The Problem with Research, Facts, Figures, and Statistics

A politician called me today and asked why I don't rely more on research, facts, figures, and statistics to back up what I write about in this daily blog; insinuating that facts and figures don't support what I write about.

My other blogs offer many facts, figures, and statistics arrived at through meticulous research that more often than not includes first hand personal observations and research... which includes my daily associations with working people.

It is not that I have a disdain for statistics; but anyone can see that this country is all screwed up.

To provide another example... I received an e-mail asking me to provide the figures for how much the war in Iraq was costing and how much a single-payer, universal health care system would cost in response to writing that we should stop pissing away money on this dirty war in Iraq and use that money to create a world class single-payer, universal health care system.

I don't think I have to use specific figures to justify that there would be enough money for a single-payer, universal health care system if the war was stopped and the money was used for health care.

Whether there would be enough money to completely finance such a health care system from what is being spent on this war is not relevant. It is simply enough that I say spending this money for health care would be good while spending this money to kill people is wrong.

Perhaps there would be enough just from this source, perhaps not. What difference does it make? By any standards the United States is the wealthiest country in the world... certainly we can provide at least the level of health care a small country like Cuba provides for its people... or even like Canada.

This debate over facts, figures, and statistics reminds me of the discussion I had with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. In response to my suggestion that social programs should be expanded and improved, rather than cut, Governor Pawlenty told me he had figures that prove what I was saying was wrong and he started quoting me "figures" supporting his cuts to social programs... in response, I told him, "Mr. Pawlenty, all your facts and figures don't mean a goddamn thing to me; you can take your facts and figures and shove them where the sun doesn't shine; what I want to know is how you are going to feed the little kid who is going to bed hungry; what I want to know is how you are going to provide the worker without a job with a job, not how many people your piece of paper says are going to be working." I told the Governor that what I wanted to know is how his cuts to social service budgets were going to affect real living, breathing, human beings; not be read facts and figures from a notebook. Politicians are very comfortable reciting facts and figures; put a live human being with a particular problem in front of them and they squirm.

Right now we are witnessing two levels of government--- federal and state--- arguing over budgets based on research, facts, figures, and statistics... all this paperwork can be burned for all I care because none of it explains why many people are dying in a senseless war in Iraq based upon lies and deceit as other people are going without health care and others are going homeless and others hungry.

The debate in this country has to shift to a new way of thinking that considers the very real life situations of living, breathing, human beings. On any given day I can introduce any politician in this country to someone having some kind of problem because priorities in this country are all screwed up... these politicians don't want to come out and meet people with problems... in fact, like State Representative Tony Cornish they get up out of their nice cushy chairs and run the other way when they see me coming with someone with a problem. These politicians want to remain completely isolated and aloof from anyone with a problem... choosing instead to recite facts, figures, and statistics.

Whether it is Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty or President George Bush or Teddy Kennedy... these people just don't get it... working people are suffering because the priorities in this country are all screwed up and these politicians have no concept of the problems working people are experiencing because the closest they ever get to our problems is seeing a few figures on pieces of paper... if they had to shiver in the cold and go hungry they would solve these problems real quick.

If you don't have access to health care you are simply one out of so many percentage points. Neither George Bush, Tim Pawlenty, nor Teddy Kennedy is going to feel the pain and agony of having their homestead foreclosed on because they can't afford a hospital bill; and neither are they going to cry over the casket containing one of some three thousand human beings killed in Iraq [we know they aren't going to cry over Iraqi deaths]; nor are they ever going to wonder where they are going to come up with the money to heat their homes or get the next dollar to buy food for this evening's dinner; they just don't get it.

I do not need to research anything to know the daily suffering working people have to endure. I do not have to read that so many people are unemployed; I do not have to have the figures for how many people are without health care; I do not have to read a United Nations' periodical to know that there are people in this world who are going hungry. I just have to know someone is going hungry to understand that the solution is seeing to it that person gets fed.

As long as the policies of this country are ass-backwards and skewed to allowing the rich to get richer as people suffer from war, hunger, disease, and poverty the only thing that I need to know is that it is time to do things differently by putting the needs of people first. The fact of the matter is that a few people are getting richer as the direct result of so many other people suffering. Just look at Dick Cheney or George Bush at any given time... you can tell just by looking at them they are playing us all for fools and suckers.

No one can tell me that the place to start changing priorities is not by ending this stupid and criminal war and using those funds for the social programs needed by people to live decent lives... I don't need to do any research or produce any facts, figures, or statistics to prove my point... every filled body bag does that.

What kind of fools stand up in an empty hall pretending they are talking to others as they recite facts and figures anyways?

What I want to know, is if these politicians cannot even come up with a solution to this health care mess or bring a halt to a senseless, criminal war that was begun based upon lies and deceit... how can these politicians be trusted to solve any problems? This is the question that needs to be asked; not where are my facts and figures to prove we can afford single-payer, universal health care.

I don't see any of these politicians holding up a copy of the Wall Street Journal and saying, "OK, CEO's, bring out your books and lets see your financial records to see if you need to close this plant today and throw two-thousand workers out on the street?" But the same politician who lacks the political courage to ask the corporate CEOs for their facts and figures has the unmitigated gall to tell me to "prove" that this country can afford single-payer, universal health care and to "prove" that we can finance it by stopping the war in Iraq--- only a very sick society could produce such a troubled health care system along with a politician who would ask me for facts and figures to back this up.

The Democratic Party and Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party just don't get it

Yesterday hundreds of Minnesotans were shipped off to Iraq... for what? To occupy a country, and steal the oil.

Funding for this dirty war should end immediately and all troops should be brought home now in line with George McGovern's "Blueprint" to end the war in Iraq. All the money being poured into death and destruction in Iraq should be used instead to create a single-payer, universal health care system here at home.

The Democrats are pushing right ahead with their feeble and miserly so-called "minimum wage increase," which is not an increase at all but will lead to a drastic reduction in living standards for millions of already impoverished working people as they "soar" over the thresh-holds for many social programs from which they will now be excluded.

Here in Minnesota the MNDFL has turned its back on the will of Minnesotans and the majority of the grassroots activists who have repeatedly insisted that the one and only solution at this point to the health care mess is single-payer, universal health care. Even the delegates to the state convention of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party endorsed single-payer, universal health care at its most recent state convention; the vote in support of single-payer, universal health care was overwhelming... the media has ignored this as it focuses on the pitiful proposals of conservative DFL legislators intent on undermining the democratic will of Minnesotans.

The New York Times lectures Hugo Chavez about democracy and private enterprise while ignoring the plight of working people here in the United States who don't have access to health care and are being ripped off by the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies.

What is it the Democratic Party and the MNDFL do not understand about what people want from them? I was tempted to ask what it is that they don't understand what people "expect" from them... but after talking to people the last few days it is quite obvious that people "expected" nothing more from the Democrats... they only voted against the Republicans, "hoping" for more from the Democrats.

The response of the Democrats in the U.S. House and the Senate along with DFL members of the Minnesota State Legislature have pretty much dashed any "hopes" the people had that Democrats would respond to the very progressive agenda people had in mind as they voted on November 7.

In the Minnesota legislature the DFL has refused to even acknowledge the massive problems people are experiencing and the threats to our living environment... together in "bi-partisan unity" with the Republicans the DFL members of the Minnesota legislature by-and-large are ignoring the facts:

People are losing the family homestead because they cannot afford the high cost of health care;

People are being foreclosed on left-and-right by the predatory lenders that are stalking this state in quest of their next prey;

Poverty is on the rise, and it is children who suffer the most;

We continue to experience a hemorrhaging of real jobs, paying real wages, with real benefits as the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant is allowed to close without any opposition in the state legislature, and the Ford hydro dam is sold off at a bargain basement price after being heavily subsidized by tax-payers for so many years;

Minntac continues to contaminate the streams, rivers, lakes and land of northern Minnesota and state legislators look away in indifference;

Peat mining in the Big Bog continues to proceed under a permit issued by the MNDNR to a Canadian multi-national corporation completely subsidized by our tax dollars... as Berger brings from Quebec its vile, disgusting, and dirty politics into Minnesota that includes everything from bribery to get the permit to using the most pernicious and perverted attacks on opponents of this boondoggle;

Children and abused mothers have no place to turn for help as state legislators continue to ignore the need for shelters across this state; and, in counties like Washington County corruption is so rampant among judges it is a joke.

