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, 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.

Oprah Winfrey won't be getting my vote

Oprah Winfrey Receives Cecil B. de Mille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5HV79_8B8


Oprah Winfrey talked a good line about "not covering up the truth" and yet she has helped cover up the truth of capitalist exploitation as the breeder of war, poverty and racism for years... just the kind of candidate the Democrats would like having run in their presidential primary to suck people in.


Although we all know Oprah would never be allowed to run heading up the Democratic ticket... maybe as the vice-presidential candidate on a ticket headed up by Joe Biden.

Oprah Winfrey should try looking at the way women are treated in the factories around Chicago... I would suggest she starts with the racist Tootsie Roll Company which tries to get out of its agreements in the collective bargained contract with its union employees at every opportunity to see how women of color are exploited and mistreated by the billionaire owners of this company which has been exploiting workers for over 100 years in this country and around the world in countries like Mexico.

In the meantime, speaking for the Wall Street Democrats under the guise of being for working people, the crooked and corrupt Hillary Clinton continues to spew lie after lie about everything from foreign relations, U.S. interventions, meddling and wars to the plight of working people and how a market-driven, for-profit health care system is in our best interest and how she and the Democrats are opposed to racism and discrimination against women but refuse to support the enforcement of Affirmative Action and won't even insist on something as basic and fundamental as monitoring every single employer to make sure they are paying into Social Security and when the funds are deducted from wages this money gets paid into Social Security rather than going back into the employers' pockets.

Vague words about "truth" and "justice" sound nice in the era of Trump's lie machine working twenty-four/seven but it will take much more than mere words to solve our problems.

I'll be waiting for Oprah Winfrey to do a series of programs on the long sordid racist anti-worker history of the Tootsie Roll Company before I believe her words are any more than mere nice-sounding words intended to keep people trapped under the Democrat's "big tent for all."

Quite frankly, Hollywood doesn't seem to be very interested in the plight of working people especially when it comes to being very specific about our problems.

Why I will never again give my one precious vote to a Democrat

The Democrats are obviously going to be running a full field of candidates for the presidential primaries for the 2020 Election.

These will be candidates with a variety of views the Democrats consider are necessary to keep people trapped in their "One Big Tent for all."

I wouldn't waste my time walking across the street to vote for any of these candidates because none of these politicians have ever lifted a finger to solve the problems of working people.

Let me give you an example of how little these Democrats will do:

I worked for years for an employer who deducted Social Security payments from my paycheck but kept the money for himself instead of paying into Social Security.

When it came time for me to get Social Security I find this out that the funds had never been paid in.

Social Security then told me I had to "prove" I worked for this employer for so many years.

Well, I had the best proof one could have... The files the FBI maintained on me for every forty-five days proved I worked for this employer as the files show the FBI documented:

Where I lived.

Who i associated with.

Where I worked.

So, I prove to Social Security I worked for this employer for all those years and then Social Security throws at me:

"Prove to us the employer deducted Social Security payments."

So, I asked for a hearing and provided the names of the other people I worked with as witnesses this employer was deducting Social Security payments from our paychecks.

Social Security then said, "We are not calling all these people to be witnesses."

So, I go to my Democratic Congressman, Collin Peterson. He said, "I'm not going to help you; you are a Communist." So I told him, "Who do you think fought for Social Security you rotten Dumb Donkey?"

So, this Democrat did nothing for me... which would not even have been for me but to assure the integrity of the Social Security system.

So, another Democratic Congressman, Rick Nolan, advertises that he will be at the public library to help people with their Social Security problems. I get up and explain to him in front of dozens of people what is going on with my Social Security. He stands there and say, "This is just terrible. It is just terrible. This can't be happening. I am going to get right on this. You just put all the information in my hands and we are going to take care of you." That was in front of dozens of people. But, when it came to taking care of this problem Congressman Nolan made sure he never talked to me again. When I attempted to approach him at another public meeting he literally ran away from me.

