The U.S. working class is paying the price that created 60,000 Chinese billionaires as Wall Street absconds with Quadrillions.

I found this statistic interesting:

There are 60,000 billionaires in China. 

http://china-wire.org/?p=22137

Is creating selfish, greedy, money-grubbing billionaires what socialism is about?

At whose expense are these 60,000 billionaires accumulating this kind of wealth?

And, what isn't stated is this:

How many billions/trillions of dollars has the Chinese government allowed the parasitical Wall Street coupon clippers--- venture/vulture capitalists and financiers--- and the other finance capitals of the world like Bay Street and The Square Mile to abscond with as workers who have created this tremendous wealth are forced to live in disgraceful poverty?

The main foreign exploiters always are willing to "share" the wealth with a few of the puppets they use in order to get away with stealing a lot more so we have to ask how much, in addition to these "home-grown billionaires," the foreign financial centers have stolen from the Chinese people through the exploitation of their labor.

Considering there are 60,000 billionaires in China it is logical to assume that the actual robbery taking place far exceeds even trillions of dollars--- we are probably looking at an enormous figure running beyond the Quadrillion range. I don't even know what there is beyond Quadrillion but the thing to keep in perspective is that the Chinese government continues to peddle this bullshit about "socialism with Chinese characteristics---" market socialism--- as an excuse for forcing workers to endure poverty. 

The Chinese government collaborates with these foreign financial centers in all kinds of elaborate schemes most people can't even understand or comprehend in order to facilitate this gigantic swindle and theft of an entire nation's wealth.

And to think that one of the primary objectives of Barack Obama's very secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] (NAFTA on major steroids) will move more production to China where this exploitation will be expanded, enlarged and intensified--- again at the expense of Chinese workers and the American working class which has already suffered the closing of over 55,000 mines, mills and factories in order to create these Chinese and foreign billionaires with Quadrillions in profits for the few.

Of course Romney supports the TPP, too.

Obama or Romney--- Democrats or Republicans; the two-party trap is once again set; workers are going to lose.
Capital from the major financial centers around the globe led by Wall Street has united to reap super-profits from the exploitation of workers while workers haven't caught on to "workers and all oppressed peoples of the world unite."

And these politicians and foundation-funded outfits can't figure out what causes poverty? More like they are hiding what causes poverty because tremendous wealth, and what is done with this wealth, what is at stake. 

Come on, really; is there any reason any child should be forced to go to bed hungry or any person should be homeless or without health care amidst this kind of wealth being created? 

And, what is with workers being paid poverty wages instead of real living wages when there is this kind of wealth?

To think that so many billions of people have to suffer because these billionaires are "entitled" to profit.

There is no better time than now for workers and oppressed people to demand real change:

People before profits!

Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism--- barbaric and cannibalistic.

What the hell are working people going to have to endure as capitalism lives out its twilight years of severe and super-exploitation, wars, inequality, hate and poverty?

Kind of obvious why no Wall Street politicians like Obama or Romney want to address the truth about poverty as an election issue.

And Minnesota Mark Dayton has gone to China on a "trade mission" while he did nothing to halt the closing of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant. One would think with 60,000 billionaires in China Dayton could have found a joint partner to keep the Ford Plant operating--- but, wait; the idea is to bludgeon the U.S. working class until it is willing to compete with Chinese workers in the "race to the bottom" and closing these plants is what it is all about.

The U.S. working class is paying the price that created 60,000 Chinese billionaires as Wall Street absconds with Quadrillions.

Completely and totally disgusting.

China has 60,000 billionaires

china-wire.org

More than 50 percent of assets owned by wealthy Chinese stay in the form of currency and deposits, which means they are in dire need of finance management, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported on Friday. The Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper 2012 said there are 2.7 

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Right-wing Republican Minnesota State Representative Tony Cornish warns state legislators and the public about me: "Be Very Careful of This Man"

A large number of people have asked that they be able to read the exchange.

Here is the e-mail Minnesota State Representative Tony Cornish sent out to all members of the Minnesota State Legislature and hundreds of other people. Below is my response:

Be Very Careful of This Man

x
amaki000@centurytel.net
x

Tony Cornish
11:04 AM (9 hours ago)

Dear Members,

If you get any letters from Alan Maki, I would suggest you do not answer them. I have been keeping his letters on file for 7 years. As soon as you don't agree with him, he will print your letters and make you out to be a horrible person. Then he claims you started it. Years ago he harassed Maxine Penas with insulting letters and called people ignorant that did not agree with him. He started this 7 years ago by calling all of us clowns before he was into any discussion with anyone.

