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, April 6, 2020

New rules.

Our local supermarket, H.E.B., part of a huge chain, announced today that it will only be allowing one member from a family to enter its stores at the same time.

Working people are entitled to a seat at the decision-making table.

I’m going to keep re-posting this from time to time because people keep asking if they can share it... you can share anything you want from my page:


Republicans and Democrats in Congress backed and bribed by Wall Street are making the decisions affecting working people and working class families without any input from us; this is in no way acceptable. We must let them know by way of asserting ourselves that this is unacceptable. As working people we are entitled to a seat at the decision-making table- this is our lives we are talking about.


It is not right or just or acceptable in any way, shape or form that only our employers have a seat at the decision-making table.


How do we get a seat at the decision-making table when we are arrogantly excluded from the process by politicians who have the unmitigated gall to help our Wall Street employers, bankers and vulture capitalists before helping those of us who create the wealth? We need to raise so much hell until we get a seat at the decision-making table.


Think about this:


Usually a government professing to be democratic will invite all concerned and affected parties to fully articulate their problems through a series of hearings held in locations convenient for many people to attend.


Conclusion:


That this has not been done because the wealthy in power would be embarrassed to hear that they have been selfishly hoarding for themselves the wealth we have created and they don’t want this very fundamental and basic injustice of the capitalist system to be exposed lest they be forced to turn this wealth over for the common good of all in order to prevent mass misery and suffering of those of us who have created this wealth.


We must never forget that it is we, the working class with no small amount of help from Mother Nature who create ALL wealth and we must constantly remind these politicians of this because they would rather all of this not be publicly discussed...


Out of sight is out of mind!


As workers we must never forget this and we must assert our views and our demands for justice...


Right now at this moment of crisis with the capitalist economic system in a state of collapse exacerbated by this coronavirus pandemic we must insist our livelihoods and our rights be protected...


First and foremost this requires every adult be provided by the government with two-thousand dollars a month and every child in the family be provided for with five-hundred dollars a month at least as long as this crisis continues... and, by rights, justice requires this be made permanent.


Let us state in no uncertain terms that we as working people bear no responsibility for the economic crisis or the coronavirus crisis since we have had no seat at the decision-making table when it comes to economic policy or health care policy and this has to change and it needs to change now in order to avoid mass suffering and despair... democracy and the most basic and fundamental rights require no less... so let’s have an end to this hypocrisy of the wealthy few making all the decisions in this country.


Any thinking person, except for the most ethically and politically corrupt, can see and understand there is something drastically wrong with denying the majority of the people- those of us who create ALL the wealth- a seat at the decision-making table.
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A questionable democracy.

We have the right to vote.


The problem with this is that we allow our employers to select the candidates we then vote for.

A conversation with Republican Congressman Roger Willams.

I tried to have input into the Coronavirus Stimulus legislation prior to its passing. I asked Congressman Roger Williams (Republican, Texas, 25th District) if those of us on Social Security would get the $1,200.00 check like everyone else. He said, “Don’t worry you will get your check just like everyone else.”


Another lie from this Trump supporter.


In fact, millions of people, including those of us on Social Security, will have to jump through multiple hoops in hopes of getting these “stimulus checks.”


Nothing but lie after lie.


How come Republican Congressman Roger Williams just couldn’t tell me the truth in the first place when I called to talk to him?


What we need is a very simple and straight forward piece of legislation providing every adult in this country $2,000.00 a month along with providing $100.00 a month for every child in the family.
We can win this through an organized mass struggle.


Talk about this with family, friends, fellow workers; anyone who will listen.


Write letters.


Circulate petitions.


Demonstrate.


Don’t vote for anyone unless they commit to vote for this.


Members of Congress had a choice:


Provide us with a living income or try to overthrow the democratically elected governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua... members of Congress like Roger Williams voted to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to send thousands of troops and the U.S. fleet to do this dirty work instead of providing us with a living income to get us through these troubled times as the capitalist economy collapses.


I bet Congressman Roger Williams won’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a stimulus check to bail out his automobile dealership.

Talk about your arrogant muddle-headed upper middle class intellectual snobs...

David J. Albert who is an adjunct at Austin Community College said that since I don't have a PhD I'm not as smart as him when it comes to history and what we need in this country.

"Professor" Albert is a local Democratic Party hack pushing "vote Blue no matter who" which means he is a big Joe Biden fan... and, just like Biden "Professor" Albert is a red-baiting anti-Communist.

I suggested we should have a public debate over this idea people should be expected to, "vote Blue no matter who."

The esteemed "Professor" Albert refused to debate me.

Democracy.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress backed and bribed by Wall Street are making the decisions affecting working people and working class families without any input from us; this is in no way acceptable. We must let them know by way of asserting ourselves that this is unacceptable. As working people we are entitled to a seat at the decision-making table- this is our lives we are talking about.


It is not right or just or acceptable in any way, shape or form that only our employers have a seat at the decision-making table.


How do we get a seat at the decision-making table when we are arrogantly excluded from the process by politicians who have the unmitigated gall to help our Wall Street employers, bankers and vulture capitalists before helping those of us who create the wealth? We need to raise so much hell until we get a seat at the decision-making table.


Think about this:


Usually a government professing to be democratic will invite all concerned and affected parties to fully articulate their problems through a series of hearings held in locations convenient for many people to attend.


Conclusion:


That this has not been done because the wealthy in power would be embarrassed to hear that they have been selfishly hoarding for themselves the wealth we have created and they don’t want this very fundamental and basic injustice of the capitalist system to be exposed lest they be forced to turn this wealth over for the common good of all in order to prevent mass misery and suffering of those of us who have created this wealth.


