security? No.


But we should:


So; it seems Congress has been caught stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund once again; while pensioners receive a miserly 2.8% increase the theft from the Social Security Trust Fund is now 2.8, too- $2.8 trillion dollars!


And these politicians go around telling the big fat lie that Social Security is part of the federal budget, when it is not since employer and employee contributions pay for everything that is part of Social Security.


The one thing that really is the biggest part of the federal budget none of these worthless Wall Street bribed politicians or their party hacks and the media’s talking heads want to talk about which is nothing but more theft from the people is the expenditure on militarism and these dirty imperialist wars.


It took a fight to win Social Security and it is going to take an even bigger struggle to save it. Get prepared for the battle ahead.


No one on Social Security should receive less than $2,000.00 a month.


Everyone on Social Security should receive an immediate $500.00 a month increase.


The Federal government hasn’t been kicking anything into Social Security and it should... it should get this money from what is now being spent on militarism and wars... a $500.00 a month Peace Dividend for seniors.


And Social Security benefits and payments should not be subject to income tax.


Forest fires and nuclear war

Paradise, California has been destroyed by a forest fire...


Just imagine the destruction that would result from nuclear war.

Was Barack Obama a peace president?

Barack Obama, the politician who campaigned for the presidency on a promise of peace, dropped over 26,000 bombs during his presidency; why are we only finding this out now?


Someone made a whole lot of money from this... and how much death and destruction resulted?

We need a cooperative socialist common wealth

In Baltimore, 75% voted to forbid privatizing the city’s water supply. Our water is too vital to let private profit-driven companies control it. What about our food, our land, our jobs and incomes?


Same logic applies: democratize the economy through public ownership and socialism.

Defense strategy report warns of grave erosion in US military superiority

Defense strategy report warns of grave erosion in US military superiority

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/416744-Defense-strategy-report-warns-of-grave-erosion-in-US-military-superiority


Why is anyone so insane they are planning a “strategy” for war with Russia and China when neither of those countries wants war with anyone, least if all war with the United States?


Where are the sane voices guiding us to a strategy based on peace, mutual respect and understanding working towards improving the lives of people and the environment and ending this insane militarism that is squandering the tremendous wealth created by the working classes of these countries?


What kind of organization is this that is given any credibility at all by Wall Street, the mainstream media and politicians?


No one wants to plan for war with Russia or China which are no threat at all to peaceful development.


It is insanity anyone would give an outfit creating this kind of report any credibility at all.


By the way, when was the last time you saw an article from any of the mainstream media from a think-tank promoting peace and cooperation between the United States, Russia and China and the other two-hundred or so countries making up this planet?


Anyone who thinks there is any sanity in Washington had better read this report paid for with our tax dollars for themselves:

Providing for the Common Defense

The Assessments and Recommendations of the National Defense Strategy Commission
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 / By: National Defense Strategy Commission


https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/11/providing-common-defense?fbclid=IwAR0I3UIqiEccO15B_8DquXLdFa9Lje5mtX0Ca01le3jvStnuB2N17Y8dBQY


Are you prepared to let these warmongers do your thinking for you as they “prepare” us for World War III?


More money squandered for militarism when we need to be beating swords into plowshares.


Total insanity.


Demand a Peace Dividend now!

Class consciosness and class struggle

What working people need to learn more about is the relationship between wages and Social Security income and cost-of-living and standard-of-living and the actual existing wealth we have created.


When will we as a class, the working class, decide the time has come to use the wealth we have created with our labor- the only real wealth creator- for the benefit of our own well-being rather than allowing a bunch of millionaire and billionaire Wall Street oligarchs hoard this wealth that should be ours in the first place in the form of higher wages and for improved Social Security benefits along with many other socially necessary requirements for us to live decent lives... like child care, health care, housing, pre-school and higher education?

Hillary Clinton for president?

Hillary Clinton is being touted as the best candidate to beat Trump.