This is what he wrote about Republicans; " Gees, I forgot, it doesn't do any good to talk to a Republican about morals or ethics, anyone who would walk around wearing a Bush‑Cheney
baseball cap must be on a team that doesn't have either morals or ethics.

He's written about a number of issues over the past concerning the war, the environment, the Cuba embargo, smoking in Casinos and the Ford plant. In November of 2005 in an environmental discussion, he said that former Senator and DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam committed a "racist and criminal" act regarding the environment.

One of his favorite tricks is to insult you and then say you started it and then copy everyone under the sun plus the newspapers which doesn't bother me. I wrote him a nice letter at one point and asked if anyone had gotten back to him, even though he was not my constituent. He wrote back and said no and then said that I had not one iota of concern for the environment.

In short, I would delete anything you get from this man and use your e mail block for him. His partner is David Thorstad who also writes in vulgar terms since 2005.

Here is a copy of the letter from 7 years ago and it has not let up. Just hit delete and e mail block.


My response...

From: Alan Maki

To: Tony Cornish

Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 12:34 PM

Subject: Re: Be Very Careful of This Man


Representative Cornish,

Yes, the "Circus in the Cities" continues with both Democrats and Republicans refusing to address the concerns of Minnesotans; you are living proof.

You know, Representative Cornish, you forget to mention that I apologized for calling you a "clown."

As you will recall, an association representing clowns from Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers and the Shrine circuses strenuously objected--- claiming I was maligning their honorable profession.

Fact:

1. My initial contact with you and Maxine Penas was over the issue of casino workers--- a health issue, a worker's right issue, a poverty issue. Neither of you did anything.

2. Again I met with you concerning peat mining in the Pine Island State Forest in the Big Bog; the largest freshwater aquifer in the "Lower 48." My thinking was that since you were once a game warden in a former life employed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to protect our resources, you would be concerned with this rape of our resources and the destruction of this aquifer. The "racism" comes in because in refusing to even consider this issue you and Commissioner Meriam slighted the people of the Red Lake Nation and their historic opposition to the commercialization of the peat which will destroy a very delicate ecosystem they require--- as former Red Lake Nation Chair Roger Jourdain pointed out in opposing this peat mining: "Destroy this freshwater aquifer and you destroy my people and our Nation." I requested you help me to get a letter from the DNR showing there was collusion between corrupt tribal officials, Congressman Oberstar and Koochiching County Commissioners--- you refused; the head of the Littlefork Forestry office of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources turned the letter over to me and DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam summarily demoted her--- and you did nothing. This peat mining is now underway with state and federal tax-payers footing the infrastructure bill so a Canadian multi-national can truck away the profits. I stand by my statement that former Minnesota DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam committed a "racist and criminal act" in granting a permit to mine peat in the Pine Island State Forest in the Big Bog.

3. Like many people, including American Crystal Sugar's management and other farm organizations, I have called for ending the blockade/embargo of Cuba. You are for maintaining this blockade. This blockade/embargo of Cuba is costing Minnesotans thousands of jobs. Like Canadians, I believe Americans should be able to travel freely to Cuba; you disagree.

4. As for the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant. I am very proud of my activities trying to save this plant and two-thousand jobs as you and just about every single member--- with a handful of notable exceptions--- abdicated your fiduciary responsibility in trying to save this plant after hundreds of millions of tax-payers' dollars were allocated to Ford's operation after Minnesotans were promised by the Ford Motor Company and you legislators that these hand-outs to Ford would "assure the continuing operation of this plant for the next 75 years;" a direct quote from Minnesota State Senator, and gubernatorial candidate, Roger Moe. You abdicated your fiduciary responsibility after tax-payers built the Ford Motor Company a brand new training center in cooperation with MnScu--- over thirty-million dollars and now the plant is closed and slated for demolition and Minnesota tax-payers will be paying millions of dollars for many years after the demolition. Again, you were on the wrong side of this issue.

5. You have supported all of these dirty wars that Bush started.

6. Are you a "clown?" Anyone who saw you walking around the state legislative building and seeing you on the floor of the legislature wearing your little beanie emblazoned with "Bush-Cheney" was laughing at you; just as people laugh at you when you respond to serious health concerns relating to second-hand smoke in the workplace by suggesting they vote for Romney/Ryan.

7. About these wars. Yes, I am opposed to these dirty imperialist wars; you support them. No doubt you are for going to war in Syria and Iran--- please correct me if I am wrong (I hope that I am wrong).

8. The Minnesota State Legislature voted for the "Freedom to Breath Legislation." I criss-crossed the state supporting this legislation while you opposed it for years only to have the legislation passed with the only exclusion being the Indian Gaming Industry and now you legislators pay for a conference (really nothing but an outing for the mobsters who manage the Indian Gaming Industry) to study the impact of second-hand smoke in these casinos when the health and science communities have determined that second-hand smoke in the workplace causes heart and lung problems, cancers, problems with child-bearing and complications with diabetes. If you know of any reason why casino workers would be immune to the consequences of second-hand smoke please set me straight.