Over twenty thousand casino workers in Minnesota and hundreds of thousands more nationally continue to go to jobs in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws proving conclusively that Democrats at the state and federal level have not one iota of concern for working people...

But the issues that expose the Democrats as being without any back-bone and very weak in the knees are the war in Iraq and their lack of response to this health care mess in which their primary concern, like the Republicans, is to insure that the profits keep flowing to the insurance industry which has been ripping working people off for years as it has gorged itself at this trough while pretending to provide people with health care coverage when nothing could be further from the truth.

The time has come to begin searching for alternatives to this two party trap in order to break free from the web that has been spun by the corporate greed of the capitalist system in which we are caught--- as these capitalist parasites continue to feed off of working people. We must keep the pressure on the Democratic Party and the MNDFL as we seek an alternative that will bring together liberals, progressives, socialists, and communists... working people are going to have to be more aggressive in seeking out real solutions to the quagmire we are stuck in... not just in Iraq, but here at home, also.

The capitalist system has turned into a dangerous imperialism that is rotten to its very core; and, has become cannibalistic as it sucks in the profits, chews up the people, and spits them out like seeds from an apple.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood as we sit around our kitchen tables discussing how we can free ourselves from this sticky capitalist web, the real "inconvenient truth" that has been treated as if the subject matter is taboo.

Venezuela... on the road to socialism

Why must we always be forced to read between the lines and research the truthfulness of the statements that our great "free media" indiscriminately passes off as the truth... when in fact, more often than not, it is mere fiction and inuendo?

It is bad enough that the media bought the Bush line of lies and deceit concerning the reasons for going to war in Iraq; then turned around and pushed these lies at us day and night... now we are getting a replay, this time with Venezuela.

One two-bit, fascist dictator--- Augusto Pinochet, was brought to power by the CIA in Chile after similar "concerns" were raised regarding the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, a coalition government representing workers, peasants, socialists, and communists; today, in Venezuela, a very similar government has been democratically elected in spite of the best efforts of corporate America and the CIA to meddle and undermine the democratic process.

We must not forget the CIA drenched the democratic will of the Chilean people in one of the bloodiest coups in history... the methods employed to topple the very popular Allende government by Pinochet under the direction of the United States Central Intelligence Agency were truly barbaric, savage, and canabilistic... If ever anyone deserved to be nailed to a cross and stoned to death it was Augusto Pinochet, whom the CIA protected to his last breath.

All signs are here again... this time in Venezuela... Chavez may live to regret that he has tolerated the U.S. corporate and CIA bank-rolled opposition; but that is his problem and concern, not ours.

Our responsibility as Americans is to see to it that neither our government nor U.S. based multi-national corporations intervene in the democratic process now underway in Venezuela.

We know what Hugo Chavez said about George Bush being a "devil" was a word much too kind, uttered in diplomacy. Bush is a murderer and war criminal... Bush believes he has some kind of God-given power to reign as master over the entire planet as he struts about making decisions of who will live and who will die.

All Hugo Chavez did was put a "d" in front of the word George Bush has repeatedly used... if not against Fidel Castro, then against the entire peoples of North Korea, and agaist Chavez. Bush has used the word "evil" to describe the revolutionaries now fighting for power in the Philippines, and those fighting to establish democracy in Somalia; anything that challenges U.S. corporate domination is "evil" to the Bush/Cheney gang which is the epitome of corruption and perversion... to put a "d" in front of the word "evil" was very appropriate... people needed to hear this.

Several points:

1)Talk about democracy; Chavez is simply carrying out his campaign promises, on the basis of which he was overwhelmingly elected

2) The biggest electric utility is owned by AES, a Virginia corporation, the phone company is owned by Verizon

3) The proposal would merely return them to their previous publicly owned status; they were privatized in a fit of marketization some years ago.

It is interesting to note that the Conservative government that came to power in Manitoba, Canada privatized the publicly owned phone company which offered Manitobans the cheapest and best phone service in North America... now they have one of the most expensive and most unreliable phone services in the world.

I can understand why Venezuelans would be upset with phone company privatization... take a look at your own phone bill and you will see why. Then take a look at your electric bill. We could use public ownership of the utilities right here in the United States. Maybe if we watch closely how they accomplish public ownership of the utilities in Venezuela we will learn something.

Below are two examples from the primary sources of where Americans get their news and information... these are hardly news reports based upon facts... rather, they are the same kind of fiction intended to set the stage for U.S. imperialist intervention in Venezuela as the bloodbath which took place in Chile... I would note the shameful role the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the AFL-CIO has played at the direction of the CIA in trying to destabilize the democratically elected government in Venezuela led by Hugo Chavez which includes a true reflection of a very broad cross-section of the population...

If only our own government was as democratically elected as in Venezuela after such vigorous and public debate with all views allowed to be expressed--- maybe we would have single-payer, universal health care and a real living minimum wage instead of a war in Iraq.

This first article is from the Associated press; the following article is from Reuters:

Chavez: Will nationalize telecoms, power

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer ; January 8, 2007

President Hugo Chavez announced plans Monday to nationalize Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in a bold move with echoes of Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba.

Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs until 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.

"We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his new Cabinet. "We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it."

Before Chavez was re-elected by a wide margin last month, he promised to take a more radical turn toward socialism. His critics have voiced concern that he would use his sweeping victory to consolidate more power in his own hands.

Cuba, one of Chavez's closest allies in the region, nationalized major industries shortly after Castro came to power in 1959. Bolivia's Evo Morales, another Chavez ally, moved to nationalize key sectors after taking office last year.

"The nation should recover its ownership of strategic sectors," Chavez said. "All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalized," he added, referring to "all of those sectors in an area so important and strategic for all of us as is electricity."

The nationalization appeared likely to affect Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp., and C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV, the country's largest publicly traded company.

Chavez said lucrative oil projects in the Orinoco River basin involving foreign oil companies should be under national ownership. He did not spell out whether that meant a complete nationalization, but said any vestiges of private control over the energy sector should be undone.

"I'm referring to how international companies have control and power over all those processes of improving the heavy crudes of the Orinoco belt — no — that should become the property of the nation," Chavez said.

Chavez did not appear to rule out all private investment in the oil sector. Since last year, his government has sought to form state-controlled "mixed companies" with British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA to upgrade heavy crude in the Orinoco. Such joint ventures have already been formed in other parts of the country.

The United States remains the top buyer of Venezuelan oil, which provides Chavez with billions of dollars for social programs aimed at helping Venezuela's poor as well as aid for countries around the region.

Chavez threatened last August to nationalize CANTV, a Caracas-based former state firm that was privatized in 1991, unless it fully complied with a court ruling and adjusted its pension payments to current minimum-wage levels, which have been repeatedly increased by his government.

CANTV is the dominant provider of fixed-line telephone service in Venezuela, and also has large shares of the mobile phone and Internet markets.

Electricidad de Caracas is the largest private electricity firm in Venezuela. U.S.-based AES, a global power company that today has businesses in 26 countries, bought a majority stake of Electricidad de Caracas in a hostile takeover in 2000.