Now, I do not care who anyone votes for but I do not want to hear from anyone telling me that I have some kind of responsibility to vote for any of these worthless Dumb Donkeys because I have no responsibility to surrender my one precious vote to any of these worthless bastards... not when they don't even have the moral, ethical or political courage to defend the integrity of the Social Security system.

And, oh, yes; Congressman Nolan assures me that I am not alone. That thousands of people in this country come up against this problem of unethical employers--- as if this is supposed to make me feel better.

So, I worked.

I paid into Social Security.

I get next to nothing out of it.

And I can't even get a fair hearing.

And what do these Dumb Donkeys do? Absolutely nothing.

So, no Democrat running for president or Congress will ever again get my one precious vote no matter how hard they or their hacks or anyone else begs for it.

Let me just ask one final question:

Where is the responsibility on the part of this rotten government to make sure every single employer is paying into Social Security as required by law?

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Is Nuclear Winter the antidote to global warming?

Could it be Trump, who lets us know how smart he is at every opportunity and constantly tells us how much he loves all of us, is thinking about offsetting global warming with a Nuclear Winter?


This must be what the advocates of geo engineering have in mind.

What Happened

I find it interesting so many people would like us not to discuss Hillary Rodham Clinton's new book, "What Happened," even though it is being so widely hyped, pushed and sold.

In fact, Hillary Clinton's book is a message to our Wall Street ruling class that she and the Democrats are on the same page as Trump and the Republicans when it comes to just about everything from foreign relations to health care "reform," tax "reform" and student loans.

The language used by Clinton and Trump differs because they each pervert the English language to appeal to their very different voting bases, but, more often than not, even their voting bases are one and the same with the working class, the poor and the racially oppressed having been written off as both the Democrats and Republicans compete for the same votes from the racist suburbs and gated communities inhabited by the most loyal managers of the millionaires and extreme billionaires whose wealth now approaches them becoming trillionaires; but, their Wall Street base who they are accountable to is one and the same.

Democrats fear working people becoming engaged in a discussion of Hillary Clinton's book because such a discussion will open up the most important and fundamental question for the working class: Do we need a new working class based people's party that is both anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist stressing the need for very expensive immediate reforms that can be paid for by ending these dirty imperialist wars and severely curtailing arms spending--- beating swords into plowshares--- while challenging Wall Street for political and economic power as we bring forward the need for public ownership of the mines, mills, factories, banks, communication and power generating industries?

We need to increase Social Security payments to a living income while reducing the work-week and hours to something in keeping with what is appropriate for decent human conditions.

We need a Minimum Wage that is legislatively tied to the actual and real cost-of-living.

We need a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education not this "affordable health care insurance" or this phony single-payer and Medicare for All because Medicare is nothing but a fiasco being used for a bunch of greedy doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and nursing homes to feed at the public trough with deductibles and co-pays only the well-heeled few can afford to pay.

While there are a few decent Democrats running for public office who share this progressive outlook to some extent or another, most Democrats are loyal to the Clinton Wall Street crowd which is the same crowd Trump is accountable too.

We can break free from the two-party trap in spite of all the obstacles in our way; workers in other countries have freed themselves from the parties of their employers and so should we.

I will be voting for a couple Democrats but not because I have any loyalty to a party which appreciates my vote--- because the Democrats don't... in fact, anyone reading my blog or FaceBook page can see that these Wall Street loyal Democrats don't even want my vote because they know they get my two-cents along with my vote.

Peace and climate change are the overriding issues but along with these two issues the immediate problems of working people must be resolved.

The capitalist system is on the skids to oblivion taking us down a very dangerous dark road with many deadly dead-man curves leading straight to hell... only a cooperative socialist commonwealth is going to be able to save us now--- but, even if you don't agree with this, the rest provides an action program we can unite around.

Hillary Clinton is still important to the Wall Street ruling class because she is establishing their line ahead that will be used by the next Democrat Wall Street selects for us... so we had better understand very clearly what she is saying, today. Unless you are content to let your employers do your thinking for you.

Tax reform: https://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/tax-rich-end-wars-and-cut-military.html

Health care reform: https://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/one-of-my-blog-posts-hits-all-time-high.html