I do find it interesting that you now bring forward every single issue under the sun when the concern I wrote you about now is health care reform and you say not one word in response to what I have written concerning this problem.

Then you warn people about engaging in dialog with me when you have engaged. LOL! I'm rolling on the floor laughing out loud.

Come on, Representative Cornish; now that we know you can say and write more than "blah, blah, blah," respond to my concerns about what it is going to take to solve this health care issue.

As far as your slanderous, libelous and malicious statement that I am in any way "partnered" with one David Thorstad, I challenge you to back up this lie. I can't help who responds to issues of concern to me.

But, the real issue here is not who I am partnered with, or not partnered with; the issue, when it comes to health care reform is who are YOU partnered with, Representative Cornish.

And, when it comes to the issue of health care, you are partnered with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries along with the American Medical Association. You are partnered with all the greedy, money-grubbing profiteers whose dirty hands we have to remove from health care so we can keep people well and get them well when sick.

Please respond to the points in my original "Letter to the Editor." Once again you have removed that letter from your response while telling us what you have in your file. Obviously you are going to file away my "Letter to the Editor" to bring forward on another day with another issue as you have done here.

So, again I provide you with my "Letter to the Editor" requesting you respond to the here and now--- two-thousand jobs (the Ford Plant) are down the river thanks to your inaction. Oh, before I forget. You allowed the Ford Motor Company to use the subsidies from tax-payers to build a new plant--- not in Minnesota, not in the United States... but in Thailand of all places where the production of Ford Rangers continues and as part of the Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP) initiated by Obama and supported by Romney/Ryan those Ford Rangers will be allowed to be sold here in the United States.

But, back to health care. Here is my letter that so inflamed and incited you without explanation which I sent to you in very cordial and civil manner after which you started doing what? Harassing me?

One more letter for your file:

This "Letter to the Editor" is being submitted exclusively to Northern Watch Newspaper for publication in rebuttal to a previously published "Letter to the Editor."

In the Northern Watch (September 8, 2012; Page 4 < http://www.trftimes.com/news/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&view=book&id=186%3Aseptember-8-2012&catid=1%3Adefault-category&Itemid=18 > a letter written by Valerie Solem, Chairperson of Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Senate District 1, was published about healthcare; specifically her letter was in support of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare; or, a more accurate description is the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010."

The objective with health care is not, as Valerie Solem states, to provide health insurance for everyone. This only benefits the profitability of the insurance industry and assures profitability for the pharmaceutical industry, private hospitals, nursing homes and the greedy doctors for whom health care is nothing more than a racket from which they grow richer at the expense of a population getting sicker with people suffering needlessly and dying prematurely.

Health care is all about keeping people healthy and helping to get people well when they are sick.

For health care to work most effectively and efficiently at the lowest possible cost the profit motive behind health care has to be removed.

In fact, as can be seen from many other countries, including our neighbors to the north in Canada, health care works the best the more the "for profit" motive is removed from health care; Obama care does just the opposite by enhancing the profits of the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and greedy doctors.

As an active member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, including having served as the elected member of the State Central Committee of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party for Roseau County which is part of Senate District 1 and having frequently been a delegate to state conventions and having participated actively in Senate District 1 conventions, I know first hand how Valorie Solem has worked to undermine taking profits out of health care.

I am also the author of the resolution passed by 72% of the delegates to the Minnesota DFL State Convention calling for single payer universal health care; a resolution that was a compromise because there were the well-heeled in the Minnesota DFL, like Valerie Solem, who refused to support what is really required if we are going to solve our health care problems--- now a crisis with almost 50 million people still without any health care and over 100 million people under Obamacare unable to afford the "Cadillac" health insurance premiums so they are stuck picking up the co-pays which are often so huge it results in people having to declare bankruptcy.

Single-payer universal health care like our Canadian neighbors have would be far superior to what we have now.

However, to solve this health care mess will require nothing less than a National Public Health Care System.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million good paying, real living wage jobs for people who would be providing us with health care for free through neighborhood and community health care centers.

A National Public Health Care System would provide no-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive (general medical, eyes, dental, mental health), universal health care from pre-natal through burial. A National Public Health Care System would be publicly financed, publicly administered--- and most importantly health care would be publicly delivered.

In other words, a National Public Health Care System would function of the same principle--- and in the same way--- as public education or Social Security.

In fact, the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party led by such distinguished advocates for the rights of working people like former Minnesota socialist governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson along with Iron Range U.S. Congressman John Bernard were advocates of just such a health care system.