I would say she has a better chance of being elected president of Libya.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

A discussion about Social Security and those opposing a real increase

I don’t mind that people take issue with my call for Social Security to be a real living income for everyone beginning with a $500.00 a month across the board increase for everyone.


What really bothers me is people who insist that Social Security was never meant to be a real living income in retirement years because, first of all, these people do not understand that Social Security was not a gift from government but was fought for long and hard to attain through militant mass struggles of the American people.


And second, these people go on to suggest everyone should be putting money into some kind of personal retirement account or investments when the fact of the matter is, for most working class families they do all they can to try to just make ends meet from pay-check to pay-check.


The sheer hypocrisy of these people came out in a conversation I was having with a person who is employed by the Social Security Administration who stated she made $68,000.00 a year and then refused to tell us how much her pension was going to be while she derided our efforts to get a substantial increase in our present miserly meager monthly Social Security checks.


And third, we have the complete hypocrisy from politicians who have increased their own pay with the increase alone being more than they give us in a year while turning around saying the government can’t afford to kick in $500.00 a month to everyone on Social Security even though they have, without public debate, mired our country deeply in debt for many generations to come to pay for their dirty imperialist wars and senseless unbridled militarism. These same politicians vote to give tax breaks to the richest of the rich.


We now have an entire oligarchy of wealthy capitalists living off the wealth we have created and these fabulously wealthy Wall Street parasites are hoarding the wealth we are rightly entitled to in the form of real living wages and real living Social Security incomes... and then these wealthy capitalist oligarchs have the unmitigated gall to use this wealth against us.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

The Midterm Elections are over...

...The class struggle continues.

Freedom of the Press

Trump has stripped CNN's Jim Acosta of his press credentials, until further notice... another move towards fascism.

It can't happen here?

It is happening here.

Make Social Security a real living income

So; it seems Congress has been caught stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund once again; while pensioners receive a miserly 2.8% increase the theft from the Social Security Trust Fund is now 2.8, too- $2.8 trillion dollars!


And these politicians go around telling the big fat lie that Social Security is part of the federal budget, when it is not since employer and employee contributions pay for everything that is part of Social Security.


The one thing that really is the biggest part of the federal budget none of these worthless Wall Street bribed politicians or their party hacks and the media’s talking heads want to talk about which is nothing but more theft from the people is the expenditure on militarism and these dirty imperialist wars.

It took a fight to win Social Security and it is going to take an even bigger struggle to save it. Get prepared for the battle ahead.


No one on Social Security should receive less than $2,000.00 a month.


Everyone on Social Security should receive an immediate $500.00 a month increase.


The Federal government hasn’t been kicking anything into Social Security and it should... it should get this money from what is now being spent on militarism and wars... a $500.00 a month Peace Dividend for seniors.


And Social Security benefits and payments should not be subject to income tax.


Pensions and 401K plans must be protected and other retirement plans must be protected from shady Wall Street investment “advisors.”


Employers must not be allowed to get out of pension plans through bankruptcy schemes.

What needs to be done

This is my idea of what we need to unite the people around as we fight to impeach Trump and remove him from office:


First issue peace.


Second issue increase Minimum Wage and Social Security.


Third issue National Public Health Care System- publicly funded, publicly administered, publicly delivered.


Pay for what we need with a peace dividend and tax the hell out of millionaires and billionaires, corporate profits and tax on Wall Street transactions.


End racism and enforce Affirmative Action.


Create a National Child Care System.


Forgive student debt and make all education at public institutions free.


A new party and action in the streets is the way to win... it takes a struggle to win.


Keep it simple.

Jobs, jobs, jobs

We keep hearing about “jobs, jobs, jobs.”


We never hear about what is being done with the profits being created by workers employed in these jobs.


Nor do we hear one single peep about what kind of standard-of-living is being created for the workers employed in these jobs many of which are part-time jobs with most of these jobs paying miserly poverty wages while the employers reap huge profits from the exploitation of this labor.


We aren’t being provided a true analysis or the real facts...


Once again the truth is being cleverly concealed from the people.