After Chavez's announcement, American Depositary Receipts of CANTV — the only Venezuelan company traded on the New York Stock Exchange — immediately plunged 14.2 percent to $16.84 before the NYSE halted trading. An NYSE spokesman said it was not known when trading might resume.

Investors with sizable holdings in CANTV's ADRs include some well-known names on Wall Street, including Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., UBS Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. But the biggest shareholder, according to Thomson Financial, appears to be Brandes Investment Partners LP, an investment advisory company in California.

Also holding a noteworthy stake is Julius Baer Investment Management LLC, a Swiss investment manager.

CANTV said it was aware of Chavez's remarks but added in a statement: "No government representatives have communicated with the company, and the company has no other information."

Chavez cited the communist ideals of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin at other points in his speech.

"I'm very much of (Leon) Trotsky's line — the permanent revolution," he said.

In the fiery address, the president also used a vulgar word roughly meaning "idiot" to refer to Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza. He lashed out at Insulza for questioning his government's decision not to renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station.
****

Reuters

Chavez seeks to radicalize Venezuela in new term
By Christian Oliver January 10, 2007

CARACAS (Reuters) - Re-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will be sworn in on Wednesday for a new term ending in 2013 while promising a radical socialist revolution and nationalizations that have dragged down financial markets.

Emboldened by his landslide victory last month, the anti-U.S. leader has brazenly courted controversy, refusing to renew the license of an opposition television channel and vowing to take over major companies, including some owned by foreign investors.
"We are moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela," the leader of the OPEC nation said on Monday, outlining policies such as stripping the central bank of its autonomy and asking Congress to grant him special legislative powers.

Financial markets took fright at the deepening of Chavez's leftist drive. The stock market lost almost a fifth of its value on Tuesday, debt prices tumbled to a six-week low and the currency changed hands at nearly twice the official rate.

The opposition has accused Chavez, in power since 1999, of seeking to transform the fourth-biggest oil exporter to the United States into a Cuban-style centralized economy.

Chavez, who won 63 percent of the vote in December, has amplified comparisons with Cuban leader Fidel Castro by forming a single party to steer his revolution, but insists he will always tolerate opposition.

He already controls parliament and the judiciary and has said only his supporters can work in the army and state oil company. By focusing on the media and utilities, he is homing in on two sectors that could complete his state control.

Chavez insists he needs more power to save Venezuela from exploitation and even attack by capitalist countries, particularly the United States, whose President George W. Bush he has labeled "the devil."

Chavez's nationalization plans remain hazy and the utilities and foreign investors want to know whether he plans to take a 51-percent governing stake or seize all of their enterprises.

Threatened firms in the country's giant oil sector include Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Statoil and Total.

Chavez has already confiscated large cattle ranches, run by the likes of British meat producer Vestey, to distribute to farmers.

But nationalizing the country's biggest telecommunications company CANTV and power firms represents a bold new policy.

"He is speaking like the master of Venezuela ... he is trying to drive Venezuela into the darkness," opposition leader Manuel Rosales said.

But Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro defended the plans.

"This is a rescue mission for the sovereignty of Venezuela."
****

How Can We Change Things?

On my way back from the Cities I stopped to visit with a few friends in Cohasset, a small community just north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

As we sat around the kitchen table sipping coffee and eating home-made chocolate cake we gazed out the kitchen onto Pokegama Lake, one of the most polluted lakes in the world. Looking beyond the kitchen through the living room window we could see the smoke from Minnesota Power's Boswell Plant belching its mercury high into the atmosphere.

There were four of us. One young woman works at the White Oaks Casino just up the road, one fellow is retired from Blandin Paper Company, the woman whose kitchen table we were gathered around used to work at a small diner in Grand Rapids.

We talked about our children and our grand children; we talked about the war in Iraq; we talked about jobs and the minimum wage.

We talked about how the Democrats are refusing to move on issues like ending the war in Iraq, and about how everyone wants single-payer, universal health care.

We talked about the closing of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and what it would mean to the state in terms of jobs and politics.

We talked about the weather, heating bills, and we talked about global warming.

We talked about problems workers in the casinos are experiencing and how patrons get ripped-off by the one-armed bandits.

We talked about how politicians who were just elected in an overwhelming vote against Bush and the Republicans were already moving in the opposite direction we wanted to see them moving in.

We talked about how the word "progressive" was used and abused and distorted by politicians who were more like prostitutes as they pandered for campaign contributions from the insurance, mining, power generating, and forestry industries rather than being servants of the people once elected.

In short, we talked about just about everything under the sun that we couldn't see because it was blocked by a huge cloud filled with mercury coming from the Boswell Plant.

We even talked about my blog. I got all kinds of suggestions from I should include interviews with people, post more about what people can do, post some selected full length newspaper articles with my commentary, invite others with a different viewpoint to respond... all in all everyone liked my blog... the complements were probably more because they just wanted to read an alternative to what the mass media puts out than because it reflects any kind of great ingenuity, creativity, or writing skills.

We talked about a local FM radio station, KAXE (91.7), and how it is becoming more and more of a mouthpiece for the corporate point of view like the rest of public radio... we talked about how the large contributions from Blandin Paper Company and the $40,000.00 dollars a year from the Blandin Foundation and Minnesota Power was buying silence on a number of issues of concern to working people--- from the environment to loss of jobs, and the complete lack of concern on the part of the station concerning single-payer, universal health care and the clouds of mercury we were looking at as we sat and talked sipping our coffee and eating cake around the kitchen table.

We need to create our own media networks using e-mail, blogs, web sites... but the old kitchen table is still the best and most effective, and where it all starts.

We talked about U.S. Congressman Jim Oberstar and how he was all talk and hot air and how his back-room shenanigans were as dirty as the dark blackish-gray, mercury contaminated smoke we were staring at that created such pretty clouds that floated over the state, and probably around the world.

We agreed that the State Representative, Loren Solberg, was a pretty good guy and usually voted in support of issues important to working people; but, everyone thought he could be more aggressive on these issues... especially on single-payer, universal health care; no one really knew for sure what he was going to be supporting in the way of health care reform. No one liked the idea he was pushing for more of the smokestacks like the ones we were gazing at dotting the Iron Range.

I mentioned that I found it ironic that Iron Range legislators would be supporting building more power plants that would provide so few jobs as they remained silent and doing nothing about keeping the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant open which provides two thousand jobs now and if placed under public ownership producing environmentally friendly things like electric rail components, wind power generating equipment, and solar devices five times as many jobs could be had... good jobs that pay real living wages with the kinds of benefits working people are entitled to. That there just had to be the political will... fostered by a political movement. Everyone agreed.

Invariably the question came up, as it usually does now-a-days: How can we change any of this? The comment was made, "Look at this, we are four people sitting here talking; what can we do?" Another said, "Look at all the people in this country who came out and demonstrated against this war in Iraq even starting... Bush went ahead with the war anyways and all the elected Democrats went someplace to hide... now we got this mess... our kids dying, Iraqis dying... there is no end in sight."

Another comment was made: "We work our butts off to get the vote out for these Democrats and what do we get for it? A kick in the ass. We send our people to a convention to support single-payer, universal health care... the convention by a great big majority endorses single-payer... and now the DFL is going to turn its back on the decision of the convention... the real voice of the grassroots... that's us... I knew this was going to happen when they shoved through the endorsements of Klobuchar and Hatch... worthless hot air... the two of 'em; all they care about is themselves... When is the DFL going to stop going backwards?... If it isn't doing nothing to stop Bush with his war in Iraq, they are caving in to the insurance companies on health care."

I think this is very typical of the discussions taking place around the kitchen tables all across Minnesota, and probably the rest of the country.

We can't let Bush and the corporations beat us down into thinking we are powerless, because we are not; and we can't let the Democrats slide. As long as we are discussing these issues we empower ourselves and those we associate with... one little snowflake doesn't amount to much, but let it snow for a few hours and those little snowflakes can pile up quickly. What we have to do is make sure the snow doesn't just melt away and disappear... come spring we want to pop up everywhere like dandelions on a warm spring day.