The question is always brought forward: How would we pay for a National Public Health Care System?

We could stop fighting these senseless wars and pay for National Public Health Care with the resulting "peace dividend."

We could "tax-the-rich."

We could institute a payroll tax like that which funds Social Security.

No one would suggest we should turn our public schools over to Wall Street to profit from. Who in their right mind would suggest that the parents of each child should have to pay the teacher a fee like we pay doctors. Privatization doesn't work for education and it sure as heck isn't working for health care.

That Republican Mitt Romney, de facto supports Obamacare as Valerie Solem points out, does not validate Obamacare being legitimate as Valerie Solem would like us to believe.

In fact, the very fact that Romney and Obama support the same "for profit" health care system--- the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" (ACA, Obamacare)--- only goes to prove there is no difference between Obama or Romney; they both come before the American people promoting Wall Street's reactionary agenda of greed before human need--- in this instance of health care it is profits for the few versus health care for all. On the health care issue, like all other issues, no matter if Romney or Obama win the election the American people will lose.

A very sad commentary on the state of our democracy.

And this is why I will cast my ballot for former Democrat Rocky Anderson who is running on the Justice Party ticket for President and Michael Cavlan of the Open Progressive Party for United States Senate. Both of these candidates have fought long and hard for the very modest reform of a single-payer universal health care system like our neighbors to the north in Canada enjoy--- at a cost far less than even the cheapest insurance premium leaving a huge co-pay; and fifty-million people uninsured without health care.

Hopefully, in 2016, we will have a candidate come forward articulating the need for a National Public Health Care System.

We don't even have to look to other countries for a model when it comes to a National Public Health Care System. We have three very effective--- effective in terms of low-cost and superior delivery to the private sector--- public health care systems in this country: VA, the Indian Health Service and the National Public Health Service; all funded by our tax dollars.

There is a lot of talk from Obama supporters like Valarie Solem that Obama is like President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Nothing could be further from the truth. President Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, was a vigorous advocate of a National Public Health Care System and President Roosevelt had to remove a National Public Health Care System from consideration from the New Deal reforms because the American Medical Association (AMA) demonized Frances Perkins as a "Bolshevik" for advancing a National Public Health Care System. It is time to stand up to these bullies like the AMA and all those who profit financially from people getting sick.


--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

How can Wall Street's leading advocate of its imperialist agenda be a "friend" to working people?

What is going on with this presidential campaign? Is Romney just another "ringer" like McCain tossed into the race?

I think there is a lot more to what is going on.

Since Wall Street owns both the Democrats and Republicans these coupon clipping parasites are using this campaign to push the country to the right.

The role of Romney and Ryan is to clear the way for Obama and the Democrats to move

to the right.

Contrary to all the claims that Wall Street has shifted its support to Romney, Wall Street remains solidly behind Obama but if Romney should happen to win Wall Street will be satisfied with the victory but what Wall Street really needs is for Obama to remain at the helm hoodwinking working people into thinking he is "on their side" as he beats them over the head.

Wall Street has invested in Obama as a means to suppress and control the anger of people fed up with having austerity measures shoved down their throats to pay for these dirty wars which are all about regional and world domination, securing cheap resources by raping the lands of others using their cheap labor along with shifting production to countries with two-bit, half-assed fascist dictators installed and maintained in power by the U.S. military who assure a ready supply of cheap labor.

That it is Barack Obama now engaged in secretly negotiating this new Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP) demonstrates very clearly for anyone willing to open their eyes and look that we are being had by Wall Street playing a game with us--- the problem is, the game isn't very fun for working people because Wall Street creates all the rules and as soon as working people figure out how the game is being played Wall Street simply creates new rules.

Until the working class figures out what imperialism is all about the game will continue.

Imperialism is the last and final stage of capitalism; this imperialist stage is barbaric and cannibalistic.

We need to be raising the question of challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.

The Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP) initiated by, and being promoted by, Obama on behalf of Wall Street should provide us the opportunity to explain the nature of imperialism.

William Z. Foster, the great working class leader who understood the nature of this rotten capitalist system was once asked as the Korean War was being pushed by Wall Street, "What is the most important task at this moment?" Foster responded, "The U.S. working class needs a good strong dose of anti-imperialist education."

Today, the U.S. working class needs an even stronger dose of anti-imperialist education explaining what is going on. About how we are having austerity measures shoved down our throats to pay for these dirty imperialist wars so these Wall Street vultures and parasites can dominate the entire world for their own selfish, greedy interests.

If anyone considers this claim to be outlandish, I would simply ask, "Why are there over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil (and the U.S. Naval Fleet dominating every ocean) dotting the the globe?