And amid it all, Trump has the unmitigated gall to boast that he has increased spending for militarism and these dirty wars claiming this spending creates “jobs, jobs, jobs” when this squandering of our Nation’s wealth on death and destruction results in the greatest transfer of wealth to the filthy rich Wall Street merchants of death and destruction instead of being used to create socially useful and necessary programs like a National Public Health Care System and a National Public Child Care System which would create many more jobs paying far better wages while improving the lives of the people which would cost us far less than this senseless militarism and these dirty wars.


Talk about your screwed up priorities... only a complete moron like Trump could boast of such demented and warped priorities... although I notice the Democrats have voted for this militarism and these dirty wars right along with Republicans; and, during this Election Campaign we haven’t even had a debate on these screwed up priorities coming out of Washington. We have two parties with different names but both parties with the same profit oriented, instead of people centered, Wall Street agenda.


And Social Security is not even mentioned while neither party, each boasting of their concerns for jobs, education and health care offer no solutions to any of the problems.


And all of this is passed off as an example of the world’s greatest bastion of democracy when it is really all one big fraudulent scheme just like the schemes used by the Wall Street “investment advisors” who steal worker’s pension funds.


And this is the great capitalist system?


It’s time to bring on socialism.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Is it "Lying Ted Cruz" or "Crying Ted Cruz"?

Apparently it is some of both since he has run up against a little competition.

Water, water everywhere... but is it fit for human consumption?

It is ridiculous to think each individual person should have to seek out drinking water quality reports during this period of flooding in Texas Hill Country where Republicans hold power.

Reports concerning the safety and quality of drinking water should be provided by the government agencies responsible through the media just as the water levels are reported every single day.

I can appreciate that these Republican admirers of Ayn Rand think this is a personal responsibility to seek out this information; but, even Ayn Rand readily applied for, and accepted without protest, Social Security and Medicare.

This is how the Republican disdain for democracy comes forward in real life affecting our health and safety.

Common sense should tell us if it isn’t safe to be in the water it might not be safe to be drinking the water derived from these reservoirs.

Common sense should also alert us that something may be wrong when the waters upstream and downstream from us are contaminated and polluted.

Of course, there are scientific tests that can be performed and we should be informed on a daily basis of these test results just like we are informed of lake levels.


Friday, June 15, 2018

"The G-7: A Demise to Celebrate"

Please do not reply to the listserv. To
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correspond with the author, write immanuel.wallerstein@yale.edu. To correspond with us about your email address on the listserv, write fbcofc@binghamton.edu. Thank you.
 

Commentary No. 475, June 15, 2018
"The G-7: A Demise to Celebrate"

An institution called the G-7 held its annual meeting on June 12-13, 2018 in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada. President Trump attended in the beginning but left early. Because the views on both sides were so incompatible, the group of Six members negotiated with Trump the issuance of a quite anodyne statement as the usual joint declaration.

Trump changed his mind and refused to sign any statement. The Six then drafted a statement that reflected their views. Trump was angry and insulted the protagonists of signing the statement.

This was interpreted by the world press as a reciprocal political snub by Trump and the six other heads of state and government that attended. Most commentators also argued that this political battle signaled the end of the G-7 as a significant player in world politics.

But what is the G-7? Who invented the idea? And for what purpose? Nothing is less clear. The name of the institution itself has constantly changed, as have the number of members. And many argue that there have emerged more important meetings, such as that of the G-20 or the G-2. There is also the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that was founded in opposition to the G-7, and which excludes both the United States and west European countries.

The first clue to the origins of the G-7 as concept is the dating of the birth of the G-7 idea. It was early in the 1970s. Before that time, there was no institution in which the United States played a role as an equal participant with other nations.

Remember that after the end of the Second World War and up to the 1960s the United States had been the hegemonic power of the modern world-system. It invited to international meetings whom it wished for reasons of its own. The purpose of such meetings was primarily in order to implement policies the United States thought wise or useful - for itself.

