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...

Monday, September 9, 2019

Obama's promises never delivered gave us Trump

Obama promised he would push for a single-payer universal health care system...

And he killed all discussion once elected...

Delivering his "Affordable Care Act" known as "Obamacare" but which should be called the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Bailout and Profit Maximization Act" which pushed health care costs up causing insurance rates to soar.


Obama promised peace; then delivered us into a new period of drone warfare and an expanded war in the Middle East.


Obama promised reforms benefiting working people; none of which he delivered.


Obama promised to help Main-street but then bailed out Wall Street.


Had Obama just tried to deliver on his promises we would not have Trump in office today.


On top of Obama failing to deliver on his promises, the Democratic Party gave us a crooked and corrupt warmonger to vote for.


Now the Democrats are trying to shove Joe Biden, a Wall Street bribed politician, down our throats.


Don't believe the polls... Joe Biden can't beat Trump.


We are being set up for another Trump term.





The most popular blog posts I have made are about this health care mess.

I'm providing two of my blog posts from the past, but still very relevant today, on health care reform which have now had over two-million hits as my contribution to this health care debate; and I hope people will continue to use these blog posts for discussion, dialog and debate as we move towards the 2020 Elections.

As working people we must stop being so timid in expressing our views concerning the problems we are experiencing and the solutions to these problems.

Feel free to copy and paste or share this link...



http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/democrats-led-by-bernie-sanders-are.html

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders, are organizing marches and protests for "Medicare for All"... but:

The only time Democrats advocate "Medicare for All" is when they are campaigning or when Republicans are in power.


The Democrats did not even improve Medicare when Obama and the Democrats had the opportunity.


Instead the Democrats increased co-pays; made people pay more for Medicare Part B; eliminated many coverages and gave doctors free reign to set fees for Medicare covered health care services instead of controlling their prices and the cost of drugs.


Most working class people can't even afford Medicare Part B.


Never mentioned is the expensive, complex web and maze of the supplemental health insurance industry we are being subjected to to "cover" (with all of its own deductibles) what Medicare still won't cover.


Thousands of working class families are forced to file medical bankruptcies because they can't afford the Medicare co-pays--- working class families are losing their homes, cars and everything they worked a lifetime to buy to pay health care debts.


Working class homeowners are being "offered" the scam of reverse home mortgages touted on television by Hollywood hucksters as a way to pay medical bills.


Hundreds of doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and nursing homes are making big profits off of Medicare; this is wrong, too, but Democrats have done nothing to stop this.


In many cases, patients routinely get double-billed for Medicare services.


Al Capone would have loved the Medicare racket.


As even the Wall Street Journal has noted, doctors and the reactionary American Medical Association have been put in charge of establishing what doctors get paid for their services under Medicare and this has pushed all health care costs up.


Medicare could have been a step towards a National Public Health Care System but instead Obama appointed the reactionary Alan Simpson to launch an attack on Medicare and Medicaid.


And to top it off, all of these profiteers are colluding to undermine Medicare by routinely intentionally not "coding" bills properly so Medicare--- and insurance companies--- will deny claims. Insurance companies will not pay claims denied by Medicare.


Democrats will now try to convince people they are for Medicare for All in an attempt to prevent a discussion about the real solution to this health care mess: a National Public Health Care System which would be based on the model of public education... but, here again, Obama encouraged a massive attack on public education by supporting private charter schools instead of defending the integrity of public education.


Republicans and Democrats despise any program that is public; they love private for profit everything... just like the greedy doctors, pharmaceutical companies, insurance industry, hospitals and nursing homes... and these contributors to their campaigns prove it.


Here is what we need...


A National Public Health Care System---


We need a health care system that is all-inclusive and comprehensive covering everything from pre-natal to through burial:


General health.


Dental.



Eyes.


Hearing--- ever priced hearing aids?


Mental.


Family planning--- including abortions. Everything Planned Parenthood does should be included and expanded.


Publicly financed. Publicly administered. Publicly delivered... just like public education.


How to pay?


With a huge Peace Dividend... end militarism and these dirty imperialist wars. We don't need to update and upgrade the nuclear weapons arsenal. We definitely don't need a trillion-dollar F-35 fighter jet program.


We don't need over 800 U.S. foreign military bases dotting the globe... we do need hundreds of community and neighborhood health care centers dispensing free health care across our country creating twelve to fifteen million good-paying jobs.