Wall Street has Obama bringing forward the Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP) at the same time Romney is attacking working class "free-loaders." Is this a coincidence? I don't think so because Wall Street's intent in pushing the country to the right is to use both Obama and Romney to attack the working class.

We need to popularize the word "imperialism" while explaining what it is. There is the tendency of well-heeled middle class intellectuals to talk about "empire" and "globalization" with many of these muddle-headed intellectuals then making the case for some kind of "people's capitalism" which is "kinder" and "gentler." Some union leaders have taken to talking against "casino capitalism" but they, too, end up bringing forward the stupid idea that a few regulations can be put in place to "reform" the capitalist system.

How does one "reform" a system that is thoroughly reactionary--- and conservative--- in any form?

The purpose of the working class fighting for reforms is to make life a little better and more bearable for working people as we figure out how to get rid of these Wall Street parasites and their rotten capitalist system now in its highest and final stage: imperialism.

The imperialist stage of capitalism is our primary problem and make no mistake: Barack Obama is carrying out Wall Street's imperialist agenda--- wars abroad paid for with austerity measures here at home.

Obama secretly promoting the Trans-Pacific Pact (TPP) while demagogically appealing to working people as a "friend" proves he is Wall Street's candidate; imperialism's primary voice which means he is no friend of working people.

Obama and "reforms."

Robert Borosage blocked me from posting and commenting on the "Campaign for America's Future's" website yet he continues to send me his appeals for money and his point of view.

Today in my e-mail I found a letter from Robert Borosage.

In this letter Borosage states:

"In the midst of a fiercely polarized election, Americans must decide if they want to go back to the failed conservative policies that drove us into this mess or continue on the path of reform."

This statement proves the convoluted reasoning and complete dishonesty of the so-called "progressives" backing Obama because Obama and the Democrats do not have us "on the path to reform."

The very word "reform" carries with it by definition something is being done to IMPROVE the lives and living standards of the American people--- for progressives this means improving the lives and living standards of the working class first and foremost because the well-heeled can manage on their own.

Robert Borosage and his fellow "progressive" apologists for Obama are very dishonest in claiming Obama and the Democrats have us "on the path to reform."

I have repeatedly asked Borosage to enunciate the specifics of these "reforms" and he refuses to do so because he knows that Obama has us on a path to wars paid for through austerity measures which in the end are the "failed conservative policies that drove us into this mess."

With Obama or Romney we get the "failed conservative policies that drove us into this mess." Obviously we don't get "reforms" with Romney/Ryan but we don't get "reforms" with Obama/Biden or any other Democrats, either.

Robert Borosage has the right to support Obama but he has the responsibility--- if honest--- to support what Obama actually represents.

Obama represents the exact same Wall Street interests that Romney represents.

Any "reforms" that might be forthcoming will have to be fought for by a powerful mass movement whether Obama or Romney is the next president.

Health Care versus Health Insurance

Let's be clear on what the objective and goals of health care are:

Health care is intended to keep people healthy and get people well when they are sick. Selling people health insurance premiums is not a requirement for health care.

In fact, health insurance is a barrier and obstacle to people receiving health care.

Fighting Bob Fest

(Note: The Capital Times is one of the sponsors of The Fighting Bob Fest.)

Letter to the Editor, Capital Times---

I read with interest the stories on Fighting Bob Fest.

The September 15, 2012 Editorial < http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/the-supreme-issue-of-fighting-bob-fest/article_0418dd5e-fea2-11e1-8f5a-001a4bcf887a.html >and the article, Madison Politiscope: Fighting Bob Fest showcases what unites — and divides — progressives 

< http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/politiscope/madison-politiscope-fighting-bob-fest-showcases-what-unites-and-divides/article_b436a24e-ff96-11e1-964c-0019bb2963f4.html >.

Since it would seem Jill Stein's campaign would best capture the spirit of "fighting Bob" I am wondering why the Democrats would get a better reception than Stein did? This seems rather odd since the Democrats have no progressive agenda; not even a liberal agenda.

For sure there is nothing progressive about Barack Obama and his dirty imperialist wars being paid for through austerity measures from which Wall Street profits from both the wars and the austerity measures; Wall Street bankers even profit from the distribution of Food Stamps.

I'm wondering if the Fighting Bob Fests are intentionally structured with the intent of using progressive-sounding rhetoric to keep people trapped in the two-party system?