There is a kind of formula for social change... the Red Finns of the Iron Range really had this formula worked out well.

They started around the kitchen tables... took their discussions out into the mines and the communities... and from there they made a historic break through and organized the unions on the Range.

But, the Red Finns didn't just talk. They read and they studied. They were "Red" Finns because they were Marxists... they studied Marx, they studied Lenin... they studied the writings of William Z. Foster and Earl Browder. They read the Tyomies and the Daily Worker... they listened to Roosevelt on the radio. When they gathered around their kitchen tables they discussed what they were reading and listening to on the radio.

Out of the discussions around the kitchen tables these discussions carried over into the mines and the lumber camps and while feeding and milking the cows.

Out of the discussions leaflets were drafted and discussed again and revised around the kitchen tables until everyone was satisfied the leaflet should be distributed to friends, neighbors, and fellow workers.

From the discussions generated from the leaflets petitions were drafted to public officials. Meetings were held, organizations formed--- some of the organizations were established to attain short term goals, others like the unions and the Communist Party were set up to stay over the long haul. Gathering places, halls, camps like Mesaba Co-op Park were built. Co-op stores were established that sold everything from coal to gas to food and clothing. Some remarkable achievements came out of the small gatherings around the kitchen tables in the homes of working people.

When public officials ignored the petitions and tried to brush the people off they started running for public office themselves... electing mayors and city council members, county commissioners and state legislators... eventually building the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party into a powerful force for social change that elected two governors, congressmen, and United States Senators.

Today the corporations have grown and become more powerful... the only thing that means is that more discussions have to take place around our kitchen tables.

We also need to become better educated and more actively involved.

We can:

Write letters to the editors;

Participate in vigils and demonstrations against this dirty war in Iraq;

Organize petition campaigns in support of single-payer, universal health care;

Write and distribute leaflets;

Read, read, and read some more.

Keep in mind... Out of sight, really is out of mind... the politicians want us to keep our mouths shut... remember what they told the Dixie Chicks--- "shut up and sing." Well, the Dixie Chicks didn't take this advice and neither should any of us.

The Red Finns had a very simple formula for achieving social change that worked really well... it went like this: discussion, education, organization, unity, action; this is a good well tested formula that always works if we remember that it takes a struggle to win.

I look forward to many more discussions around the kitchen tables as I travel across Minnesota.

Together, we can change things; together, we can win.

A comment: I really think the time has come for a state-wide gathering of liberals, progressives, socialists, and communists so we can begin coordinating our efforts more effectively.

Don't forget to mark your calendars:
For the Labor and Sustainability Conference coming up January 19 and 20 at the UAW Hall across from the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul... the Conference is free and open to all... there will be speakers, workshops, discussions, a dance, lunch, dinner. I will be posting the leaflet later this week.

Tomorrow I think I will publish an article about developments in Venezuela... as you probably heard, Hugo Chavez has declared that Venezuela is now on the socialist road, and there will be no turning back.

Joe Lieberman and John McCain: a very dangerous alliance

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Meet Lt.-Gen. David Petraeus; Saddam Hussein's replacement in Iraq

There is something very hypocritical about the "justice" of U.S. imperialism; Saddam Hussein was hung while the butcher Augusto Pinochet was allowed to die a natural death before he reached the gallows.

To help him "win" the war in Iraq, Bush has brought in an "expert" on why the United States lost the Vietnam War; Lt.-Gen. David Petraeus comes highly recommended by the American Enterprise Institute, the same "think-tank" that marveled in appreciation of the skills employed by Saddam Hussein and Augusto Pinochet to "secure the population" for so many years.

Perhaps the connections between who was behind the fascist coup that brought the murderous fascist junta of Pinochet to power in Chile is still too fresh in the minds of people here in the United States and around the world for Pinochet to have received the gallows as he so justly deserved because people would have wanted to know why Henry Kissinger wasn't being strung up beside him.

Of course we know that Saddam Hussein was brought to power in much the same way Augusto Pinochet rose and held on to power: both carried out the most savage, bloody, murderous, and barbaric campaigns of terror to rid their countries of the most humanitarian, liberal, progressive, and democratic minded people whose only "crimes" were to have struggled for a better and more just world... in Chile copper was the issue; in Iraq it is oil.

We saw imperialist "justice" in action as Che Guevara was tormented and tortured, then murdered by U.S. trained butchers. We saw the same kind of imperialist "justice" all across the African continent as people struggled for their most basic human rights. The imperialist blood-letting in Indonesia is all but forgotten like Hitler's Lidice has been allowed to be forgotten in the United States because those in power fear people would see the similarities between what Hitler did and what our own government is doing.

Among the tens of thousands of Pinochet's victims was one of the finest humanitarians, poet Pablo Neruda; who along with folksinger and human rights activist Victor Jara were tormented and tortured before being killed... tens of thousands of human beings were murdered in the most grisly and grotesque manner by Pinochet's goose stepping fascist bastards who were trained to do their dirty, dirty deeds at the School of the Americas located right here in the United States of America not far from where a campaign of carnage and genocide was once waged against the Cherokee Nation as those who survived were shipped off to reservations which Hitler used as his models for concentration camps and "ghettos."

Why Augusto Pinochet never swung from the hangman's noose is a question to ponder.

The world is full of goose-stepping, two-bit, half-assed, fascist dictators all of whom remain in power by terrorizing their own populations... all are lackeys of U.S. imperialism and have been trained by the CIA and the U.S. military; their role is to keep the profits flowing to the coffers of the multi-national corporations and big-business as the body bags and coffins fill.

George Bush has given his new general in charge in Iraq the order to "secure the Iraqi population." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we will be witnessing numerous "My Lai Massacres;" no one should be surprised.

"Securing the population" is a code phrase for terrorizing the Iraqi population.

It is ironic that the capitalists cry such tears when workers come to power and decide to hang such tyrants who have terrorized the people for so long... we should all keep in mind what imperialist "justice" amounts to--- Saddam Hussein swung from the hangman's noose on the orders of his longtime friends because they couldn't trust him to keep his mouth shut; Pinochet went free after committing his atrocities and crimes against humanity... I am sure George Bush and Henry Kissinger would have cried like babies had their trusted friend Pinochet been strung up as he deserved.

There is no force on earth more brutal and savage than the dictatorships imposed in the name of capitalism... this grisly war in Iraq bears this truth out... now that "securing the Iraqi population" is about to get underway as ordered by the commander in chief who much of the world views as a thief--- the world will now see how grisly and brutal U.S. imperialism really can be in quest of oil, profits, and regional domination.

We should remember how Saddam Hussein's own friends stretched his neck at the gallows to prevent him from divulging the truth about the years of tormenting, torture, and intimidation of the Iraqi people as they struggled for freedom should Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez have to take special measures to secure the sovereignty of their nations and socialist revolutions... the watch word for the imperialist interventionist is: Beware, there just might be a hangman's noose in your future.

Come to think of it, the Chinese government and Peoples' Army responded to events orchestrated and provoked by the CIA in Tienanmen Square in a very humanitarian manner compared to the way George Bush is "securing the population" of Iraq per the suggestions of Joe Lieberman, John McCain, and the American Enterprise Institute.

I wonder how long it will be before George Bush makes the phone call to his new general charged with the impossible task of occupying Iraq, Lt.-Gen. David Petraeus, and asks: Is Baghdad Burning?

The American people should be asking the question: What does "securing the population" mean? I would venture to guess it is what Saddam Hussein, like Augusto Pinochet, was chosen to do... Lt.-Gen. David Petraeus has been selected to complete Saddam Hussein's original assignment; only the uniform has changed.