We must never forget that it is we, the working class with no small amount of help from Mother Nature who create ALL wealth and we must constantly remind these politicians of this because they would rather all of this not be publicly discussed...


Out of sight is out of mind!


As workers we must never forget this and we must assert our views and our demands for justice...


Right now at this moment of crisis with the capitalist economic system in a state of collapse exacerbated by this coronavirus pandemic we must insist our livelihoods and our rights be protected...


First and foremost this requires every adult be provided by the government with two-thousand dollars a month and every child in the family be provided for with five-hundred dollars a month at least as long as this crisis continues... and, by rights, justice requires this be made permanent.


Let us state in no uncertain terms that we as working people bear no responsibility for the economic crisis or the coronavirus crisis since we have had no seat at the decision-making table when it comes to economic policy or health care policy and this has to change and it needs to change now in order to avoid mass suffering and despair... democracy and the most basic and fundamental rights require no less... so let’s have an end to this hypocrisy of the wealthy few making all the decisions in this country.


Any thinking person, except for the most ethically and politically corrupt, can see and understand there is something drastically wrong with denying the majority of the people- those of us who create ALL the wealth- a seat at the decision-making table.

Democrats and the "New Deal" and another Big Lie.

Democrats would like us to believe support for Joe Biden is like support for the New Deal.


In fact, it was Democrats just like Biden who fought against Roosevelt’s New Deal.


The other problem with this thinking is that it perpetuates a great big lie.


The lie is that Roosevelt and the Democrats gave us the New Deal.


Nothing could be further from the truth.


Everything Roosevelt did was too little too late.


Roosevelt told leftists he sympathized with their demands for reforms but then, instead of voluntarily pushing these reforms through Congress, he challenged them to “make me do it,” thinking these impoverished working class leftists with very limited resources, would never be able to organize the kind of powerful mass movements to make him do it.


The Democrats never gave working people anything unless we fought for very specific solutions.
Anyone who thinks they are going to get anything from a Joe Biden Administration doesn’t know anything about historical facts or working class movements.


This “Vote blue no matter who” crap assumes Democrats will give us something in return for our votes; it never has worked that way, it won’t now and it never will.


We can’t even rely on these Democrats to bring forward a very simple piece of legislation to save working class families from the worst capitalist system collapse by bringing forward a single-issue piece of legislation that would provide every adult with $2,000.00 a month and provide every child in the family with $100.00 a month.


Big business and small business can bailout themselves; they live in and love the private banking and credit system so let them borrow the money they need from their banker friends... tax-payer dollars should be used to bail out the working class.


And make no mistake about this:


We are not asking for a handout like big business and small business are... they have contributed nothing to the wealth of the Nation...


All we are demanding is what we are owed for the wealth we have created and not been paid for.
Image may contain: 1 person, possible text that says '"LET US TAKE THE PROFIT, THE PRIVATE ECONOMIC PROFIT, OUT OF MEDICINE, AND PURIFY OUR PROFESSION OF RAPACIOUS INDIVIDUALISM. LET US MAKE IT IT DISGRACEFUL TO ENRICH OURSELVES AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MISERIES OF OUR FELLOW MEN." DR. NORMAN BETHUNE'

Just keep your mouth shut and "vote Blue no matter who."

You know, I constantly get invited to all the Democratic Party FaceBook groups and their front-groups pushing all kinds of campaign gimmicks instead of real solutions to our problems.


All of a sudden when I ask why the Democrats haven’s brought forward a piece of single-issue legislation without anything else tied to it except for $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 for every child I am being blocked from these FaceBook pages I was invited to.


They wanted to show big numbers of supporters but they don’t want people to voice their opinions and concerns... just keep your mouth shut and vote blue no matter who.

We have no voice in Washington.

Something to think about:


The working class of this country has no voice to lobby for us in Washington.


Hint:


Maybe this is a big part of the reason we always end up holding the shitty end of the stick even though we create all the wealth?

Insurance premiums take a jump.

Just received notice that my Medicare Supplemental insurance went up over 20%.


So much for Trump’s great for-profit driven free-market health care scam.

The capitalist economy is collapsing.

Can any thinking person still argue that the capitalist economy is not in the process of collapsing?


But, the source of the problem is a crisis of overproduction- in other words, workers are so underpaid they can not afford to buy back what they have produced.


The coronavirus did not cause this economic collapse but was a factor in making the crash come faster and harder.


It’s going to be a long, long time before the capitalist economy “rebounds.” Many people will now suffer as Wall Street tries to place the burden of this economic crisis on the backs of the working class... but the richest of the rich will make huge profits from the misery they have created by being so greedy.


Like with the coronavirus, many of the filthy rich will suffer the consequences of the monopoly capitalist economic crisis, too; but they will not suffer like working class families even though they will cry the loudest.

NPR and China

Listened to NPR take up Steve Bannon’s line that included a racist, anti-Communist diatribe of outright lies and slander against China.


Shameful.


Disgusting.


NPR = Neo-liberal Public Relations.

Where did U.S. foreign policy go wrong towards China?

I have been listening to different Democratic Party groups and politicians...


They have joined Trump-Pompeo-Bannon-Bolton in a viciously racist anti-Communist red-baiting attack on China and the Chinese people.


This China bashing has grown to a level more severe and pernicious than that of the McCarthy era when liberal-minded, and progressive-minded, public officials employed to carry out U.S. foreign policy regarding China were hounded out of the State Department and other government posts because they told the truth that Mao’s Communist Party had the overwhelming support of the Chinese people after first helping the United States drive the Japanese imperialists from Chinese soil and then driving out the reactionary Chinese nationalists.


No country, in spite of many twists and turns and setbacks- and such massive opposition and pressure from the imperialist countries- has ever lifted so many people out of poverty and developed an advanced economy so quickly.