One thing that is particularly troubling is Mike Wiggins, Jr. Chairing a session on open pit mining. Mike Wiggins, Jr. runs around talking about how mining destroys air quality yet the very casino industry he is a major part of managing forces hundreds of thousands of workers to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights as these casino operations are major contributors to the campaign coffers of the Democrats who Wiggins bribes to look the other way in indifference to these injustices--- thousands of working people in Wisconsin now work in the hideous Indian Gaming Industry under these most atrocious and despicable conditions where crooked and corrupt tribal councils front for the white mobsters who own all the slot machines. The sheer hypocrisy of Mike Wiggins, Jr. chairing a session on open pit mining is the epitome of hypocrisy when he is a major player in an industry that not only creates impoverished workers but forces them to work in these smoke-filled casinos without any rights under state or federal labor laws knowing that they will contract heart and lung diseases and cancers along with the complications associated with diabetes and second-hand smoke.

There is then the conclusion by Capital Times that young people stayed away from the Fighting Bob Fest because of football games.

I have another theory why so many young people, especially young activists from the Occupy Movement, labor, civil rights, environmental, women's and peace movements are staying away from the Fighting Bob Fest: They are fed up with the hypocrisy of using the progressive, militant, anti-Wall Street legacy of fighting Bob La Follette to try to rope them into dead-end "activism" with the Democratic Party where the pinnacle of their activism involves working for a Wall Street warmonger like Barack Obama.

Might I suggest that future "Fighting Bob Fests" be centered around building the kind of progressive movement that "fighting Bob" really fought for--- independence from Wall Street's Democratic and Republican parties; a movement capable of challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.

Forget about inviting the Democrats; instead invite people from Canada's socialist New Democratic Party to speak about what they are doing and how they won real health care reform. Focus more on building on the legacy of the progressive foundation of fighting Bob La Follette and his allies in Minnesota--- the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Then you won't have to make up excuses that activists don't attend because they are watching football games.

We know what unites progressives: peace, jobs, justice, equality, living wages, worker's rights and decent working conditions.

What divides progressives is having Democrats and Obama shoved down our throats.

Howard Pawley, a former New Democratic Premier of Manitoba recently wrote an excellent book I think fighting Bob La Follette would have appreciated, "Keep True."

I would suggest that the organizers of the Fighting Bob Fest "keep true" to the ideals for which fighting Bob La Follette is best known--- breaking free from Wall Street's two-party trap.

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Obamacare versus a National Public Health Care System. A response to Valerie Solem Minnesota Senate District 1 Chairperson.

This "Letter to the Editor" is being submitted exclusively to Northern Watch Newspaper for publication in rebuttal to a previously published "Letter to the Editor."

In the Northern Watch (September 8, 2012; Page 4 < http://www.trftimes.com/news/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&view=book&id=186%3Aseptember-8-2012&catid=1%3Adefault-category&Itemid=18 >  a letter written by Valerie Solem, Chairperson of Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Senate District 1, was published about healthcare; specifically her letter was in support of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare; or, a more accurate description is the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010."

The objective with health care is not, as Valerie Solem states, to provide health insurance for everyone. This only benefits the profitability of the insurance industry and assures profitability for the pharmaceutical industry, private hospitals, nursing homes and the greedy doctors for whom health care is nothing more than a racket from which they grow richer at the expense of a population getting sicker with people suffering needlessly and dying prematurely. 

Health care is all about keeping people healthy and helping to get people well when they are sick.

For health care to work most effectively and efficiently at the lowest possible cost the profit motive behind health care has to be removed.

In fact, as can be seen from many other countries, including our neighbors to the north in Canada, health care works the best the more the "for profit" motive is removed from health care; Obama care does just the opposite by enhancing the profits of the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and greedy doctors.

As an active member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, including having served as the elected member of the State Central Committee of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party for Roseau County which is part of Senate District 1 and having frequently been a delegate to state conventions and having participated actively in Senate District 1 conventions, I know first hand how Valorie Solem has worked to undermine taking profits out of health care.

I am also the author of the resolution passed by 72% of the delegates to the Minnesota DFL State Convention calling for single payer universal health care; a resolution that was a compromise because there were the well-heeled in the Minnesota DFL, like Valerie Solem, who refused to support what is really required if we are going to solve our health care problems--- now a crisis with almost 50 million people still without any health care and over 100 million people under Obamacare unable to afford the "Cadillac" health insurance premiums so they are stuck picking up the co-pays which are often so huge it results in people having to declare bankruptcy.

Single-payer universal health care like our Canadian neighbors have would be far superior to what we have now. 

However, to solve this health care mess will require nothing less than a National Public Health Care System.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million good paying, real living wage jobs for people who would be providing us with health care for free through neighborhood and community health care centers.

A National Public Health Care System would provide no-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive (general medical, eyes, dental, mental health), universal health care from pre-natal through burial. A National Public Health Care System would be publicly financed, publicly administered--- and most importantly health care would be publicly delivered.

In other words, a National Public Health Care System would function of the same principle--- and in the same way--- as public education or Social Security.