By the 1960s the United States could no longer act in such an arbitrary way. There had begun to be resistance to unilateral arrangements. This resistance was the evidence that the decline of the U.S. as a hegemonic power had begun.

To retain its central role, the United States therefore changed its strategy. It sought ways in which it could at least slow down this decline. One of the ways was to offer certain major industrialized powers the status of "partner" in world decision-making. This was to be a trade-off. In return for promotion to the status of partners, the partners would agree to limit the degree to which they would stray from policies the United States preferred.

One could argue therefore that the G-7 idea was something invented by the United States as part of this new partnership arrangement. On the other hand, a key moment in the historical development of the G-7 idea was the moment of the first annual summit of the top leaders, as opposed to meetings of lower ranking figures like ministers of finance. The initiative for this came not from the United States but from France.

It was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, then France's President, who convened the first annual meeting of the top leaders at Rambouillet in France in 1975. Why did he think it so important that there be a meeting of the top leaders? One possible explanation was that he saw it as a way of further limiting U.S. power. Faced with negotiating with the set of other leaders, each of which had different priorities, the United States would be constrained to bargain. And since it was the top leaders who signed off on the bargain, it would be harder for any of them to repudiate it later.

Rambouillet began a struggle between the United States and various European powers (but especially France) over all the major world issues. It was a struggle in which the United States did less and less well. It was seriously rebuffed in 2003 when it found itself unable, for the first time in history, to gain even a majority of votes in the U.N. Security Council when they were to vote on the invasion of Iraq by the United States. And this year, in Charlevoix, it found itself unable even to agree to a banal joint statement with the other six members of the G-7.

The G-7 is for all intents and purposes finished. But should we mourn this? The struggle for power between the United States and the others was basically a struggle for primacy in oppressing the rest of the world's nations. Would these smaller powers be better off if the European mode of doing this won out? Does a small animal care which elephant tramples on it? I think not.

All hail Charlevoix! Trump may have done us all the favor of destroying this last major remnant of the era of Western domination of the world-system. Of course, the demise of the G-7 will not mean that the struggle for a better world is over. Not at all. Those who back a system of exploitation and hierarchy will simply look for other ways of doing it.

This brings me back to what is now my central theme. We are in a structural crisis of the modern world-system. A battle is going on as to which version of a successor system we shall see. Everything is very volatile at the moment. Each side is up one day, down the next. We're in a sense lucky that Donald Trump is so foolish as to hurt his own side with a massive blow. But let us not cheer therefore Pierre Trudeau or Emmanuel Macron, whose more intelligent version of oppression is fighting Trump.

by Immanuel Wallerstein

Teen Vogue tackles Marxism... and does a good job

Who Is Karl Marx: Meet the Anti-Capitalist Scholar

The communist scholar's ideas are more prevalent than you might realize.


Check it out, share with friends, create a Marxist discussion group and political action committee or book club...

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-is-karl-marx



Friday, March 30, 2018

John Bolton, warmonger and devil incarnate... tell Trump to fire him

Jimmy Carter gave Trump good advice:

Fire John Bolton.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/23/john-bolton-policy-views-you-should-know-about/UDDDKdR57kNEHnR3qsJP3J/story.html

Housing for people, not for profit.

Should private developers like Legend Communities be allowed to intentionally create and shape entire communities into racially and economically segregated communities in quest of huge super profits?


Check out this article:


New Lakeway City Center proposal could expand size” by Bob Maxwell...

https://c4c5h4b3jv11qq3kf399hf3c-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/LTW-2018-03-1.pdf








Outfits like Legend Communities are finding huge profits in helping the wealthy continue to escape from the poor who they create.


These rich few whose wealth has been attained by exploiting working people seek out the heavily police and private security protected suburbs and gated communities.


The wealthy expect to continue to be served by poverty waged workers who must commute long distances to these jobs because they can’t afford the housing in these elite neighborhoods.


This begs the question:


What role does government have in community planning?