This scandal of driving these far-sighted public officials from government and public life involved those known as “the China Hands.”


And U.S. foreign policy towards China has been mired in a reactionary agenda ever since for over 70 years which has been detrimental to both our own people and the Chinese people and the rest of the world which is now detrimental in fighting the coronavirus as we can all see.


It is up to working people to assert our voices for developing good relations with China and the Chinese people.


We will need this friendship with China to extract ourselves from this collapsing capitalist economy.


It’s probably too late to do anything together in way of fighting this coronavirus and we are going to pay dearly for this anti-China policy.

The system is rigged against working people.

Are you willing to suffer, and see your family and friends suffer, so these billionaire Wall Street oligarchs can try to save their rotten capitalist system?


As you can see, Republicans and Democrats have no problem agreeing to bailout the Wall Street banks and huge monopolies even though they can get their own loans almost at no interest now...
These same politicians who are bailing out Wall Street, again, turn around and tell us to use our own credit cards to survive- with loan-shark interest rates of over 20% as they pretend they are going to make miserly payouts to us which only end up going into the coffers of big-business, too.

What is with all this anti-Communist China bashing... and its history?

At this time it is very important to understand the historical roots of the very chauvinistic, jingoistic, racist, right wing reactionary ideology towards China being embraced by this thoroughly corrupt Trump Administration and its Nazi-like ideologues including Steve Bannon, John Bolton and Stephen Miller.


This book, "The China Hands," is a must read for anyone who wants to really understand where this insane hatred of China, the Chinese people and their Communist Party is coming from, from 1948 to today.


And this very pernicious campaign of hate towards China, its people and their heroic socialist revolution must be understood if we are going to get our country off the path to war.


I can’t stress enough the importance of this book towards understanding and grasping what is going on and why it is going on.


The Chinese Communist Party, in spite of many problems and zigs and zags that come along with creating a new socially and economically just society after decades of brutal imperialist occupation and exploitation, has never deviated from its peaceful pursuits and attempts a good relations with everyone including us here in the United States... obviously the same can not be said for U.S. imperialism and the other centers of imperialism...


Read this book and learn about our own country’s sordid history towards China before joining our Wall Street enemies in condemning a heroic people and their accomplishments...

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Censorship

There is widespread censorship taking place in this country right now.


Trump is setting the tone for this; you may have noticed the way he picks certain reporters to viciously attack and demean? This is the signal he is giving for wider censorship.

Bernie Sanders and Danish social democracy...

Bernie Sanders is big on the Danish model of social democracy, or so he says, so I wonder why he isn’t proposing the Danish scheme for paying unemployed workers here in the United States?

More about "lines"

Remember when they told us socialism resulted in long lines waiting to purchase bread?


How long of a line do you have to stand in now to get a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk?


Lines, lines, lines... do we judge a society by the length of lines at the grocery store?


How long did you have to wait in line to pay for your bread, eggs and milk... in this great America?

Thinking about "American exceptionalism."

Once again we see “American exceptionalism” being brought forward as Trump and the politicians demand we must put up with scarcity and capitalists looking to make a quick buck from our problems.


We are being told we must put up with scarcity, empty shelves and long lines because these are “unusual and unprecedented times.”


Well, stop and think and consider this:


U.S. imperialism intentionally imposes “unprecedented and unusual times” on people in other countries through all kinds of embargoes, tariffs and sanctions because they dare to challenge Wall Street’s imposed social order.


Think about all of this while you are waiting in line to purchase the Wall Street monopolies’ over-priced bread, eggs and milk now being... yikes! RATIONED?

Remembrances...

I remember when the over-paid capitalist pundits and capitalist Sooth-Sayers used to mock the socialist Soviet Union because they had a shortage of toilet paper...


Now look who is rationing toilet paper...


And we don’t even get free health care, free public education through university, a guaranteed job, a living Social Security income, affordable housing and dirt-cheap public transportation along with free child-care and long fully paid vacations at the finest resorts.



Wall Street gets the help... workers get shit.

Little help for the working class which creates the wealth that will be used to bail out the Wall Street monopolies... and working class families will spend their checks very quickly trying to survive and everything we spend for the necessities of life will go straight into the coffers of big business.


No wonder the Wall Street investment crowd loves this deal... its a two-trillion dollar profit orgy for them.


What working class families require is $2,000.00 per month for each adult plus $100.00 per month per child... nothing less approaches social and economic justice.


Instead of funding militarism and wars we should be looking for a huge peace dividend.


In fact, this two-trillion dollars will not stimulate the economy it will just result in inflation as big business raises its prices to rake in profits as quickly as possible.


https://i.redd.it/0a1urwwnx7o41.jpg

Living wages stimulate the economy not Wall Street bailouts.

The only thing the two-trillion dollar stimulus bill is going to stimulate is a round of inflation as the Wall Street monopolists raise prices to rake in profits as quick as they can.


A real stimulus bill would have funded a National Public Health Care System which would have created over twelve-million new jobs and the money would have circulated through society while providing the American people with free health care which would have been another stimulus to the economy since people would be spending so much more of their hard earned money to meet their living expenses instead of paying for health insurance... again, this money would then prime the economic pump some more.


Where should this two-trillion dollars come from? It should come from ending this insane militarism and these dirty wars... another form of government spending that does about as much good as pissing away the wealth of the Nation while stimulating inflation, too.


We need to face the reality that these Wall Street bribed politicians in Washington aren’t capable of ever making any decision that benefits people and society... their one and only concern is Wall Street’s profits... and Trump admits this every time he opens his mouth... the only thing he cares about is that Wall Street ticker-tape. Trump cares more about the health of Boeing and Carnival Cruises than he does the health of the American people... if this were not true the checks would have already been mailed out to us... and they wouldn’t be a miserly one time deal since what American working class families need, and are entitled to, is $2,000.00 a month for each adult and $100.00 a month for each child in the family.