In fact, the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party led by such distinguished advocates for the rights of working people like former Minnesota socialist governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson along with Iron Range U.S. Congressman John Bernard were advocates of just such a health care system.

The question is always brought forward: How would we pay for a National Public Health Care System?

We could stop fighting these senseless wars and pay for National Public Health Care with the resulting "peace dividend."

We could "tax-the-rich."

We could institute a payroll tax like that which funds Social Security.

No one would suggest we should turn our public schools over to Wall Street to profit from. Who in their right mind would suggest that the parents of each child should have to pay the teacher a fee like we pay doctors. Privatization doesn't work for education and it sure as heck isn't working for health care. 

That Republican Mitt Romney, de facto supports Obamacare as Valerie Solem points out, does not validate Obamacare being legitimate as Valerie Solem would like us to believe.

In fact, the very fact that Romney and Obama support the same "for profit" health care system--- the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" (ACA, Obamacare)--- only goes to prove there is no difference between Obama or Romney; they both come before the American people promoting Wall Street's reactionary agenda of greed before human need--- in this instance of health care it is profits for the few versus health care for all. On the health care issue, like all other issues, no matter if Romney or Obama win the election the American people will lose.

A very sad commentary on the state of our democracy.

And this is why I will cast my ballot for former Democrat Rocky Anderson who is running on the Justice Party ticket for President and Michael Cavlan of the Open Progressive Party for United States Senate. Both of these candidates have fought long and hard for the very modest reform of a single-payer universal health care system like our neighbors to the north in Canada enjoy--- at a cost far less than even the cheapest insurance premium leaving a huge co-pay; and fifty-million people uninsured without health care.

Hopefully, in 2016, we will have a candidate come forward articulating the need for a National Public Health Care System. 

We don't even have to look to other countries for a model when it comes to a National Public Health Care System. We have three very effective--- effective in terms of low-cost and superior delivery to the private sector--- public health care systems in this country: VA, the Indian Health Service and the National Public Health Service; all funded by our tax dollars. 

There is a lot of talk from Obama supporters like Valarie Solem that Obama is like President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Nothing could be further from the truth. President Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, was a vigorous advocate of a National Public Health Care System and President Roosevelt had to remove a National Public Health Care System from consideration from the New Deal reforms because the American Medical Association (AMA) demonized Frances Perkins as a "Bolshevik" for advancing a National Public Health Care System. It is time to stand up to these bullies like the AMA and all those who profit financially from people getting sick. 

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The battle of ideas in our modern world has finally entered the presidential race... for a change, on the side of the people

I would encourage the widespread circulation of this. Rocky Anderson is the former Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah and a former leader in the Democratic Party now running on the Justice Party ticket for President. This is by far the best comment (and best response to Tom Hayden) I have read from any of the presidential candidates--- bar none:

(Note: This is the piece written by Tom Hayden to which Rocky Anderson has responded--- Saving Obama, Saving Ourselves: http://tomhayden.com/home/saving-obama-saving-ourselves.html )

(Note: This was obtained from peace activist David Swanson's web site.)

Rocky Anderson's Response to Tom Hayden...

Paul Loeb recommended Tom Hayden's latest pro-Obama article to Rocky Anderson. Rocky wrote this response and gave us permission to publish it:

Dear Paul -

I read Tom Hayden's piece several days ago and think it is so beneath him -- particularly the "white liberal-left" and "white blindness" racist condescensions.  There are, of course, many in the Black community who are justifiably appalled at Obama's performance (or lack thereof). 

See http://blackagendareport.com/content/what-obama-has-wrought and http://www.blackcommentator.com/484/484_kir_betrayal_share.html. 

If Hayden wants to make this about race, perhaps he should focus on the fact that, after four years of Obama, far more Blacks are living in poverty and four times as many Black women in the U.S. are dying in connection with pregnancy and childbirth than White women.

Hayden never would have written such an apologist piece for an imperial militarist and corporatist regime in the '60s or '70s.  Can you imagine such a piece by him then, gushingly endorsing Nixon because of his overtures to China, his signing of the Clean Air Act, and his establishment of the EPA?

Amazingly, he writes as if he is clueless about Obama's miserable performance regarding climate change and energy -- and the fact that tuition rates have skyrocketed under his administration.  He worries in the first paragraph of his piece about what Romney would or wouldn't do regarding these issues -- as if Obama hasn't made it all far worse. 

And doesn't it occur to Hayden that the reason so many Americans are misinformed is because our President is such a lousy leader/communicator?  (Why else would "only six percent of Americans believe[ ] the stimulus had created any jobs"?)  We could have had a single-payer Medicare-for-all health care system had Obama stood up against the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.  Even with the vast majority of the American people favoring single-payer at the time, our President wouldn't even let it see the light of day -- then rapidly and cowardly abandoned a public option.