We must insist on progressive funding for a National Public Health Care System (tax the rich, end militarism and wars, a tax on Wall Street transactions) instead of the regressive and reactionary method used for funding public education--- local property taxes, which serves to under-mine and under-fund public education.


And we must insist there be no for-profit feeding at the public trough with a National Public Health Care System like there is with public education.



Those supporting Medicare for All and Obamacare are very selfish people even though they hypocritically claim to be so concerned about people who will lose coverage but they don't give two hoots about those of us who can't afford the "benefits" of what they are defending and offering. If they really cared they would be calling for reforms to the present Medicare mess rather than calling for shifting this mess to even more people with the co-pays and expensive Medicare Part B.


I realize these co-pays and the high price of Medicare Part B mean nothing to these selfish well-heeled upper middle class Democratic party hacks but they should be held accountable for what they want to dump on the rest of us.


When all is said and done, these Democratic Party hacks don't even have any intention of delivering what they claim to be supporting--- they are just playing us for fools just like they have done in every single election since 1948.


When they finally delivered Medicare it was only for a small part of the population and they never made any attempt to improve it but they sure spent a lot of time making it less inclusive--- these aren't people we can entrust with health care reform--- after all, it was these same Democratic Party hacks who worked behind our backs to derail even the mild single-payer reform.


The price we pay for these dirty imperialist wars is not having the world-class National Public Health Care System we are entitled to. We have created the wealth being squandered on militarism and wars as the Wall Street crowd profits from both health care and militarism and wars and these Wall Street parasites hoard the rest of the wealth we have created.


We don't need, nor want, a market-based for-profit health care system--- the only way to resolve this health care mess is through a socialized National Public Health Care System... about as controversial as public education and would be based on the model of public education which has been proven to work so well when properly funded and administered.


And let us be clear about this:


Defending Obamacare is not the way to get us closer to real health care reform.


The Affordable Care Act should be repealed and replaced with a National Public Health Care System.


Obamacare is nothing but the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act."


Obama promised single-payer Medicare for All when first campaigning for president which probably won him the election--- and then he turned around a betrayed those who voted for him.


There are many ways to pay for a National Public Health Care System:


Through a Peace Dividend.


A payroll tax on employees and employers.


A hefty tax on corporate profits.


A tax on all Wall Street transactions.


It will probably take a combination of all of these.


And it wouldn't hurt to have a government concerned about a healthy food chain and a healthy and safe living environment, along with a healthy and safe working environment with a focus on an education that emphasizes how to stay healthy and fit... and a health care system which stresses preventative health care.


How can we be healthy when our air, water and land is being polluted and contaminated?


I could mention more about the working environment and the toll working long hours at poverty wages takes on a person, too, but this would be well beyond the thinking abilities of the well-heeled upper middle-class muddle-headed intellectuals who are selfish Democratic Party hacks pushing for Medicare for All in order to keep health care in this country market-based and for-profit.


The American people want no part of a health care system that includes the health insurance industry and its over-paid corporate executives.


The American people want no part of a market-driven for-profit health care system.


It must also be noted the very same Democratic Party hacks, over-paid media pundits, think-tanks and front groups and their "partners" now pushing this Medicare for All scam, which was mobilized under the leadership of the Campaign for America's Future, were the same ones who banded together to derail and disrupt the single-payer universal health care movement in order to make way for Barack Obama's "Affordable Care Act" which has only made health care more expensive for most people while still leaving tens of millions without any access to health care.


We should also remember that it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, who fervently advocated for socialized health care.


We need a National Public Health Care System--- everyone in; nobody left out.


Eleanor Roosevelt advocated health care as a human right in helping to draft the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights; so did Dr. Martin Luther King.


Repeal Obamacare and replace it with a National Public Health Care System.


I'm wondering why all of these other health care schemes have been so shrouded in lies and deceit?


Put doctors and all health care workers on the public payroll and make education free through university.



http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/one-of-my-blog-posts-hits-all-time-high.html

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.

What's going on in Hong Kong?

This is an interesting discussion.

George Galloway for Kalima Horra on Al Mayadeen TV, discussing the ongoing protests in Hong Kong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4wqJ15e-o&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0JHReCUuWCbLUuCO9tdZA05zJ0s2bKceQALrhHr0QEEVdKyRbuJt3tfPM