Another question: How is the Democratic Party going to explain its acquiescence and support for this new campaign of terror against the Iraqi population to American voters as the death toll of Americans and Iraqis rises? Probably the same way it did in the past election... by mouthing platitudes like: the war must end... while lacking the political and moral courage to end it. I doubt in the next election Americans will bother going to the polls to vote for any Party with blood freshly dripping from its hands.

Bush should be impeached, then shipped off to the Hague for a war crimes trial.

Congress should cut the funds for this dirty war now.

If the American Enterprise Institute wants to continue this war based upon the lies it created in the first place that were mouthed by Bush, let its hired "adjuncts" hold baked-good sales to finance this deadly boondoggle and debacle in Iraq... all this money being pissed away as Halliburton and Blackwater profits could be used to create a world class single-payer, universal health care system right here at home... Bush now wants the United States Congress to appropriate billions to build new homes to replace those destroyed by American bombers in Iraq as Native Americans live in squalor on reservations.

Doesn't anyone understand what is going on?

The Future of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and Hydro Dam

The future of the

Ford Twin Cities Hydro Dam

is now in the balance as bids are being considered. The time for

emergency action

on the part of politicians at every level from the local to the state on up to the federal level along with all Minnesotans is now; we can not afford to sit idly by and have this very profitable, environmentally friendly power generating facility stolen out from under us.

According to media reports the dam is worth between thirty and fifty million dollars.

This is an outright insult to the tax-payers who have subsidized this hydro dam for years... if this hydro dam is worth a penny it is worth one thousand times more than these appraisals; apparently these appraisals were pulled from the same hat as the figures used for the miserly minimum wage increase that resulted in the the last legislative session.

Any other business is sold on the basis of potential profits it will generate and the real value based upon the real costs involved.

Ford should not be allowed to use the sale of this hydro dam to subsidize worker "buy outs." This hydro dam is worth much more.

First of all, this hydro dam should not be sold to private industry. This never should have been a consideration or option. The people of Minnesota have a huge investment in this hydro dam that utilizes a publicly owned natural resource to generate electricity.

Second, this hydro dam is not Ford's property to sell. Tax-payers have subsidized this hydro dam so heavily this electric generating facility for all intents and purposes rightfully belongs to the local, state, and federal governments. Ford should willingly turn over the deed to a public utility agency specifically established by all three levels of government for the purpose of operating this hydro dam. Any government that can subsidize the kind of carnage and destruction of infra-structure that is taking place in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Iraq can afford to take over the operation of this one hydro dam. Eminent domain should be sought.

Third, electricity generated by this hydro dam that wasn't used by Ford was stolen by the power generating industries at far below the cost the electricity was sold to other customers... this has been one big rip-off from the very beginning. Obviously the Minnesota legislature should do now what it should have done years ago... passed legislation that encourages environmentally friendly power generation through adequately compensating those producing the power. In addition to this hydro dam we now have people using solar and wind generating equipment and other innovations that save on power and these people should receive just compensation in line with what the utilities are charging their customers for this power.

Minnesota tax-payers and federal tax-payers have been subsidizing the power distribution network and grid for years as the power generating mega monopolies have been raking in the profits and polluting the land, streams, rivers, and lakes creating health problems for millions of people without access to health care.

In the Ford Twin Cities Hydro Dam we have the power needed to continue operating the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant under public ownership producing modern, environmentally friendly, mass transit equipment.

Liberals, progressives, and the left in general has been slow to react and respond to the brazenly cold announced Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant closing... politicians went hat-in-hand begging to Ford to keep the plant open when what is required is real initiative backed by creative thinking and an understanding of what this plant closing will mean to the workers and their families, the surrounding community and to our state. Thinking on the part of politicians on this issue has been as short-sighted as on just about every other issue from single-payer, universal health care to the minimum wage and the war in Iraq.

Henry Ford was the first to tout "creative thinking" as the most important trait he expected from Ford workers. The concrete artwork that adorns the Ford Twin Cities Assembly plant attests to this.

Charles P. Steinmetz the scientist whose inventions made the Ford Dam a reality over eighty years ago insisted that only through full public ownership of the power generating industry would electrification ever serve the interests of society in a way that would be environmentally friendly.

The great scientist and thinker, Albert Einstein, called for public ownership of industry as the solution to the myriad of problems he saw being created by capitalism and the private ownership of the means of production.

Now is the time for progressive DFL'ers like Bill Hilty to step forward on this important issue involving the future of the Ford Hydro Dam and the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Now is the time for Iron Range legislators like Tom Rukavina, Tony Sertich, and David Tomassoni to fight to save good jobs, paying real living wages, with all the benefits working people are entitled to as a human right. It has taken the Ford workers many years of struggle to attain the standard of living they now enjoy... and make no mistake, it has been a very long and difficult struggle for Ford workers to attain what they have today... this struggle alone is worth hundreds of time more than the miserly buy-out package that Ford has now "offered" its employees. One would expect that these Iron Range legislators understand and appreciate the value this long and historic struggle of the autoworkers which has contributed to helping to raise the standard of living of all Minnesotans. This "working class struggle" that has been waged by autoworkers across this land has not been considered to date as part of the value of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and all the other Ford plants closing.

I would suggest that Ellison, Rukavina, Sertich, Tomassoni, Hilty, Jaros, Hornstein, and Fitch convene a meeting immediately to bring the issue of the pending closing of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and the Ford/Twin Cities Hydro Dam before the Minnesota legislature on an emergency basis. Congressman Keith Ellison should be brought into this struggle to place the Ford operations under public ownership... certainly coming from Detroit Ellison must understand the importance of the value of the working class struggle for justice and dignity waged over the many years and is well acquainted with the work of those like Phil Raymond and Brother Bill McKie who built the United Automobile Workers into a powerful union who fought off the gangsters and thugs hired by Henry Ford to beat down and shoot his own employees. From Detroit to the Twin Cities to California to Georgia and Windsor, Ontario, Canada... Ford workers have fought and struggled heroically for the gains and advances they have made... just as the miners on the Iron Range have struggled. Today the future of autoworkers and miners hinges on raising the struggles to a new level with new thinking... this new thinking was already being put forward by the Red Finns on the Iron Range and the leaders of autoworkers like Phil Raymond, Brother Bill McKie, Wyndham Mortimer, Bob Travis, and Bud Simons at the time they blazed the trail that led to so many victories that placed autoworkers in the front ranks of working class struggles along with the miners on the Iron Range for social and economic justice.

Part of the value of every vehicle that has been produced at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant has come from the struggles of working people fighting for their rights, and that struggle has been an important factor in raising the standard of living for all working people in Minnesota.

There is also a political value society has benefited from when it comes to the struggles of Ford workers employed at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant... from being an anchor in the Twin Cities for the Minnesota Farmer Labor Party to being there when Keith Ellison needed a firm voice in opposition to the dangerous voices of racism, bigotry, and hate.

There are numerous reasons why the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and the Ford Twin Cities Hydro Dam should now be brought under public ownership. The main reasons: it is the morally right, it is politically correct, it is financially sound, and a socially just solution.

State Representative Tom Rukavina once told Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty that he could not turn his head to the right... it is time that he turn his head fully to the left; and it is time that tens of thousands of Minnesotans stand by his side on this important issue--- real jobs, good wages, an environmentally friendly manufacturing facility with the potential of creating thousands of new jobs producing what is required to fight global warming.

The Taconite Tax should be increased to cover any and all costs associated with bringing the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant under public ownership... after all, saving the existing two thousand jobs and the very real possibility of creating another eight to ten thousand new jobs at this Plant will save many jobs on the Iron Range; and, quite possibly, create several hundred new jobs on the Iron Range... If Minnesota becomes the center of heavy industry retrofitted in hi-tech, high quality production for producing solutions to global warming this could have the potential of creating thousands of jobs on the Iron Range.