It’s because of the screwed up priorities of this Wall Street government that there is a shortage of ventilators but no shortage of bullets and bombs. And it’s because of these screwed up priorities that we are going to end up with a stimulus package which only stimulates inflation instead of the economy.

There is no one who would die to save this rotten capitalist system.

What kind of morons are these people?


There is no one who would die to save this rotten capitalist system.

Act now!

Close the gaps... $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family... argue about the rest later.

Degenerate politicians

So, now we have a gaggle of the filthy rich and their over-paid hacks coming forward, none of whom have ever worked a day in their lives, telling older workers they should be volunteering to work even though they may get sick and die in order to save this great free-enterprise capitalist system.
Our response should be:


Let these morons do the work themselves.

Sema Hernandez speaks her mind beautifully.

I think Sema Hernandez, who sought the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas,  stated this beautifully... more people need to speak up similarly:





“As I said before, I’m going to tell you uncomfortable truths instead of comforting lies. How many times has politicians used nice words as they stabbed us in the back?


Decorum and civility are used to keep us in line with the patriarchal systems of oppression.


I’m more offended by the political corruption happening right before our yes, the silence and lack of accountability than by vulgar language.


My priorities are 100% in line with the oppressed. I also express the anguishing pain and anger many politicians don’t because they are not living like the rest of us. They are not impacted by poverty like the rest of us.”

A system rigged against the working class?

Kind of sounds like workers don’t have any say in anything. No worker’s party; no mass movement means no seat at the decision-making table... everything is decided by the Wall Street monopolists who are the exploiting employers. Never mind rigged elections the whole rotten system is rigged against the working class.

Who will stand up to Wall Street's war machine if not us?

I don’t think there is one single member of Congress who will stand up to the war machine... we will need to build a powerful mass anti-imperialist movement and select candidates from within this movement if we want them to stand up to this very powerful Military-Industrial Complex Wall Street has created to boost its profits and control the world as if the people’s everywhere exist for the purpose of being exploited and their countries’ pillaged and plundered.


Even the legendary progressive Henry Wallace, who came out of the Democratic Party as a voice for peace, ended up supporting the Korean War and disappointing the activists in the Progressive Party like Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois who tried to explain to him the imperialist nature of the war.



Let us remember, the only member of Congress who supported the anti-fascists in Spain was John Bernard and he was never a Democrat... he was a Communist elected on the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party ticket of which he was a leading working class organizer, an iron ore miner right out of the pits on Minnesota’s Iron Range.


We must remember that it was the Democrats themselves, Harry Truman in the first place, who waged a vicious campaign to remove Claude “Red” Pepper a solid New Dealer and prominent voice for peace from Congress by recruiting a racist anti-New Dealer warmonger to successfully run against him and keep him out of Congress for so many years.


Than we had these same Democrats join with Joe McCarthy and gang up on the “China hands,” those in the State Department and the U.S. foreign service who tried to explain that Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party along with the People’s Liberation Army were the real majority in China and the side we should be on. But this group of truthful employees of the U.S. foreign service were driven out of public service for telling the truth and to this very day we are living with a thoroughly reactionary foreign policy towards China supported by even the most “liberal” and “progressive” Democrats.


Lenin thoroughly explained and documented the evils of imperialism and explained why the working class must be front and center in the anti-imperialist struggles... and we know how the Wall Street imperialists hated him for doing this.


William Z. Foster, the greatest working class leader we ever had in this country was once asked this question:


“What does the working class movement in the United States need more than anything?”


Foster answered:


“A good strong dose of anti-imperialist education.”


And this remains true today.


Workers can not expect any Democrats to be in the forefront of the struggles for peace because if they were leaders in the struggle for peace the Democratic Party would remove them from their ranks just as they have done with myself and so many others.


Trump and his fellow imperialist warmongers working on Wall Street’s behalf trying to bring down Maduro in Venezuela and reverse the gains of the people are creating a very dangerous situation... and the working class must stand up to these imperialist bullies and warmongers in solidarity with the Venezuelan people... the millionaire labor leaders shamefully stood with the Democrats and Joe McCarthy in driving the “China hands” from public service and we are still paying a heavy price for this toadying up to the Wall Street imperialists today. We must not stand for the millionaire labor leaders today standing with the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer when it comes to these attacks on Venezuela or China or Cuba or Nicaragua. Bernie Sanders is weak at best when it comes to promoting a peaceful anti-imperialist foreign policy.

How is it the author of one of the most popular history books in America missed the "Doctrine of Discovery?"

One of the book clubs we participate in, “Important Matters” is reading the book by historian Jill LePore, “These Truths.”


I brought up that right off the bat she missed the “Doctrine of Discovery.”


I sent this to all the members of the book club because when I brought it up it really didn’t get discussed which begs the question how much of our history do we know nothing, or very little about, because the historians, either because they don’t know the history they right about or perhaps intentionally omit the real history to keep us uninformed.


Here is what I wrote:


As we continue to discuss the book “These Truths,” I would like to remind everyone that Jill LePore missed a very important aspect of our history, “The Doctrine of Discovery.”


I brought this up and I don’t think it was discussed in the kind of detail required.


But, my reason for bringing this up again is because we need to read these kinds of books with an open mind that we may not be getting at the truth of our history especially when at issue are the problems relating to the struggles of racially and nationally oppressed peoples and relating to the struggles of working people.


We need to ask how it is that a book like “These Truths” misses such an important issue like “The Doctrine of Discovery” right off the bat so we do a little research to find out what else of importance is being missed that is part of our history relating to still existing problems. Without knowledge of this history it is not possible to resolve the problems created by this history.