And what happens when the wealthy few are the majority in these small communities of the well-heeled crowd as a result freezing out those who work in these communities but can’t vote in these communities because they can’t afford to live in these communities?


This article is about “planning” in Lakeway, Texas which contains within it several guarded gated communities... armed guards to keep the hated people of color and poor out.


These wealthy people approved a forty-million dollar plus bond to build a new police station to house a police force of over fifty for a community with a population of around twelve-thousand requiring the labor of thousands of poverty wage workers to tend to their every need and whims with the main category of crime, according to the public police, being low-waged worker’s stealing from the wealthy living in nursing homes.


So, here we have, again, a proposal for more upscale housing- along with more businesses employing more poverty waged workers- with no thought to providing decent affordable housing for the workers who have to spend many hours a day, lacking even public transportation, commuting from home to jobs and back while having to pay out for child care.


This begs the question:


What is the role of the state and federal governments in promoting racial and economic diversity when planning is in progress when the planners, local government and most citizens lack basic sensibilities for equality and justice?


By the way, I have been viciously attacked by both well-heeled Democrats and Republicans for bringing this issue forward while candidates running for office would rather say nothing or call me names.


The current crooked and corrupt Mayor, Joe Bain, derides me in public as being an “activist;” what he says about me in private is anyone’s guess.


It’s a good thing I haven’t suggested free health care and child care centers... and living wages... for the workers employed who are expected to make do with poverty wages supplemented with miserly tips.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Stop violence in the schools... there is a lot more to this than just guns.

I made this post (in blue) on FaceBook and have been getting quite a response and thought I would provide some further thought, below:


The “March for Our Lives” seems to have all the earmarks and attributes of the previous “Women’s March” and the “Science March;” as well as the same sources of funding.


The big push was not for any specific reforms but to register people to vote for Democrats. This is not just my perception but the results declared by the organizers... and the funders... a really strange group of bedfellows... Democratic Party and Republican Party front groups financed by the millionaire and billionaire crowd claiming to be “supporters of the students.”


Somewhere between seven to twelve million dollars was contributed from the likes of George Clooney to Bloomberg and Warren Buffett and even the reactionary Josh Kushner.


So, not to raise the hackles of anyone, but I am wondering whether the funding is the strings which will assure this “movement” doesn’t go beyond the “Woman’s Marches” and the “Science Marches” and become a real movement focused on what has caused this society to become so violent- these never ending wars and racism.


It is noteworthy the materials distributed and speakers never mentioned either of these nor the need for a massive investment to place social worker’s in our public schools where they can take action to prevent violence from occurring to begin with.


Nor has there been any mention of the need to get these military recruiters out of our public schools who are glamorizing “guts, guns, glory and patriotism”- violence.


Also not mentioned is the common thread binding all of these young mass shooters together- racist, fascist right-wing churches and hate groups nor not even being mentioned is Trump’s promotion of violent racist and fascist hate.


Could no materials be written explaining all of this... or would funding not be forthcoming if the message was put together in this way?


We have had huge women’s marches, gigantic science marches and now even bigger marches against gun violence.


Will funding now be forthcoming for anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstrations?


What about a huge demonstration supporting the creation of a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education?


Will these funders finance a massive demonstration of working class parents for a national public child care system?


What about funding for a huge gigantic peace demonstration opposing these dirty imperialist wars?
What about a massive demonstration calling for an end to poverty?


Will there be a call to create a massive all-people’s united front to bring all of these marchers together in a way to shut this country down until real reforms are implemented?


These millionaires and billionaires will finance “marches” as long as they don’t turn into persistent movements becoming a thorn in the sides of the Democratic and Republican Parties.


These big funders will tolerate a speaker here or there saying they won’t vote but they will not tolerate any speaker calling for busting free from this two-party trap by creating a new working class based people’s party.


The violence in the schools doesn't just involve guns.


It isn't just gun violence; it is knives, baseball bats, fists and "curb stomping," too.


It is violence.