Something Rukavina, Sertich, and Tomassoni may want to consider... the mining industry needs to come up with some solutions to its role in global warming real quick... the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant has the potential of producing the equipment that will be required, also. The State of Minnesota (MnScu) has a very hi-tech training and research facility on site ready to go to work on just such problems.

The Progressive Caucus of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has been slow to respond to the closing of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and the future of the Ford Hydro Dam... the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party has not responded at all. Even the Green Party has been slow to add its voice to saving the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and Hydro Dam.

Ford has been claiming health care costs have been killing the company.

Here is a chance for progressive Minnesota legislators to put forward a new "New Deal" for Minnesotans: health care and jobs.

Ford and the power generating industry have had a free lunch and a free ride at the expense on Minnesotans for far too long... now is the time to correct this injustice.

Since Christine Frank and I first published our "Appeal To Minnesotans for Public Ownership for The Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant," much discussion has been generated... support from people has been overwhelming. By-and-large the big business media has refused to broach the issue of public ownership of this Plant and the Hydro Dam... if the kind of far ranging discussion required is going to take place it must start around the kitchen tables in the homes of Minnesotans.

Progressive politicians, union leaders, and the left have an important role to play in stimulating a continuing dialogue and debate. It would be helpful to have legislation on the table.

Controversy should not be feared, but instead welcomed... because that is the only way this important issue will get discussed.

The key to winning in every struggle is: education, organization, unity, and action. All of this begins around the kitchen tables in the homes of working people... it always has and always will.

Wages and the Economy

Today the big economic news was that the American economy is headed for some tough times but corporate profits are doing pretty well.

According to news reports workers received a "hefty" wage increase over the past year. Where the term "hefty" came from I don't know since I don't find that description anyplace among any of the research or findings that these news reports alluded to.

Anyways, the "hefty" wage increases amounted to one-half of one percent.

I don't know if those receiving minimum wages received this "hefty" increase in their wages, whatever. For most workers that did receive this "hefty" pay increase they are lucky if they received an additional $50.00 a year... compare that to the robbery at the pumps... I notice no one is talking about the "hefty" profits of the oil industry.

Then we have been hearing all day about how George Bush is going to be sending in reinforcements to try to get control over the war in Iraq... the project kind of reminds me of the "pacification" program in Vietnam... Bush's "surge of troops" in Iraq will prove to be just as successful. I heard where Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman have similar ideas about the war... neither wants to bring the troops home now or cut funding for this dirty war... Klobuchar and Coleman make us painfully aware of how voters are disenfranchised from the political process. Its no wonder so many people are saying there isn't much difference between the two major parties.

It looks like the "circus in the Cities" is again under way as Minnesota politicians have stated their intent to undermine the November Elections by putting forward mandatory health insurance legislation instead of single-payer, universal health care.

Driving through Grand Rapids today I saw a great sign in someone's yard, it said: End the war in Iraq; Impeach Bush. I agree.

Lame Duck

"Then there is President Bush. He may be a lame duck, but he is still commander in chief. No matter how much Democrats rail against his conduct of the Iraq War or how many oversight hearings they conduct, he will continue to dictate strategy there."

This quote above is pretty much how the new Congress is being described... No back-bone... Pretty scary stuff.

Not only is Bush a lame duck, but he has the pea sized brain of a duck. To be afflicted with a president that suffers from these two maladies at the same time poses very serious challenges to our country, and the world. Bush is mentally, morally, and politically challenged.

One would think under the circumstances that a Democratic controlled House and Senate would have no problem ending this dirty war for oil and occupation in Iraq by cutting off funding and bringing the troops home where they belong while enacting legislation that is adequate for addressing the problems of working people whose standard of living and rights have been under attack for so long.

Bush has his problems but the Democrats have their own problems, one of which is not being able to chew gum and walk at the same time... there is no reason why Democrats should not be able to end the war, enact needed legislation, and impeach Bush all at the same time... that is what congressional committees are for. Multi-tasking wouldn't be such a problem if most Democrats hadn't been the recipients of so many campaign contributions from the same multi-national corporations that now comprise the bulk of the military-financial-industrial establishment that has financed the Republicans... which makes the Democrats just about as politically challenged as George Bush.

Bush has been labelled a lame duck by the media, but he is more like a wounded grizzly bear, and even more dangerous... the time to impeach this war criminal is now... then it should be on to the World Court for a war crimes trial for Mr. Bush.

In the final analysis it will be up to the American people to throw this lame duck warmonger who is intent on carrying forward with a war based upon the lies and deceipt of his own creation out of office; a Democratic Party now as reluctant to impeach as it is to bring forward single-payer, universal health care, a real living minimum wage, and an end to the war in Iraq by cutting the funding and bringing the troops home needs to hear the American people speaking very clearly with one very loud voice--- apparently the message of November 7 wasn't heard.

Enough!

Impeach Bush to stop the war!

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore missed one heck of an

inconvenient truth

in his movie of the same name. Actually Al Gore missed the truth about capitalism; and, he missed the truth about socialism. I don't know if this was an act of convenience or inconvenience.

I often get asked: Why bother talking about socialism?

People often say using the word "socialism" scares people away; or they say there is a "better" alternative to capitalism. Quite frequently we hear people say the socialist alternative is not on the political agenda right now. I don't agree with any of this. Nor do I agree that socialism is dead even though the capitalist rags have written its obituary; the longest ongoing obituary I have ever heard of.

No matter how this question is placed we arrive at the same point... there is "an inconvenient truth" that needs to be discussed.

The intended, and sometimes unintended, purpose of posing the question: Why talk about socialism? is to prevent socialism from being discussed in the first place... in the same way other "inconvenient truths" are not supposed to be discussed.

It is always easier, and more convenient, to win an argument if you don't expect, or don't allow, your opposition to respond... another inconvenient truth. The big-business controlled media has done one heck of a big-brainwash in proclaiming socialism dead while refusing to allow living socialists to respond, all the while sanctimoniously proclaiming to be the voice of democracy... now, that is one heck of a clever trick and deception to pull off indefinitely... kind of like the way global warming was denied for so long.

The only equivalent I would be able to think of is if some day in the near future we were to see George Bush and Dick Cheney walking down Wall Street laughing on the way to the bank with their arms around their old buddy Saddam Hussein.

While I am sure the American media would never participate in this kind of hoax and hoodwinking just because they helped Nazi war criminals live out their lives in obscurity in this country until they were ready to die anyways, I doubt that Saddam Hussein escaped the hangman's noose as so many Nazi war criminals did... but, socialism has escaped its hope for death as we can see by developments in South America... as Mark Twain once remarked, "News of my death has been greatly exaggerated." I have often thought what great fun Mark Twain would have had with all the obituaries that have been written for socialism these past fifteen years.

There are even those on the left who have been bullied into being silenced concerning this "inconvenient truth" and have decided in their wisdom that now is not the time to push the socialist alternative to capitalism.

On the contrary, I don't think we will ever find a better time to bring forward the socialist alternative to capitalism then what we have today... as inconvenient a truth as this may be.

If we wait to talk about socialism until there is no opposition to it we will most likely participate in humanity's demise... another "inconvenient truth."

Obviously that ain't good... not for the present or the future... quite frankly, the powers that be will never agree that it is a good time to talk about replacing capitalism... let alone replacing it with socialism.

As we can see from the media and the educational institutions which conduct an unending campaign against socialism while pronouncing it dead, they do not intend to voluntarily allow anything they say about socialism to be challenged; not in the class-room, not in the media, and not in the mines, mills, and factories by working people.