Here is a link about “The Doctrine of Discovery:"


https://www.ucc.org/justice_getting-to-the-root-of-it_the-doctrine-of-discovery?fbclid=IwAR0CmaRs3rMtOPGNN1JIO-lqJNwUqaAXso3ABVfNCIOzliT5b4HZ6Kl8hFk

I hope you will check it out and then question with an open mind what else Jill LePore has overlooked in a similar manner in her book that she claims was largely written in order to make us aware of what has been missing in our history as it has been taught.


A question we all might want to ponder:


How do we correct the injustices of today when these injustices have been going on for centuries and we don’t even know and understand the history behind the problems?

Where is the voice of the common people in Washington?

Wall Street isn’t satisfied; these greedy parasites want more:


The stock market is in chaos... from day to day its down, up, down even more...


According to Barron's:


“The Dow Dove 915 Points Because the Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Might Not Be Enough
With Friday’s drop, the Dow’s return to a bull market has ended. The recent three-day rally was huge by any standard.”


Are working people satisfied with their miserly share of the stimulus package? If we even get anything because we have to figure out first how to jump through the maze of hoops.


If you aren't satisfied; where is our voice in Washington?

Are you fed up yet?

Are you fed up yet?


Do you want to send me to Washington to lobby on behalf of the working class?


All the politicians in Washington claim they are doing what they do for the workers in this country yet those of us workers who produce the wealth of this Nation now being squandered on militarism and wars along with bailing out the Wall Street banks and corporations have no voice nor seat at the table in the decision-making process... this is not democracy.


Make no mistake about this: labor with no small amount of help from Mother Nature creates all wealth.


Unemployment is headed for a forty-year high with many economists predicting unemployment levels could far surpass those levels of the Great Depression of the 1930’s as Trump tells states they should not release the data on unemployment.


On top of this, we learn this coronavirus is being used by Trump’s Attorney General as an excuse and pretense to “suspend the Constitution and Bill of Rights;” another move towards fascism rather than citizen participation in the democratic process.


Emergency measures are needed now.


Our entire health care system should be nationalized and place under public control so we can bring an end to this pandemic with the intent to create a National Public Health Care System as the final outcome... a system based on the model of public education which has served us so well: Publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered.


A basic income guarantee: $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family.


Fund these emergency measures by ending these dirty imperialist wars and taxing the super-rich millionaires and billionaires.


The Wall Street banks and companies we bail out we must get equity in, and a seat at the decision-making table; or, in the alternative, these banks and monopolies must be nationalized and brought under public control.


We need a “Twenty-First Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity for All”... the president and Congress must be made legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment with real living wage jobs... a National Public Health Care System providing the American people with free health care through community and neighborhood health care centers would cost far less than what it is now costing to maintain over 850 U.S. military based on foreign soil protecting Wall Street’s investments... and, this would create over twelve-million jobs paying real living wages.


It’s time we once again begin talking about real living wages based on the actual cost-of-living so everyone in this country has a decent standard-of-living.


Had we been investing in education, science and health care (all of which create jobs) instead of militarism and these dirty imperialist wars we would not be in the mess we are in today with this corona virus pandemic and an economy on the verge of total collapse.


Working people must speak up; we must assert ourselves in defense of our health, our livelihoods and our rights.


We must insist we have a voice in the decision-making process because these Wall Street bribed politicians are never going to do what is right by us or the Nation.


We must not continue to surrender our votes getting nothing in return and we must learn to use mass struggle, in addition to our votes, to get what we want and what we are entitled to because our labor creates the wealth of the Nation... the millionaires and billionaires who have been hoarding this wealth we have created and use that wealth to control the political life of this country create diddly-squat.

Some people never learn from history; some politicians simply don't care about people.

When it comes to life-saving ventilators here is where we are at:


First there is a shortage.


Then this shortage of ventilators is used by greedy capitalists seeking to profit from this shortage by creating a bidding war to force the prices up.


And, then, on top of all of this, there is a lottery of sorts to determine who will have access to these ventilators.


Are you getting the picture yet?


This profit-driven free market capitalist health care isn’t capable of meeting the massive health care crisis and problem we are confronted with.


This is why the entire health care system/complex must be nationalized immediately with the intent to create a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education.


Dr. Salk explained all of this to President Eisenhower during the polio pandemic and we still haven’t learned after all this time... as a result, people needlessly die on the altar of capitalist profits and Wall Street’s bottom line.


Quite frankly, the stock exchanges should all be shut down until this coronavirus pandemic is under control because no one in Washington can focus on the need to get people well as long as the stock market’s wild fluctuations remain the center of attention for Trump and members of Congress, and the millionaires and billionaires who bribe them, all of whom place their own stock and bond holdings paramount to the public health. Trump has a very sick fixation on the economy, and a very narrow definition at that of what the economy consists of- he only sees what is good for the wealthy few as a measuring stick for the health of the over-all economy.


And here we come full circle...


Ventilators intentionally kept a precious commodity to force prices up in a bidding war while old people get the “luck of the draw” in a death lottery.


What kind of government stockpiles weapons of death and destruction but not medical supplies?

Have these politicians ever tried to make ends meet?

It will cost a lot more than a miserly one-time check of $1,200.00 to keep people home to prevent this deadly coronavirus from spreading...


Provide every adult with a check for two-thousand dollars a month and a check of $100.00 a month for every child in the family.


What makes any politician in Washington think that we can get through this pandemic on $1,200.00?


This is sheer stupidity and shows how out of touch these people in Washington are with the working class families in this country.

"Vote Blue no matter who;" what's in this for you?

Will the majority of the American people buy the line: Vote Blue No Matter Who?