I've described my "strategic" thinking to you before.  You know full well that I am campaigning to help encourage and inspire a broad-based people's movement -- the only way we'll ever achieve real social, economic, and environmental justice in this nation.  You apparently think it healthy for everyone just to shut up and be polite in the face of the Obama administration outrages.  Amazing for someone who writes and teaches about the virtues of citizen engagement.  Truly amazing.

Paul, apparently you just don't want to face your utter complicity in the outrages of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.  You would like to see everyone just get in line and be quiet about illegal wars of aggression, the abandonment of the rule of law, the shredding of due process and habeas corpus, the abysmal health care system that causes the deaths of thousands of poor and middle class people (particularly people of color) every week, and the caving in to Wall St. campaign contributors at the vast expense of most people in the U.S. (and abroad).

Would you have imagined four years ago that you would be a cheerleader for a president who brags about his personal participation in deciding who will be killed in several nations, knowing that hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men, women, and children will be killed too?  And does it ever occur to you why so many so-called "terrorists" despise the U.S. and want to strike out against us?  Or that we're creating more enemies and instilling more hatred and hostility toward the U.S. as a result of our disregard of so many nations' sovereignty and as we kill and maim people throughout the Muslim world with such reckless abandon?  (I wrote this before the recent killings of the U.S. Ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya and the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo -- further evidence of the hatred we have generated by our international belligerence.)

Would you ever have imagined you would so enthusiastically support a president who orders that U.S. citizens be assassinated?  (So far, at least three U.S. citizens have been killed by drones -- one of whom was a 16 year-old boy.)  Would you have imagined you would support a president who asked for, and signed into law, the authority to kidnap people anywhere (including U.S. citizens) and have them imprisoned up to the rest of their lives, without charges, trial, legal assistance, or the right of habeas corpus?  (Imagine what you'd be doing and writing were that same president a Republican.  The crass partisanship, instead of principle, that causes so many Democrats to blindly support this president is morally astounding.)

Damn straight I'm angry -- and disgusted.  Please read Ionesco's Rhinoceros, an allegory about the rise of fascism in Europe.  Whenever you write lately, I hear you "harumphing" and can imagine that horn growing from your forehead.  In a decade, you can be really proud of your refusal to stand up in opposition to the march toward authoritarianism, the capitulation of our government to Wall Street, and the gross violations of civil and human rights.

It's just amazing how "pragmatists" like you are selling out so conveniently, as our Constitution is being shredded and as our nation continues to cause so much misery in the lives of millions of people around the world.  And as the administration persecutes and prosecutes those who inform us about government crimes and other misdeeds, while allowing the criminals to go free.

Please feel free to distribute this as you see fit.  (I'll do the same.)  As I mentioned to you when you were in SLC, I'd love to debate you any time and any place about all of this.  You and others need to be shaken into understanding what your blind obsequiousness is doing to our nation and world.

Hayden and you are so optimistic about what you can push Obama to do during the next four years.  (It all reminds me of abused spouse syndrome.)  Where have all of you been during the past four years to push Obama to bring war criminals to justice?  To bring those who have illegally spied on U.S. citizens to justice?  (It's worth noting that you supported Obama four years ago after he lied to us as a U.S. Senator and voted to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that had committed federal felonies by providing the Bush administration with confidential information about their customers.)  To end the drone killings of innocent people?  To break up the too-big-to-fail banks and regulate Wall St. to protect the American people (and millions of others throughout the world) from another financial melt-down?  To combat, rather than exacerbate, climate change?  To end the disastrous "war on drugs"?  To reduce, rather than continue to increase, the world-record incarceration rate, particularly of people of color?  To provide decent health care to all Americans?  To end poverty, rather than sit back and support a president who never speaks of it and who has "led" this nation while the poverty rate has increased to 1965 levels (and while our child-poverty rate is the worst in the industrialized world, except for Romania)?  Are you aware of his pitiful record on presidential pardons?  Or of the fact that maternal and infant mortality rates are almost the worst in the developed world?  Are you aware that he perpetuated yet another big lie in his embarrassingly sychophantic speech to AIPAC about Ahmadinejad supposedly saying (he never did say it) that Israel should be wiped off the map?

Obama's not a statesman, nor is he a "leader".  He is a prostitute for the rich and powerful -- and has betrayed, with tragic results, the sacred trust placed in him by the American people.  The greatest problem we face is that too many, like you, seem to have no line you will draw.  Are no crimes too great, is there no undermining of the rule of law too egregious, for you to refrain from saying "No more"?

Best wishes to a citizen who seems to be losing his soul, Rocky