I have always found it very strange that such a struggle would have to be waged against anything that has previously been pronounced dead... certainly George Bush will not continue to hold Saddam Hussein up as his enemy... he died in the hangman's noose... and was pronounced dead. According to all the same publications that gave us the word that Saddam is dead, these same people pronounced socialism dead... over fifteen years ago... socialism must have one heck of an after-life as its ghost continues to linger over most everything these people write about.

I think we all know that socialism is alive and well, otherwise these people in the mainstream media wouldn't have to go on, and on, and on "proving" that "it doesn't work." After all, no one is going to have to prove that Saddam Hussein is really dead every time someone says they have seen him; yet the big-business media has to continually attempt to prove that socialism is dead... if something is dead, be it a person or an idea... it is dead... and you get over the death and move on... there is nothing to fear from the rotting corpse of an idea or that of a person.

I am sure most of humanity will soon forget the name Saddam Hussein just like all the other two bit dictators the CIA installed in power then became expendable when their planned schemes and intrigues to undermine the peoples' struggles for power went sour.

But, unlike Saddam Hussein, the socialist corpse hasn't turned up yet; in fact, capitalism is more likely to be buried in a way that people will never look back and probably won't even remember it any more than they will remember Saddam Hussein... if people do remember capitalism after its passing it will simply be remembered as a terrible tragedy in the human experience, just like General George Armstrong Custer, Jefferson Davis, Henry Ford, Hitler, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Augusto Pinochet, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein... and George Bush.

I guess it all depends who has made the associations for us, that socialism is somehow bad and evil... I find it very ironic that we kind of allow the same people to do our thinking for us in creating the negative associations for socialism while supporting every other dirty deed... the same people do our thinking for us about the war in Iraq, single-payer, universal health care, social security, plant closings, global warming... and of course when it comes to socialism.

We have seen the progression of history... you can't just pretend there is no past and start all over again from scratch... life doesn't work that way.

No matter what you call "it," whatever replaces capitalism will have all the characteristics and features of socialism... and the people doing our thinking for us will attack it in the same way they attack socialism.

We can wait to find a better alternative to capitalism than socialism; we can put off discussing socialism because now is not the time for such discussion--- but we do so at our own peril; especially if scientific projections about global warming and everything it entails is correct... let us not forget, the same media that ridiculed the scientists who began talking about global warming is the very same media that pronounced socialism dead.

I have always wanted to meet Al Gore to ask him: Do you think the capitalist system has played a role in global warming? If so, what might that role be? Did you want to ask Al Gore these questions as you watched the movie "An Inconvenient Truth?" Are we all supposed to wait for Al Gore to produce Part II of "An Inconvenient Truth" to get the answers? Something to sit around the kitchen table and ponder.

Minimum Wage

The minimum wage should be a real living wage based upon scientific calculations, not some figure politicians pull from a hat trying to look good to get votes... neither Teddy Kennedy nor John Sweeney would work flipping hamburgers at McDonalds for $7.25 an hour; why should anyone else?

If a job needs to be done than the employer should have to pay the employee doing that job a real living wage; it is as simple as this. If the employers don't want to pay real living wages let them do the jobs themselves; left with this option employers and our society will quickly learn the central roll of working people in the economy of our nation.

The proposed increase in the minimum wage is really a cut in the standard of living for the working class.

Democrats are eager to push through their minimum wage increase before any national discussion can take place--- the nation, again, gets hoodwinked; just like with the war in Iraq. What we have is Democrats doing the dirty work for the Republicans--- again, just like with the war in Iraq. Workers suffer--- again, just like with the war in Iraq where workers fight and die as Bechtel, Halliburton, and the oil companies profit.

The Democrats are proposing a miserly increase in the minimum wage. John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO is supporting this so-called "increase" in the minimum wage. We should not find it surprising that John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO would negotiate a decrease in living standards now for the entire unorganized section of the working class since unionized workers in AFL-CIO affiliates have had their standards of livings and jobs negotiated out from under them for more than three decades now... this has been the primary impediment to organizing unions in this country... working people are not stupid they can see that unionized workers are constantly loosing ground to this employer/big-business assault on working people who are in unions. Historically workers look to organize unions when they see that their lot in life will become better by joining a union... as long as union leaders negotiate away everything that has been won through decades of very difficult struggles working people are not going to be looking for these unions to represent them... and this is a terrible situation for our entire working class to be in because it is the struggles of new workers coming into unions that is the real pressure to force all wages up--- including the minimum wage.

Unions aren't needed to negotiate wage cuts; employers can do this very well on their own.

No one even gave John Sweeney the right to negotiate a minimum wage... if he would dare to lead a struggle for better contracts for his own members that included increases in pay and real job security this in itself would have forced the minimum wage up long ago... but Sweeney and the unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO have allowed their own members' standard of livings to decline and deteriorate; this is no incentive for anyone to want to join a labor union... now Sweeney wants to bring a reduction in the standard of living to the entire working class through this phony "minimum wage proposal" of the Democrats... in effect, Sweeney now wants to do for the entire working class what he has already done for the members of those union affiliated with the AFL-CIO... negotiate a reduction in living standards... and the Change To Win leadership is even worse.

Here in Minnesota the Democrats did the same dirty work for the Republican governor that Democrats now want to do for George Bush and Bush is all smiles and eager to go along.

Here in Minnesota as soon as the miserly minimum wage "increase" took effect tens of thousands of working people lost access to everything from health care to food stamps to education benefits because they now made "too much money" to qualify for these government programs... they either lost benefits completely or had them so severely reduced the reductions more than ate away the increase in the minimum wage.

In fact, working people would come out ahead in their overall standard of living if the minimum wage was reduced, rather than "rising" to $7.25 an hour; the calculations are very simple. In food stamps, health care, and educational benefits a family of four wold actually receive over $10,000.00 a year more with a slight reduction in the minimum wage, while even in terms of dollars based on a forty hour work week the minimum wage will only work out to about $4,000.00.

Understanding "standard of living" is key to any discussion of increasing the minimum wage; it is this discussion politicians and big-business fear working people taking part in.

In fact, the minimum wage increase could disqualify many workers from receiving Pell Grants and student loans which these same politicians are talking about increasing; what a sad joke... talking about increasing a benefit that you know will be available to far fewer people because of your previous actions.

I say "so-called" increase in the minimum wage because this miserly "increase" will in fact be a very large decrease in the over-all living standards for the overwhelming majority of workers living in poverty and dire straights right now.

This "increase" in the minimum wage will be just enough to push millions of American workers out of many social programs because they will exceed threshold limits that presently give them access to many social programs; anyone can determine this from looking at what has happened in Minnesota.

Where did Democrats arrive at the figure that the minimum wage should be $7.25 an hour? This is a very valid question no one proposing this minimum wage "increase" wants to answer. This wouldn't even pay Teddy Kennedy's bar tab... let alone provide any worker with a living income.

I read in one business journal where a prominent left-wing figure who is supporting this minimum wage increase complained he had a difficult time affording pajamas for his daughter... well, the present proposal will make it even harder to afford those pajamas when those wear out... I am sure that neither John Sweeney or Teddy Kennedy would even bother to blink an eye before purchasing anyone a pair of pajamas, let alone the latest Martha Stewart fashions from K-mart.

How should the minimum wage be calculated? The minimum wage should be calculated based upon the figures arrived at by the United States Department of Labor for a real living income.

George Bush has appointed, with Democratic Party consent, one of the most reactionary, anti-worker, anti-labor, Secretary of Labor to hold that cabinet position in many years. Why hasn't Bush suggested the minimum wage should be based on the figures used by the United States Department of Labor?

There is only one way to arrive at how much the minimum wage should be raised; from the scientific calculations of what the United States Department of Labor determines a real living wage should be.

After all, would any employer work at the same job for any less? If not, than why should any worker?