I doubt it; and why should they?


There is nothing at all embodied in this stupid ditty that anything will change for the better for most people.

Action needed now: $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family

Anyone who still has any hope that the Democratic Party will ever be responsive to the needs of working people can do a very simple little experiment.


Try this experiment.


Take the demand for $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family to your local Democratic Party organization asking them to put their endorsement in writing. Let us know how they respond. It’s a very easy experiment to carry out. Anyone suggesting we “vote blue no matter who” can do this.


Just so you know, I wouldn’t suggest you do anything I wouldn’t do. So far I have had no response. See if you can get a response; if you do get a response, share the response with us.


There is probably no reform more basic with so little cost helping so many people that could ever be enacted.

“$2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family"

The Democrats are getting very upset with me because I have suggested they introduce a piece of legislation with this being the single issue without any other clutter or confusion while using their resources to simultaneously launching a mass struggle to win what we really need...


Close the gaps...


“$2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family"...


.Get this legislation passed right now; argue about everything else later.


Democrats and their myriad of front groups including the AFL-CIO have unlimited resources to mobilize the American people in way even the Republicans will have to support this urgent initiative lest millions of people suffer in misery and despair.

Coronavirus being used as a pretext to attack our public institutions.

This coronavirus crisis is being used to attack all of our public institutions.


The United States Postal Service has long been one of the targets of those parasitical Wall Street vultures supporting the privatization of everything from our public schools to our Social Security... public funds should be used to fund the U.S. Postal Service to maintain this service people rely on and if we had a public banking system and the Internet was brought under public ownership and democratic control and placed under the postal service this would solve any problems of its funding once and for all:

As the coronavirus spreads...

While Republicans and Democrats were spending all their time belittling and attacking China as they fought this deadly coronavirus their real crime is that they failed to prepare for what everyone knew was coming here.


In fact, the coronavirus may have been here for quite some time and not having been properly diagnosed; but, because these self-serving opportunist politicians were more interested in attacking China than protecting the American people many people are now needlessly dying.


Not to mention these Wall Street bribed politicians have such screwed up priorities to begin with.

End the sanctions now!

We are in the midst of a crashing economy and a coronavirus pandemic and these politicians in Washington have nothing better to do behind our backs than this:


Washington’s pressure against Nicaragua escalated further on March 9 when the US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution in a voice vote without any opposition that demanded more sanctions and aggressive actions against the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega.


Shameful.


Disgusting.

Trump is working against the best interests of the American people as he tries to force the price of gas up... this is treason.

The oil and gas industry has been robbing us at the pump for years.

We should not be protecting these thieves; we should be nationalizing this entire industry.

Screwed up priorities.

So, there is a massive mobilization of the military for regime change in Venezuela and Nicaragua taking place right now that is costing us hundreds of billions of dollars agreed to by both Republicans and Democrats but this same government can’t muster the resources required to adequately tackle the coronavirus as it tries to cheat people on Social Security out of the $1,200.00 checks we were promised and these same Wall Street bribed politicians claim they can’t afford to pay every adult in this country $2,000.00 a month and provide a monthly payment of $100.00 a month to every child in the family while we are in the midst of total economic collapse with mass record-breaking unemployment


Talk about a government with screwed up priorities doing everything wrong and then these politicians that don’t care about us or anyone else except for themselves expect us to vote for them to boot.


We have a corrupt government using this coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to push the country into more wars, destroy social programs and whittle away our rights protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights... as people die.

Democracy in peril...

Leafleting, petitioning, picketing and protests are now crimes... will these rights be restored when the coronavirus passes?

Don't forget about our friends unjustly jailed... Rodney Reed and Curtis Buckanaga both victims of a racist and corrupt criminal justice system.

Don’t let this coronavirus pandemic distract us from the struggle to free Rodney Reed who is on death row in Texas the victim of a racist frame-up.


Also, my friend and fellow activist, Curtis Buckanaga sits in a Crow Wing County Minnesota jail after a racist Cass County Judge Halverson sentenced him to 270 days in jail for driving under the influence... he should have been provided help with his drinking problem, instead... but now he sits in a jail cell and the Crow Wing incarceration system is holding him, and others, who shouldn’t be in jail in the first place, even though there is coronavirus in their system.


Tens of thousands of people are sitting behind bars who do not belong in jails or prisons in the first place... their poverty puts them where no person with money committing the same “crimes” would be. And now this coronavirus could be handing them a death sentence as they are housed in these institutions.


I talked with Crow Wing County Sheriff Scott Goddard about all of this yesterday. I told him Curtis Buckanaga has a drinking problem but he is a very nice person who would never hurt anyone. He responded by saying, most of the people in my jail are nice people who just did a little something the courts think they should be in jail for, I’m not saying I agree, I’m just doing my job. The judges send them to me to lock them up.”


I told Sheriff Goddard the judges are sending you the wrong people to lock up... they should be sending you Trump and all these crooked politicians who think their wealth puts them above the law... Sheriff Goddard responded, “I agree with you there and I agree with you that your friend Curtis Buckanaga received an extreme sentence which no rich person or politician would have received for the same crime; 270 days is very extreme, someone must not like him... but I didn’t put him here. He is in my jail because Judge Halverson sent him here. You need to be talking to Judge Halverson.”


Well, this racist Judge who makes no bones about his hatred towards Native Americans that is seen in the sentences he hands out refuses to return my calls.


By the way, Curtis Buckanaga received a $135.00 fine and 270 days in jail... this should cause any thinking person to question the jail time Curtis Buckanaga received from a racist criminal justice system that would spend all this money to incarcerate him and not a penny to help him. And now Curtis Buckanaga is locked up in a system subjected to the possibility of getting the coronavirus...


this should not be.