For sure these guns intended for military purposes need to be curbed; but, what is causing this violence needs to be addressed. We have a very sick society as a result of wars and racism spawned by a very sick capitalist system which needs to be replaced with socialism.


Where are the social workers?


We need large numbers social workers in our schools. This is the primary demand that needs to be made right now... along with some kind of stopping the sales and distribution of these AR-15 type military weapons.


School administrators, teachers and police always say, "We are not social workers." Isn't this an admission we need the intervention of social workers with our youth in school?


Also, young people need more sports programs and all kinds of other recreational, art and cultural programs.


Republicans and Democrats are not advocating solutions to violence because the real solutions need vast outlays of money and resources... money they would rather spend on militarism and wars which, they don't want to admit, because the finger points back at themselves because of their screwed up priorities.


The American people have no say in the decision-making process other than what they can force on these uncaring politicians through huge demonstrations, sit-ins, etc.


If we want a genuine voice for peace and disarmament and a socially and economically just society which will help us eradicate all of this violence in our schools and communities we are going to have to break free from Wall Street's two-party trap by organizing a working class based people's party of some kind.


Let's be very clear about this...


The very people who are saying things like, "Leave these kids to figure things out for themselves," are the very same people trying to manipulate them back into complacency.


This problem of violence in our public schools is going to take everyone getting involved.


How can we expect the youth who have been denied the tools for changing things by being taught lies in school about everything from history to how government works all of a sudden be expected to come up with solutions to these problems let alone implement the solutions?


Who can these young people rely on to implement the solutions to these problems even after they correctly identify the problems?


Come on, really; are these young people supposed to rely on a bunch of politicians who have made the choice to spend our tax dollars on militarism and wars for decades instead of spending money for improving public education people the youth can now rely on to implement solutions?


There is a reason these worthless politicians don't want us joining together with youth to discuss this problem of violence in the schools.


The reason being, they are afraid we will all join these young people out in the streets and the demonstrations and marches will grow bigger and bigger until people get so sick of listening to the excuses being made by these politicians that students and workers will join together and shut this country down until real solutions are forthcoming... this is the only thing these Wall Street bribed politicians will ever listen to--- if they will even listen to people organized in such a peaceful manner demanding a say in what is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.


But, chances are good that instead of implementing real solutions the people will be met by violence ordered by these politicians--- billy club wielding police, pepper spray, water cannons and even the rifles of the National Guard just like when students at Kent State University peacefully demanded peace in Vietnam... or like the residents of Ferguson, Missouri who were met by a militarized police force in response to their demands for an end to racist violence and police murders.


This thoroughly rotten and corrupt government at every level maintains its disdain for democracy and the voices of the people with what? Violence.



Why should any citizen of this country have to look down the barrel of an AR-15, M-16 or M-4 because they are insisting on justice when it comes to racist cops killing people?


Why should any worker on strike have to look down the barrels of these guns held by police and union busting thugs?


Why did the people gathered to protect their water in North Dakota at Standing Rock have to look down the barrels of these guns held by oil company thugs, the police and the military?


Why do people all over the world have to look down the barrels of these guns when they demand an end to U.S. occupation of their countries?


What made the CIA think it could get away with putting these weapons in the hand of a fascist butcher like Pinochet in Chile to gun down students in their high schools and colleges and workers in mines and factories?


Here we have a guy like Bolton who says forget the guns and use more bombs including nuclear weapons to enforce U.S. dictate all over the world because our might makes everything right.


These young people who we are now told should be left alone to solve the problems of violence in their schools have not been taught the real source of this violence--- their own government and an economic system that is so sick and corrupt the only thing that keeps either propped up and going... is what? Violence.


The guns are not the source of the problem; the guns are making the violence of a violently sick society worse.


Talk to your children and the students about all of this. See if they don't agree. Then join these young people in the streets.


This country was stolen from Native peoples using violence.


Slavery was maintained with violence.


Employers use violence to keep union out.