The time has come for politicians to stop pulling figures from a hat when it comes to the minimum wage and start using scientific calculations. It really doesn't make much sense to pay thousands of employees working for the United States Department of Labor these big salaries if we are not going to use the information resulting from their research; or if their research is invalid. If George Bush or Teddy Kennedy disputes the research that has been done over many years by these employees of the United States Department of Labor who earn high salaries because they are university educated researchers, statisticians, analysts, and policy makers then maybe the wrong people are working for a minimum wage to start with.

Something to think about: Enacting single-payer, universal health care would amount to a far greater increase in the standards of living for working people than the miserly proposed increase in the minimum wage... something neither the Democrats or Republicans want to talk about; something the AFL-CIO and Change To Win hope workers won't figure out.

Another thing to think about as you are sitting around the kitchen table: How can poverty ever be eliminated if employers are allowed to continue paying their employees poverty wages?

We need to add this term to our working class dictionary: standard of living. Check out this link as a place to begin our search for a definition: < http://shr.aaas.org/thesaurus/detail.php?tid=357 > If you want, just click on the heading which will take you right there.

This is what the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights has to say about "standard of living." The AFL-CIO just got done celebrating the 58th Anniversary of this Declaration and Teddy Kennedy helped in the celebration so I assume he and John Sweeney have both had a chance to discuss this:


Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.




Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Date adopted: 10 December 1948

Document Number/Symbol: General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III)

Organization: United Nations General Assembly



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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of
human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, The General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all
the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Season's Greetings to friends near and far!

I will not have a posting today, January 1, 2007

Please check out all my other blogs listed under "view my complete profile."

I'll be back tomorrow...

Happy New Year!

Yours in the struggle,

Alan

The debate over health care

Prior to the November 7 election there was tremendous support for doing something about the health care mess in this state, and in our country. There is growing support from all segments of our society who want to see changes in health care now--- during the upcoming state and congressional legislative sessions.

Let's be clear: people want single-payer, universal health care... nothing less, nothing more (for now). The American Medical Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, multi-national corporations, hospital conglomerates, HMO's, politicians, and especially the insurance companies along with their media pundits are now trying to hoodwink and trick us into accepting just about any scheme other than genuine single-payer, universal health care.

They are pitching all kinds of Mickey Mouse "Band-Aid" solutions... I guess Johnson and Johnson would like to protect their profits... ever see what a Band-Aid or disposable diaper costs in a hospital?

All these businesses and groups have their fingers in the cookie jar and they don't want the cookie jar taken away from them.

We must be very clear what we expect in the way of health care reform and let the politicians know we will settle for nothing less than real single-payer, universal health care because settling for single-payer, universal health care is already a compromise since we all know the long-term fix requires socialized health care.

What are the features of a socialized health care system? All industry associated with health care from the pharmaceutical companies to the manufacturers of high-tech equipment would be publicly owned industries. Hospitals and all health care institutions would be publicly owned and operated. Doctors and nurses would be paid wages or salaries. All support workers would receive real living wages, including those who mop the floors. All health care would be on a no fee basis from cradle to grave including eye, dental, and mental... nothing concerning human health would be excluded. All financing would come from the government with a tax on corporate profits and stock and bond transactions. The system would be completely publicly administered. We probably aren't going to have such a health care system like this in place anytime soon... anything from which a quick buck can't be made by a bunch of crooks, vultures and parasites is out of the question in America.

Socialized health care is out of the question because it just won't fly in America right now; it is as simple as that. This entire system is driven by greed and the accumulation of wealth... health care is just one more trough for the corporations to feed at. Health care in a civilized society would be based upon what people need and what society can afford.

In the United States the military budget is so overbearing that it makes the cost of anything that benefits people just about untouchable.

The social compromise that has been reached is single-payer, universal health care which is achievable right now if we all get behind it in a big way in telling the politicians we will settle for nothing less.

What are the main features of single-payer, universal health care that we cannot negotiate away like jobs have been negotiated away in union contracts?

First: the insurance companies have to be taken completely out of the picture... the government has to be the "single-payer." The insurance companies have fed at this trough for far too long already... they have accumulated so much wealth that their chief executive officers are making fools out of all of us with their multi-million dollar salaries and huge bonuses... United Health's McGuire is but one example of dozens of insurance companies that are operating this way. This fiasco simply has to end. The American people have been paying for these big-shots to live lavish life-styles instead of getting the health care they thought they were paying for. Except for the casino industry there probably isn't a more corrupt industry than the health care industry... well that isn't quite true is it? We have the merchants of death and destruction... the military-financial-industrial complex... and nothing gets more corrupt than that except for the oil industry... well, no use going on with this line of thinking or we will let the insurance companies right off the hook... Mr. McGuire actually looks kind of like an angel, eh?

Second: everyone, without exception, must be covered; yes, even the insurance company CEOs. This is what universal means: everyone; it simply would not be right to make them pay their own way after the way they have treated us--- pun intended.

Third: you go in to get whatever health care services are required from a doctor at the office, from a hospital, or therapy and they submit the bill to the government. If you want to pay the bill I am sure no one will stop you. Let's see if Mr. McGuire of United Health volunteers to pay his tab.

Fourth: all health care must be publicly financed in one way or another. The revenue will have to come by taxing corporations something comparable to what they are paying right now in health care premiums, and there will probably have to be some kind of employee payroll tax similar to the Social Security tax; perhaps slightly more than Social Security unless we put everyone back to work at real living wage jobs; common sense tells us the more people paying into the system the less we all have to pay--- this is what is wrong with Social Security right now--- wages have been driven down as corporations have been allowed to move to low wage areas and people without jobs, or those with poverty wage jobs, aren't paying into the system.

It is hard to keep social programs going with a government which only looks out for the wealthy and always manages to find the funds--- or borrows what they don't have--- to fight wars; I have never been able to figure out why these politicians always find money to fight a war but plead poverty when it comes to funding human services like health care, education, and housing.

Hopefully the struggle for single-payer, universal health care will force this issue of making people and their needs a top priority over killing people in Iraq. We simply need to bring priorities in this country more in line with what is good for all of us and not just big-business profits; maybe this is why politicians fear this single-payer, universal health care movement so much. They kind of view it from the bottom of a hill like a snowball getting bigger and bigger and gaining momentum?

Fifth: In any debate over this issue, health care for people has to be placed at the very top of all discussions... not whether doctors will be happy with their fees, not if insurance companies are going to go broke and out of business, not if corporations are going to cry about having to pay through the nose for awhile until the system is up and running. Of course, the right-wing will try to convince those who are employed that they will be paying for welfare moms, etc., etc.; nothing we haven't heard before from the Republicans.

The health care system is a complete mess right now. What is wrong with it is that so much money is being paid "for" health care yet so many people do not have access to health care... a single-payer system would be like medicare for all without people having to think about co-pays and all these other fees. You walk in and get the care required and you never see the bill... there will be those who argue that they see the bill in the form of a new tax... so what? The only way to avoid this is to either fund health care instead of warfare and stop trying to run the world... or just get rid of the whole damn system... after all, the rotten health care mess is only a reflection of a rotten capitalist system that puts the profits of Wall Street coupon clippers before people and their needs. I think working people are still bending over and getting the shaft with the single-payer compromise; the politicians and the wealthy should just be happy everyone doesn't think like me :)

In the final analysis of this issue the issue of single-payer, universal health care is a "family issue" that goes right to the heart of what any society that even has a pretense to human values is all about; what we are talking about is health care being a very basic and fundamental human right. If these politicians have to cater to the insurance companies and big-business before concerning themselves with this very basic and fundamental human right that each and everyone of us is entitled to as a birth-right then maybe we should just get on with replacing this entire corrupt system.


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I received a call earlier today... it seems people have seen Dick Cheney in the company of Saddam Hussein in Las Vegas taking turns at the roulette wheel and shooting craps.