Judge the Democrats by what they do, not what they say.

When I say things about the Democrats and the Democratic Party this is based on what they do.


I am of the opinion working people need our own party and the Democratic Party is not that party.


We need to create our own working class based people’s party.


With that said, I speak out against what the Democrats do when I feel they are wrong; I support what they do when they do what is right--- unfortunately they seldom do what is right by working people.


And I support and vote for some Democrats quite often because I realize there are many people who still work in, around and through the Democratic Party in an effort to seek justice.


But I certainly won’t support this nonsense of “vote Blue no matter who.” This is no approach to electoral politics for working people; in my opinion working people are entitled to get something of substance in return for our votes.


Once working people accept this crap of “vote Blue no matter who” we declare that we have lost before the struggle for justice even begins. Don’t surrender your vote until you get something of substance in return. If the Democrats really want our votes to defeat Trump they will offer us something more than platitudes and campaign gimmicks.

The Foreign Affairs Council lectures China about how to implement democracy and a working economy along with the futility of socialism... as caplitalism is on the skids to oblivion struggling to survive..

So now we get the Wall Street Foreign Affairs Council, the voice of U.S. imperialism, offering Xi Jinping “advice” about what he needs to do... they don’t appreciate the fact that he is getting China back on a solid socialist track. These anti-Communist “China experts” who failed to take the good advice they were receiving from “the China hands” who advised them that the Chinese people were solidly behind building socialism and we should support them in their peaceful endeavors to better their lives through socialism are now upset that Xi Jinping has the entire population of China studying the “Communist Manifesto” which is being distributed for free to all who want to look it over; and this has all the big capitalists over here running scared because they see China with its Belt and Road Initiative as an an example of socialist success and the way out of capitalist poverty. So, Wall Street’s Foreign Affairs Council has dedicated an entire issue of its Foreign Affairs Magazine trying time lecture Xi Jinping, China’s Communist Party and the Chinese people about how great capitalism would be for them... the irony in this is, and the utter arrogant stupidity, is these capitalist exploiting parasites who have created so much misery and havoc for the Chinese people over the centuries, now choose to lecture them about the virtues of capitalism as this entire economic system is in a state of collapse... it must be the Editors of Foreign Affairs Magazine had put this issue together many months ago while Trump and all these capitalist Sooth-Sayers were lying about how great this economy was doing.

A new record...

A record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, 9.9 million for a two week period.

Long lines and and empty shelves amid rationing of basic necessities... and its not in Venezuela

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Who is in charge of carrying out Trump's orders?

Jared Kushner is the one in charge of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic...
How does this make you feel?

A question...

Where is big mouth money bags Michael Bloomberg now in this time of crisis and need?

While Trump and his cabal of crooks and liars insisted the economy was sound and doing great...

Many of us Marxists stated our opinions in writing explaining why the recession was here while Trump and all of his Cabinet were proclaiming this to be a thriving economy (all lies) but we never expected coronavirus to exacerbate the recession to this extent... nor did we know Trump was going to commit the country to economic suicide with this huge bailout of the largest Wall Street monopolies to the tune of trillions of dollars without the American people receiving equity- a stake or ownership- in these companies.


The very banks which we bailed out in 2008 will now end up owning everything... even though we are mortgaging our short and long term future to bail them out again.


No doubt there will be millions of home foreclosures, again with cars being repossessed and unemployment will continue to mount.


Most working people and small businesses will have to jump through a maze of hoops trying to figure out how to claim what this legislation entitled them to- it’s like try to figure out what you have to do to get your money if you want it and they aren’t even giving us the the rules they expect us to follow.


Only the biggest Wall Street monopolies will benefit from this “stimulus” package; obviously the Democrats did nothing to protect us from this scheme which is nothing but another Trump scam to transfer wealth from the working class to the Wall Street vultures and parasites... the same scheme that got us into this mess in the first place but this time on some kind of even more powerful steroids:


The utterly evil Trump in charge putting Jared Kushner in place to carry out the operations.


Trump thinks up the game plan and Jared Kushner carries out his orders... if this isn't a recipe for disaster I don't know what would be.


We are on a sinking ship... doomed unless we can muster the courage and strength to take control and take the levers of government out of the hands of these Wall Street crooks...


Think about this:


What kind of people would put a completely incompetent jerk and film-flam con artist like Jared Kushner to watch over their child’s piggy bank never mind the operations of the United States government in time of great crisis?

Working class action; working class power.

If ever there was a time to talk about working class power, that time is now.


We need militant united working class action.

Look where the lines are now...

I went to Randall’s grocery store- part of the huge Albertson conglomerate which took over Safeway, too- trying to find a few things I couldn’t find any place else... there was only one cashier working checking people out and there was a line of over forty people waiting to be checked out! Many people had shopping carts packed full... the lady in front of me had almost four-hundred dollars when her bill was tallied. The woman in back of me was pushing one full cart and pulling another full cart.



Insane!


I asked the cashier why they only had one line open; he said, “No one is showing up for work; want a job?”

There is a reason why we have a shortage of medical supplies...

Why is there a shortage of medical supplies?


Because people cheered Trump on when he placed unfair tariffs of 25% on Chinese manufactured medical supplies.


Now we are reaping what has been sown.


How come no reporters are asking Trump how these unfair discriminatory tariffs have worked out?

China: friend or foe?

Trump says Dr. Fauci will agree with him that what he did was right in banning people from China from coming into the country.


I wonder if Dr. Fauci thinks Trump’s discriminatory 25% tariffs on medical supplies manufactured in China was a good idea?


We rely on everything from ventilators to hospital beds to masks that are manufactured in China.


China is a friend not a foe.

Not enough ventillators, but:

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Just be patient; “Team Trump” is going to get us through this mess...