Chances are, if you have ever engaged in any kind of peaceful activity to make this world a better place to live you have had to confront the violence orchestrated by a government which boasts to the world of being the greatest bastion of democracy--- a lie peddled around the world and to young people in our schools now being consumed in this violence of our government's own making.


Get the military recruiters promoting "God, Guns and Guts" out of our public schools, stop the distribution of racist hate literature and bring in an army of well-trained compassionate social workers as the very first step in bringing an end to the violence in our public schools... and stop the well-heeled elites including bankers, real estate investors, greedy doctors and employers on the school boards to stop intimidating and harassing teachers who teach the truth.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Student debt and collections... another "enemies list."

Many U.S. student debts have been turned over to a Nazi run German bank.

Deutsche Bank AG is a German global banking and financial services company, with its headquarters in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt, Germany. The ties between the Nazis and
Deutsche Bank AG has been well documented.
Deutsche Bank AG was one of the major backers of Hitler and invested in constructing Hitler's concentration camps.

Now
Deutsche Bank AG is involved in the most vicious and heinous campaigns to collect and reap huge profits from U.S. student loans singling out political activists for "special collection methods" which have been deemed illegal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency of the United States government, responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector.

The Education Department has hired Performant Recovery, Inc. to collect student debts for
Deutsche Bank AG.

Just like with Hitler and Nixon,
Deutsche Bank AG, Performant AG and the Trump Administration have compiled an "enemies list."

.
Betsy De Vos has a major financial investment in Performant Recovery, Inc. The De Vos family has been a long-time financial supporter of the John Birch Society and worked in cahoots with the wife-beating billionaire banker Richard Mellon-Scaife in establishing various racist, anti-Semitic, right-wing groups like KeyWiki, Altegrity/U.S.I.S. and has been privileged to receiving information from the FBI and its various State Police Red Squads which involve outfits like the elite Texas police force, the Texas Rangers, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the Michigan State Police, and New York City Red Squad.

It has now been exposed that Performant Recovery, Inc. is using student debt collections to target and go after victims of the FBI's, CIA's and NSA's dirty COINTELPRO operations.

Mandy Michaels, Division Manager for Productions for Performant Recovery, Inc. told me, "You Communist trouble-makers are going to pay for what you are doing."

Performant Recovery, Inc. is garnishing 25% of my poverty wages from my part-time job.

I have filed a complaint for wage theft with the United States Department of  Labor.

If you are being harassed by these collection companies using student debt as a pretext I would like to get together with you to plan a class action law-suit against the banks involved, Performant Recovery, Inc., other collection agencies the employers going along with these illegal collection practices and these other collection agencies using these vicious and malicious tactics intended to cause people impoverishment, great misery, pain and suffering.

In the end, when all is said and done, education should be free from pre-school through university.

And these banks and private collection agencies should not be allowed to profit from student debt which begs the question:

Why don't we have a national public banking system instead of allowing these banks like the Nazi run
Deutsche Bank AG to reap huge profits of billions of dollars off of student debt just like they reaped tremendous profits from building Hitler's gas chambers.

Deutsche Bank AG has repeatedly used excuse after excuse to hide its Nazi past and to cover up the ties of its board members to Hitler and the ties of its present board members to a variety of right-wing fascist organizations serving finance and industrial capital.

Check out these articles:

Education Dept. awards debt-collection contract to company with ties to DeVos

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/11/education-dept-awards-debt-collection-contract-to-company-with-ties-to-devos/?utm_term=.232f727ec0e6


Company with DeVos ties awarded Education Dept debt-collection contract: report



http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/368930-company-with-devos-ties-awarded-education-dept-debt-collection




 

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Another false nuclear alert... this time in Japan; coincidental or planned with sinister intent to get us prepared for a nuclear war?

Japanese media outlet NHK has apologized for issuing a false report of a North Korean missile launch Tuesday evening local time.


An apology was issued on the Japanese language version of NHK’s website and later shared on its social media platforms.