Just be patient; “Team Trump” is going to get us through this mess...

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How old is the earth? What can we learn from science?

How can this be if the earth is only 6,000 years old according to Vice-president Mike Pence who Trump has placed in charge of coronavirus and his flock of followers?

Bernie Sanders has backed away from health care reform in order to back Joe Biden...

All he had were campaign gimmicks intended to keep people trapped in the Democratic Party and now Bernie Sanders is setting himself up to back Joe Biden while selling out his base... just like the last time around...

Will his backers learn a lesson?

Talk about stupid...

It would almost be impossible to find three other people in this world if when they put their heads together they still know less than nothing.


And we actually tolerate these people running the country?

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Working people have no voice in the decision-making process; this is not democracy.

I’m going to keep re-posting this from time to time because people keep asking if they can share it... you can share anything you want from my page:


Republicans and Democrats in Congress backed and bribed by Wall Street are making the decisions affecting working people and working class families without any input from us; this is in no way acceptable. We must let them know by way of asserting ourselves that this is unacceptable. As working people we are entitled to a seat at the decision-making table- this is our lives we are talking about.


It is not right or just or acceptable in any way, shape or form that only our employers have a seat at the decision-making table.


How do we get a seat at the decision-making table when we are arrogantly excluded from the process by politicians who have the unmitigated gall to help our Wall Street employers, bankers and vulture capitalists before helping those of us who create the wealth? We need to raise so much hell until we get a seat at the decision-making table.


Think about this:


Usually a government professing to be democratic will invite all concerned and affected parties to fully articulate their problems through a series of hearings held in locations convenient for many people to attend.


Conclusion:


That this has not been done because the wealthy in power would be embarrassed to hear that they have been selfishly hoarding for themselves the wealth we have created and they don’t want this very fundamental and basic injustice of the capitalist system to be exposed lest they be forced to turn this wealth over for the common good of all in order to prevent mass misery and suffering of those of us who have created this wealth.


We must never forget that it is we, the working class with no small amount of help from Mother Nature who create ALL wealth and we must constantly remind these politicians of this because they would rather all of this not be publicly discussed...


Out of sight is out of mind!


As workers we must never forget this and we must assert our views and our demands for justice...


Right now at this moment of crisis with the capitalist economic system in a state of collapse exacerbated by this coronavirus pandemic we must insist our livelihoods and our rights be protected...


First and foremost this requires every adult be provided by the government with two-thousand dollars a month and every child in the family be provided for with five-hundred dollars a month at least as long as this crisis continues... and, by rights, justice requires this be made permanent.


Let us state in no uncertain terms that we as working people bear no responsibility for the economic crisis or the coronavirus crisis since we have had no seat at the decision-making table when it comes to economic policy or health care policy and this has to change and it needs to change now in order to avoid mass suffering and despair... democracy and the most basic and fundamental rights require no less... so let’s have an end to this hypocrisy of the wealthy few making all the decisions in this country.


Any thinking person, except for the most ethically and politically corrupt, can see and understand there is something drastically wrong with denying the majority of the people- those of us who create ALL the wealth- a seat at the decision-making table.

The working class needs lobbyists in Washington

Are you fed up yet?


Do you want to send me to Washington to lobby on behalf of the working class?


Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.


All the politicians in Washington claim they are doing what they do for the workers in this country yet those of us workers who produce the wealth of this Nation now being squandered on militarism and wars along with bailing out the Wall Street banks and corporations have no voice nor seat at the table in the decision-making process... this is not democracy.


Make no mistake about this: labor with no small amount of help from Mother Nature creates all wealth.


Unemployment is headed for a forty-year high with many economists predicting unemployment levels could far surpass those levels of the Great Depression of the 1930’s as Trump tells states they should not release the data on unemployment.


On top of this, we learn this coronavirus is being used by Trump’s Attorney General as an excuse and pretense to “suspend the Constitution and Bill of Rights;” another move towards fascism rather than citizen participation in the democratic process.


Emergency measures are needed now.


Our entire health care system should be nationalized and place under public control so we can bring an end to this pandemic with the intent to create a National Public Health Care System as the final outcome... a system based on the model of public education which has served us so well: Publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered.


A basic income guarantee: $2,000.00 a month for every adult and $100.00 a month for every child in the family.


Fund these emergency measures by ending these dirty imperialist wars and taxing the super-rich millionaires and billionaires.


The Wall Street banks and companies we bail out we must get equity in, and a seat at the decision-making table; or, in the alternative, these banks and monopolies must be nationalized and brought under public control.


We need a “Twenty-First Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity for All”... the president and Congress must be made legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment with real living wage jobs... a National Public Health Care System providing the American people with free health care through community and neighborhood health care centers would cost far less than what it is now costing to maintain over 850 U.S. military based on foreign soil protecting Wall Street’s investments... and, this would create over twelve-million jobs paying real living wages.


It’s time we once again begin talking about real living wages based on the actual cost-of-living so everyone in this country has a decent standard-of-living.


Had we been investing in education, science and health care (all of which create jobs) instead of militarism and these dirty imperialist wars we would not be in the mess we are in today with this corona virus pandemic and an economy on the verge of total collapse.


Working people must speak up; we must assert ourselves in defense of our health, our livelihoods and our rights.


We must insist we have a voice in the decision-making process because these Wall Street bribed politicians are never going to do what is right by us or the Nation.


We must not continue to surrender our votes getting nothing in return and we must learn to use mass struggle, in addition to our votes, to get what we want and what we are entitled to because our labor creates the wealth of the Nation... the millionaires and billionaires who have been hoarding this wealth we have created and use that wealth to control the political life of this country create diddly-squat.


Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood... our health and our rights, too.