"Around 6:55pm earlier we reported on the NHK's news site and NHK's news disaster prevention application ‘Pattern of North Korean missile launch’ but this was incorrectly issued. J alert has not appeared. I must sincerely apologize,” the news outlet wrote.


The incident comes just four days after a public warning was issued to residents in Hawaii to “seek immediate shelter” from an alleged incoming ballistic missile which had been launched.


That alert was issued in error by the Hawaii Civil Defense, which apologized profusely and sparked debate online about US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric regarding his country’s nuclear capabilities and the threat posed by the North Korean regime.

Racism has been running rampant in this country long before Trump's racist comments but Trump is making racism acceptable in formulating public policy.

Trump has made racist public officials all across this country think they can get away with racist discrimination in formulating public policy in education, housing, health care and employment.



Proof of racism in housing policies can be seen in the establishment of very segregated suburbs and gated communities which leads to segregated public schools and racist discrimination in health care and employment.


We can look at any number of hundreds of suburbs and gated communities in this country and then look at what is happening in urban inner city areas to prove that racism is part and parcel of a planned public policy.


In fact, one would be extremely hard-pressed to find any community in this country which is intentionally being planned with diversity and integration in mind.


While most politicians are trying to cover up the racism involved in public policy and planning, Trump is unique in giving approval from the highest office in this country to racism in public policy and planning.


What do you know about the billionaires running this country and what they intend to do?

Too many people fail to research what is going on in this country.


The influence of even the most influential political strategists is inextricably linked to the donors behind them and the politicians in front of them.


Just look at this Mercer family and their links to Trump and Bannon and how their front groups work the media.


The billionaire Mercers have stated their intent:


“... attempting to build a "radical free-market, small-government, home-schooling, antiliberal, gold-standard, pro-death penalty, anti-Muslim, pro-Christian, monetarist, anti-civil-rights political movement in the United States."

How could anyone be more specific?


Yet, would you know from the reports in the mainstream media this was their intent even though we often hear these people are Trump’s big financial backers and bankrolled Steve Bannon.
The Mercer’s run a huge stable of internet trolls and sock-puppets who are constantly trying to disrupt anti-Trump activity.


Make no mistake, the Democrats have their own billionaires engaged in equally as dirty shenanigans.
So, we have these billionaires working out of sight through the political strategists they employ to carry out their agendas making sure the politicians they are backing stay true to their right wing agendas.


Do your own research. Find out more about parasitical hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his evil daughter Rebekah who operates an array of Front groups and think tanks which the media calls upon to authenticate their stories and analysis with lies passed off as facts.


If you think it can’t happen here you had better check out this Mercer family and what they are doing to this country along with the other billionaires like George Soros, the Koch brothers, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and the rest of these Wall Street parasites because they have something planned for you that you probably know very little about.


These evil-doers are not limited to just Republicans and in many instances these reactionary Republicans are working hand-in-hand with the Democrats where we can't see what is going on.


How much do you really know about the billionaire ruling class and their millionaire management class and the over-paid pundits they hire to frame their message with the intent to deceive?


Check out these articles...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-5267049/Republican-powerbrokers-intensely-private-Mercer-family.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/no-one-knows-what-the-powerful-mercers-really-want/514529/

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/no-one-knows-what-the-powerful-mercers-really-want/514529/


Have you read the book, "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis?


We had better start to think about the very dangerous fascist direction our country is headed in and what we can do to reverse this direction.

Monday, January 8, 2018

For solidarity with the Iranian people and the Tudeh Party

Four important statements from the Tudeh Party of Iran:




Cecil B. DeMille

A lot is being made of Oprah Winfrey receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award.


But...


Did you know that Cecil B. DeMille was a thoroughly reactionary Republican who worked in cahoots with the fascist Wall Street imperialist Allen Dulles and the CIA in helping to foster discord and mayhem all over the world... especially in undermining socialist working class movements and destabilizing socialist countries?


Cecil B. DeMille played a despicable role in the Hollywood witch-hunts of the 1940's and 1950's.


I don't know why anyone would even accept an award presented in this guys name.